Individual investors woke up to an unwelcome surprise as the popular trading app Robinhood restricted stock purchases of several “meme stocks” related to the surprise rally around GameStop. The trading platform Robinhood, a commission-free stock platform popular with casual stock traders, restricted trades of several stocks this morning, including GameStop, AMC, Nokia, and Naked Brand Group, Ltd. The platform provided no immediate explanation for halting their clients from buying the stocks, but it does follow on the heels of other major trading platforms, such as TD Ameritrade, placing restrictions on the same stocks. The decision was met with widespread derision on the Reddit community /r/WallStreetBets, which has been at the heart of the unexpected moves on Wall Street over the past week. Within an hour of delisting the stocks, Robinhood received over 100,000 1-star reviews on the app store:
after delisting GameStop and AMC, Robinhood has gotten over 100,000 1 star reviews in one hour on the app store, now set with a 1 rating. they deserve it pic.twitter.com/eDNDuPrj8r
In light of current market volatility, we are restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only, including $AMC and $GME. Read more here.https://t.co/CdJMjGAeFH
