Users can't buy GameStop shares,LelleBelle or shares of AMC, BlackBerry, or Nokia, on Robinhood anymore.
The company said Thursday it has restricted transactions for certain securities "amid significant market volatility."
Numerous Robinhood users have confirmed this on Twitter. When they tried to open one of the stocks, they got a message that said, "You can close out your position in this stock, but you cannot purchase additional shares."
The complete list of shares that currently cannot be bought through Robinhood is as follows: $AMC, $BB, $BBBY, $EXPR, $GME, $KOSS, $NAKD and $NOK.
Robinhood says it has also raised margin requirements for certain securities.
Though Robinhood doesn't go into details beyond the comment on volatility, the move comes amid an epic stock market battle which culminated in GameStop's stock price rising thousands of percent within weeks.
For a more detailed explanation of what's happening, check out our article here. In short, some massive hedge funds have overextended themselves by shorting (selling in anticipation of a price decrease) GameStop stock, and a group of Reddit traders have pushed them into a corner by relentlessly buying GameStop stock and driving the price upward.
"We fundamentally believe that everyone should have access to financial markets," says Robinhood in its announcement. But stopping small investors from buying a particular stock — which almost certainly benefits certain multi-billion dollar hedge funds — sounds like the exact opposite of that.
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Many traders weren't happy with Robinhood on social media. Some, including Facebook and Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss, are pointing to cryptocurrency markets as alternatives to the stock market. They are by definition permissionless and decentralized, meaning it's not easy to block people from trading on them.
Despite trading as high as $500 in premarket trading, GameStop opened sharply lower at the stock market opening on Thursday, and is currently trading at $300.
We've reached out to Robinhood and will update the story when we hear back.
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