Can confirm, I recently found a public database that is basically the equivalent of searching my competitors names and seeing the names of their customers. I honestly have no idea how to play it either lol.
I would start by downloading it while you have access to it. Then if it is really valuable ask a lawyer if there is any risk in using it.
Can’t pull it, can only search it. I’m obviously pulling down everything useful I can think of, but I can’t just query the whole thing in a usable way.
It’s an import/export thing. My name isn’t on anything because we don’t do any customs directly. Really it’s just a giant reservoir of leads.
What ever happened to the guy on the other forum that was calling for $TSLA puts when it was ~200? And again at 300?
I’m having a hard time blaming Robinhood here. At least not very much.
Bad interface? Anyone who is trading anything should at least some sense of the order of magnitude of what’s at stake. When he saw that massive loss the first instinct should have been, “Something is not right. I need to check it out.”
Now if the argument is that Robinhood let an idiot trade and they shouldn’t have, then that’s a different issue. How exactly do you propose that Robinhood filter out such people? Are they going to have to take some sort of test on options? Because short of that, I just don’t see how people like this guy won’t slip through the cracks.
Are the calls like free?
I guess we can agree to disagree. But Robinhood presents itself as the place for uninformed investors:
Our goal is to make investing in financial markets more affordable, more intuitive, and more fun, no matter how much experience you have (or don’t have).
I don’t think it’s morally defensible to attract a bunch of unsophisticated investors and take the attitude that they should fully understand the consequences of the trading platform regardless of how that trading platform is presented.
And yes, I also think that Robinhood should have prevented this person from Level 3 option trades. When I got clearance to trade options at my broker, I had to provide the credentials (income, net worth, educational background) to show that I understood options trading and the risks involved. I have no idea how this 20-year old kid qualifed for Level 3 trading given his complete lack of education, experience, or wealth.
I think that the fact that they’re making changes to address the backlash doesn’t inform us about whether there is something unethical about what they were doing. Obviously, acting like they give a shit is a good PR move and +EV.
As far as the ethics are concerned, I don’t see much difference between this and say barring people from playing poker at a casino. There are multitudes of people who clearly don’t have the wealth or understanding of what they’re doing required to play the games they’re in.
I get that trading options is more complex than deuce to seven triple draw, but at the end of the day I don’t think that changes the underlying ethical principles very much. I wouldn’t even really argue too much if you wanted to assign Robinhood “some blame”, but “most” is too much. If we’re going to place blame somewhere, as callous as it sounds, I’d have to assign the greatest share to the user.
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Where is that from? Because seriously that’s funny because I’ve seen it like 50 times and hadn’t found such a succinct way of tearing it apart. My brain just relaxed very slightly in the knowledge that the next time I see this I can obliterate it with something axiomatic.
It’s an XKCD comic.
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XKCD link
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Well there goes my day lol.
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One of today’s lucky 10,000?
meta, so hot right now!
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Some classics that are also my favorites:
maybe one of his best known, been around the internet forever:
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This is indisputably the best xkcd
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For all of you who (correctly) think xkcd is awesome, this is a really fun read:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544272994/
Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last?
In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by signature xkcd comics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.
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