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Comment by ThisIsTheWay | Hacker News Reader

Robinhood could shut their doors tonight and it would have little impact on Wall St. or the American stock market. Robinhood isn't even in the top 5 for online brokers in terms of assets under management (AUM). Vanguard, Schwab, BAML, Fidelity, and Ameritrade are literally handling trillions of dollars (that's trillions with a T) [0], while Robinhood is estimated to be managing ~$20 Billion. [1] Sure, you could argue that's not all "retail investment", but they are not even in the same ballpark.

[0]: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/online-brokerage-st...

[1]: https://www.brokerage-review.com/investing-firm/assets-under...

EDIT: Added concession in last line that not all in the top 5's AUM is retail, but the point still stands.

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It's not about RH at this point, it's about faith in the market. It's like you were winning at the casino and a cop came in, put you in handcuffs, then gave all your chips back to the dealer.

If you count cards, the pit boss will ask you to leave.

Personally, not a fan of the casino metaphor.

+1, fully agreed. There are definitely people making stupid bets and losing (like they should, IMO), but the notion that markets are this black box beyond human comprehension is laughable. That's especially true when you filter out the noise and find companies with solid fundamentals.

Again, I think you're overestimating the negative sentiment about the market being driven by the madness that is GME, BB, KOSS, and EXP over the last few weeks. Most retail investors are watching from the sidelines and scarfing down popcorn, not actively participating. You're hearing about a very small portion of the market and extrapolating that out to everyone, but that's simply not the case.

Market manipulation is not new, and it's not impacting most retail investment strategies, which are much longer term. This is exposing inequities in the market that have existed for a long time, but I would be shocked if it has a significant impact on the assets of retail investors. As others have said, what other options are there? The game is imperfect, but that doesn't mean everyone stops playing all the sudden.

It's all over the news. You don't think a story where a company halts buys so an investor can recoup their loss at the expense of the retail investors won't affect faith in the market?

Will it impact faith in the market? No. It will absolutely cause people to think twice about Robinhood as a brokerage, but that is a small portion of the market.

I was able to trade GME all day on E Trade without a single issue.

A great metaphor I heard was that it's like you're playing blackjack, and have just placed a huge bet. You're cards are dealt. The pit boss walks up and says "this is a baccarat table now", but you have to keep playing with your blackjack hand.

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