Photographer: Gabby Jones / Bloomberg
Photographer: Gabby Jones / Bloomberg
Robinhood Markets Inc. reduced the number of companies with trading restrictions to eight from 50, before Monday’s trading session, according to an update of the website.
The current list includes GameStop Corp., AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., BlackBerry Ltd., Express Inc., Genius Brands International Inc., Koss Corp., Naked Brand Group Ltd. and Nokia Oyj.
Opening new positions in these securities is limited, according to the Robinhood website, which lists the maximum number of shares and option contracts that each user can hold. For those whose current holdings already exceed the limits, their positions will not be sold or closed.
Robinhood imposed purchase restrictions based on its stock deposit requirements rose last week, the company said in a blog post on Friday. “Not because we wanted to stop people from buying these shares,” Robinhood said.
The trading application, popular among retail investors who favored the growth of the GameStop stock, was it has caught fire across the political spectrum for its decision to restrict the trading of high-flying shares that have risen after being promoted on social media.
Senator Elizabeth Warren on Sunday called for a broader review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on recent trading changes and said a broker-dealer like Robinhood, which invites a lot of individual investors, must operate “according to basic rules”.
Robinhood’s trading restrictions are not illegal: Fmr. SEC Adviser (video)
“You can’t do that in the middle of a trading cycle,” Warren said of Robinhood’s trading limits in CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It’s not about protecting people from doing bad jobs. It’s about maintaining the level of the playing field. ”
A representative for Robinhood declined to comment beyond updating the site.
Multiple processes were filed against Robinhood, largely claiming restrictions by the trading platform that constituted a breach of contract. However, investors who have sued online brokerages in connection with claims in which they have been wrongfully blocked from trading the shares may have a long wait before their cases are resolved.
– With the assistance of Annie Massa and Meghan Genovese
(Updates with more details throughout)