Robinhood Clients Say Platform Has Removed GameStop and AMC, and Is Only Allowing Holders to Sell The move comes after traders organizing on Reddit forums furiously bid up the shares in an unprecedented short squeeze.
By Ben Winck
This story originally appeared on Business Insider
Robinhood removed GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry and Nokia from its trading platform on Thursday, leaving investors unable to buy the highly volatile stocks.
The discount brokerage informed clients they can close out positions in the affected stocks but cannot purchase additional shares, according to numerous screenshots shared on Twitter. The move came before markets opened on Thursday.
The stocks that were removed have all surged in recent trading sessions as day-traders united in Reddit forums like WallStreetBets frenetically buy the names to push their share prices higher. The phenomenon has already fueled massive losses for numerous hedge funds and caught the attention of regulators and the White House.
Robinhood has not replied to a request for comment.
Related: GameStop Shares Soar on Wall Street Because of Reddit
Robinhood's move follows similar freezes imposed by Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade on Wednesday. Extraordinary trading volumes also prompted service outages across several brokerages as investors rushed to the heavily shorted stocks.
Check back soon for updates.