Robinhood CEO Explains to Elon Musk Why They Restricted Trades
cnbc.com
cnbc.com
Did they raise deposit requirements more then standard? 100% (the rumored requirement) seems extreme.
Did they straight up tell some brokers that they couldn't sell these securities, and not even give them the option to deposit more? That's what WeBull CEO said happened to them. Maybe that's just a PR move by the WeBull CEO, or maybe it is true. If true, how is that not the DTCC abusing it's monopoly?
Finally, is the DTCC not having the long side cover the risk on the short side? It seems to me, the vast majority of the risk is on the shorts. The short side seems to be made up of mostly large hedge funds, so if one goes down, it'll be extremely difficult for the DTCC to front the cash on all of their trades, and of course shorting has infinite risk. The long side is finite, is distributed among multiple brokers and then even more distributed among retail investors. It seems like the risk is low there.
I think an investigation needs to be done into the DTCC's decisions here and their handling of this, and maybe something needs to be done about their monopoly.
Thanks for sharing.
Most of Vlad's statements while factually correct are BS. The formula that the NSCC uses to calculate margin requirements from brokers is not opaque. It does have a discretionary factor which they can turn up in volatile times.
Most brokerages can forecast their margin requirements. The simulation has has a few free parameters - percentage buckets of trading in different brackets of volatility vs. trading volume.
Robinhood chose to be a thinly capitalized business because it leverages returns. Vlad can act as the aggrieved party as if this was the first time it happened to any brokerage - ever. No, high volume trading on high volatility has been happening since the beginning of the stock market and most brokerages are prepared for it. Same goes for Hedge funds and proprietary trading firms which trade on margin with leverage as high as 5-10x. They prepare for their worst margin calls or risk going out of business. Source of knowledge - worked at several HF including some that (in)famously folded after failing to meet margin calls.
Vlad is is just using the SV playbook of playing fast and loose and then blaming legacy systems and opaque formulas when shit hit the fan.
Vlad does not know who owns the NSCC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depository_Trust_%26_Clearing_.... They are running a enterprise worth tens of billions but do not know who their biggest counterparty is.
BS.