1/ Absolute must-read from @H_Lev on how Robinhood. The proximate tragedy is the suicide of one young investor who thought he'd have to repay gobs of money. But the real story is how dangerous the "gamification" interface is on a much broader scale: motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
2/ You've likely read a lot about Robinhood and Gamestop, but do you understand how Robinhood’s revenue model depends on its traders making frequent, uninformed trades? tl;dr: Most customers lose money while Robinhood and ****its Wall Street partners**** clean up.
3/ You might think Robinhood makes money by getting tiny fee or fraction of your trade. Nope. It makes money from finder’s fee from Wall Street firms and flash traders who make money *executing* those trades.
4/ Now here's the truly perverse part. Those flash-traders want regular Robihood investors to make a bunch of "dumb" trades, because they have tools and speed with which to take all that data and get *better prices* themselves. And then they SPLIT THE PROFITS WITH ROBINHOOD
5/ I mean you may not know a lot about high finance. But the conflict of interests here are pretty simple:
6/ Of course, yes, @ewarren is all over this:
7/ Here is a chart that breaks down how Robinhood makes its money. Read full piece by @H_Lev here: motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
8/ The experts who understand what's happening here do not mince words 🎯🐟
9/ Who helped pioneer this conflict-of-interest-laden-instrument, the PFOF? Just a little guy named Bernie Fucking Madoff
10/ Yeah so Bernie went to jail after ruining the lives of thousands of institutional investors and the pension funds of many more the PFOF is stronger than ever, now defended by Robinhood.
11/ On top of that model, we have the issue of Robinhood gamifying the interface, providing investors will less information about their trades than other platforms:
12/ Designed to appeal to a generation that grew up gaming...
13/ Pushing notices about your losses more than your gains, which those who study gambling have a lot to say about:
14/ So for all the "stonks" populism talk...
15/ So this kid, college sophmore and ROTC cadet, thought he owe $730,000 and killed himself, leaving screen shots of what he thought was a record of that debt.
16/ He tried to email Robinhood for 12 hrs. There was no way to call. He killed himself and it turned out he hadn't really lost the. The interface just didn't update, for more than 12 hours
17/ Robinhood, meanwhile, has not been transparent with its users
18/ ...
19/ So Silicon Valley throws money at a company that's profiting off a rev split with flash traders at the expense of the everyday investors who've made the founders billionaires. Truly, a parable for our age:
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