Robinhood Stock Stumbled In Its Debut. The Reddit Crowd Rejoiced. - Barron's

The rise of this past year’s retail investor movement led by users on Reddit forums such as WallStreetBets has been inextricably linked with.

After Robinhood stock (ticker: HOOD) initially tumbled 12% below its $38 IPO price, a popular post on the forum mocked CEO Vlad Tenev and a commenter quipped that Robinhood would limit trading of its own stock—a reference to late January when online brokerages including Robinhood limited trading in certain volatile stocks like.

That event, along with other high-profile technical outages during volatile trading days, has led to calls from Reddit users who urged others to leave the app.

Brokers say the process gives retail investors a better deal and enables commission-free trading.

When reports in March revealed Robinhood’s plans to go public, some Reddit users joked that they wanted to short Robinhood stock using the company’s own app.

Though Robinhood said it would set aside up to 35% of its stock for Robinhood customers to purchase in the IPO, the stock’s 8.4% drop to $34.82 on Thursday means such users who got in at the $38 IPO price would be in the red. .

Another WallStreetBets user said in a post that they enjoyed watching the stock fall.

The rise of this past year’s retail investor movement led by users on Reddit forums such as WallStreetBets has been inextricably linked with Robinhood Markets and the proliferation of commission-free trading