Facebook temporarily shuts stock trading group after GameStop frenzy

Facebook took down a popular Wall Street discussion group, Robinhood Stock Traders, in a move its founder said was an unjustified response to conversations that have buoyed shares in GameStop and other companies. The group has 157,000 members.
 
GameStop, AMC Entertainment Holdings, and BlackBerry have been at the centre of a market battle as individual investors coordinating on social media, including Reddit, and using trading apps, such as Robinhood, bought shares and squeezed hedge funds that had bet big the companies would fall.  The Facebook notification said without detail that the group violated policies on “adult sexual exploitation”.
 

Robinhood eases curbs
 

GameStop recouped Thursday’s $11 billion blow as traders using apps like Robinhood Markets and E*Trade rallied behind the video-game retailer after brokerages said they would ease trading restrictions. The stock gained 57 per cent (8.40 pm IST) on Friday after plunging a record 44 per cent in Thursday’s session.  GameStop’s rally was reignited with Robinhood lifting some curbs that prevented legions of investors from buying shares.
 
Who lead Robinhood
 
Robinhood was created by Vladimir Tenev, whose parents migrated to the US from Bulgaria, and Baiju Bhatt, the son of Indian immigrants. Both studied at Santford University.

 
In 2010, Tenev and Bhatt first started a high-frequency trading company, Celeris. However, by January 2011, they abandoned it to create Chronos Research, which sold low-latency software to other trading firms and banks.
 
In 2013, they created Robinhood. As of August 2020, its valuation stood at $10.2 billion, according to businessofapps.com. In 2020, the number of users stood at 13 million.