Robinhood CEO CNBC interview cliffs
-we limited trading in certain stocks
why? did the sec call? problems with liquidity?
-we did not do this at the direction of market makers, hedge funds or others.
-we are a brokerage firm with clearinghouse requirements. when there is volatility these amounts can fluctuate a lot.
-to protect our firm and our customers we had to act.
it sounds like there was a liquidity problem
-there was no liquidity problem, this was done pre-emptively and proactively. customers could sell them, we are working to fix this by tomorrow morning.
-we are the #1 app store, we are seeing unprecedented interest in investing and our platform
-we stand for everyday investors opening up access, commission free, whatever they want.
-in the past we have been criticized for not having more restrictions
but people say
-we have not seen this level of concentrated interest in a small number of names ever before
-we believe you should be able to buy/sell whatever you want subject to requirements
what do you say to customers that say maybe I should go somewhere else if you shut me out when I need to trade?
-we understand, we feel we made the right call
-we want a stable platform going forward and it is a priority to not have restrictions in the future
are you concerned investors fully understand the risks?
-we want to give education, but this is really about access
-we have stood for access in the face of criticism previously, we want to give them that ability
-the more individuals have access, the better we will be, it is everything we stand for
walk us through the moment you needed to restrict, you drew on credit lines, it sounds like something you should have figured out prior to today
-things that go viral on social media, this is something new. we've never been #1 on app store before, this is unprecedented
-credit lines was proactive, the deposit requirements at clearinghouses govern how much our clients can buy
-we want to put our customers in a position where our customers can be unrestricted so we tapped our credit lines to allow that
you are going to start allowing buying tomorrow
-what happens if this triggers the same thing tomorrow?
-we want to have buying safety the team was working very hard dealing with unprecedented volumes, we want to do that safely and be clear in communications, we shouldve been out there sooner, I own that and we are doing what we can for our customers