“A child like garbage” US ants’ enemies → trauma… Robin Hood crashed

As the stock price of GameStop, which was a symbol of the US “ant (individual investor) rebellion,” fluctuated, Vladimir Teneb, 35, CEO of Robin Hood, a stock brokerage app, was in trouble. Recently, it blocked trading of some stocks, such as Gamestop, against ant investors, but not only investors but also the politicians began to take trouble.

Teneb created an app named after Robin Hood, a British militant who gave money to the poor in 2013. It has helped the inflow of young people by simplifying the stock trading process and eliminating fees. He was especially admired as a hero of ants last year when ant investors sounded a victory over the short selling force,’dinosaurs (institutional investors).’

In the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) that began last year, video chain company GameStop was regarded as an “old” business, and large hedge funds bet that GameStop’s stock price will go down. They borrowed the stocks they didn’t own and sold them first, then bought them at a cheaper price when the stock price fell, and went on a’short sale’. However, the fire ants who confronted this came together to buy stocks. As of the 27th of last month, GameStop’s stock price soared 17 times from the end of last year, and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) estimated the loss of hedge funds at $13.5 billion (about 15 trillion won).

However, by limiting the purchase of some stocks at the end of last month, it aroused ant anger. On the 28th of last month, Robin Hood banned additional purchases if individual investors owned more than 20 shares of GameStop. The problem is that it opened up opportunities for institutional investors to trade stocks. This is why there were suspicions that he helped a hedge fund company that suffered big losses from short selling.

Some of the angry investors even filed a class action lawsuit against Robin Hood. On the 2nd (local time), the New York Times (NYT) reported that Dave Portnoy, a famous date radar (an investor looking for an arbitrage only by stock price movements) who has supported Teneb, posted a photo of Teneb on Twitter and “a scam, liar, trash child” He reported that he posted an article in Iran.

As the situation worsens, the political sphere is also moving. On the 2nd (local time), according to CNBC, an economic media outlet, Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is called “the grim reaper of Wall Street,” sent a letter to Teneb saying, “Please explain the restrictions on transactions such as Gamestop.” In his letter, he criticized “Robin Hood is responsible for treating investors honestly and fairly, and providing market access in accordance with transparent regulations.”

Congress is even preparing for a hearing. On the 1st, the US House of Representatives Financial Services Commission announced that it will hold a hearing on the 18th on the agenda of’Game Stopped?’. Teneb is expected to appear as a witness. Democratic Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, of the House Financial Services Commission, posted on Twitter at the end of last month that “trade restrictions are unacceptable,” which Republican Senator Ted Cruz shared the tweet and said, “I fully agree.” Stated the position.

Teneb argues that “the short selling did not collide with the forces” regarding the GameStop incident. According to CNBC on the 1st (local time), Teneb also had a war with Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the social media clubhouse the day before. To Musk, who shoots out “tell us all the secrets,” Teneb explained, “As the US Stock Settlement Office (NSCC) requested an additional $3 billion (3,330 billion won) as a deposit, it had no choice but to block the buy order.” .

In fact, Robin Hood received an additional $2.4 billion (2.67 trillion won) transfusion on the 1st of this month after attracting 1 billion dollars (1.1 trillion won) investment from shareholders on the 29th of last month.

Tenev, a Bulgarian-American, was born in Bulgaria and moved to the United States at the age of four. Both of his parents worked for the World Bank. After graduating from Thomas Jefferson Science High School in Fairfax, Virginia, he studied mathematics at Stanford University. I ended up dropping out when I met Baiju Bart, 37, co-founder of Robin Hood. The two set up a venture called’Celeris’ in 2010, but they collapsed the following year and founded Robin Hood in 2013.

Reporter Kim Sun-mi [email protected]