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Robinhood trading app: gambling or investing?
Photo: Patrick Sison / AP
Rumors have been around for some time, now the stock market plans of the American securities broker Robinhood are becoming more specific: The Californian company announced on Tuesday that it had filed a confidential application for initial listing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Robinhood has not yet given any information about the time or volume of the stock exchange premiere.
Robinhood hit the headlines for the hype surrounding video game retailer Gamestop.
The broker is regarded as a pioneer of a new younger generation of investors in the US financial market - but the business model is controversial.
The company has made it its mission to open up the stock market to people who have no access to inherited assets and resources.
Critics, however, accuse the broker of acting more like a gambling provider than a serious financial service provider with its easy-to-use app, which is particularly popular with younger investors.
Robinhood operates a "dirty" business model that attracts customers with no fees, while the company receives money from large Wall Street corporations to broker their transactions, recently complained Charlie Munger, the deputy of US star investor Warren Buffett.
Robinhood therefore encourages its users to trade as much and risky as possible.
The company rejected this criticism as "disappointing and elitist".
However, the discount broker had recently fallen out of favor with many of its own users because it had restricted trading in some hot stocks.
This caused trouble especially with the papers of the video game retailer Gamestop, which became a pawn in a showdown between small investors organized on the Internet and hedge funds.
Robinhood has been suspected of colluding with hedge funds, but denies it.
Nevertheless, numerous customers filed lawsuits against the company.
Robinhood is already in a lot of legal trouble anyway.
In the annual report, the group disclosed that it was negotiating with the US financial regulator Finra over a multi-million dollar settlement due to previous violations of the rules.
Other authorities such as the SEC and the New York Financial Supervisory Authority have the broker on the kieker.
There are also various class action lawsuits from users in the United States.
For example, it concerns customers whose accounts were allegedly hijacked in a hacker attack.
Other proceedings revolve around technical breakdowns and breaches of fiduciary contractual obligations.
There is also a heated legal battle with the family of a client who committed suicide in 2020 at the age of 20 under the - false - assumption that he suffered enormous losses while trading stock options.
mic / dpa
