被指“背叛”散户而遭到起诉，Robinhood被冤枉了吗？
当地时间周三，美国流行炒股手机应用Robinhood停止用户买入GameStop等上周以来的热门交易股票，犯了众怒。
到周四下午，Robinhood恢复了部分交易。如果这项决定早点做出，这家平台就能避免遭到至少两起集体诉讼。诉讼声称，Robinhood阻止散户通过买入或卖空股票获利，从而损害了散户的利益。
提起诉讼时，恰逢社交媒体上大量网友谴责Robinhood选择与华尔街权贵站在同一阵线，而弃普通投资者于不顾；社交媒体言论也对GameStop、AMC Cinemas等股价起到了推波助澜的作用，这些一度下跌的股票出现了惊人的反弹。
社交媒体批评家指出，Robinhood中断股票买入，目的是为了帮助那些押注GameStop股价急遽下跌的卖空型投资者，这些投资者后来却因散户推高股价而深受打击。这场论战也引起了美国国会成员的关注，要求对Robinhood发起调查。
目前，还没有明显证据表明Robinhood与卖空型投资者合谋；一些市场观察员称，此举是为了保护公司自己的资产负债表。但不管是什么原因，Robinhood的用户在诉讼中很有可能面临一场硬仗。
尽管Robinhood等经纪公司有以最佳价格执行用户交易的信托义务，但这不一定意味着，这些公司必须为指定的证券执行交易。美国哥伦比亚大学法学院教授约书亚·米茨指出，实际上，Robinhood可能声称，公司在股市极其动荡期间停止交易，只是在履行义务。
米茨撰写过有关证券法的大量文章。他特别提到，在某种程度上，Robinhood义务的范围由公司的服务条款确定。而用户在注册时必须同意这些条款，这为公司提供了充分的自由裁量权：公司可以按自己认为合适的方式运营平台，甚至可以终止用户账户。
另外，GameStop诉讼是否是帮助股东的严肃尝试，或者仅仅是与Robinhood迅速达成和解的手段，这一点尚不清楚。诉讼是专打证券官司的律师事务所常用的策略。至少其中一起诉讼让人感到特别仓促，律师提起诉讼时，居然把“集体诉讼”的英文拼错了。
其他法律专家也建议道，对Robinhood提出集体诉讼不太可能成功。关于诉讼，Robinhood发言人拒绝置评；对于公司的服务条款是否给予公司暂停买入指定证券的许可，发言人也保持沉默。
此次论战很有可能引发旷日持久的讨论，即：经纪公司或证券交易所在股市极其动荡期间停止交易，是否是合理的政策？米茨认为，几乎没有证据表明，这类停止交易的做法可以起到保护散户的作用。他补充道，鉴于对冲基金长期以来一直采取卖空等交易策略、使散户蒙受数十亿美元的损失，因此很多人对Robinhood表示怀疑，这并不令人感到惊讶。
“这些散户对权贵阶层过分猜疑，认为机构没有为他们的最大利益着想，这源于经验，”米茨称。“基于过去发生的事件产生多疑情绪，是合乎情理的。”
做空？轧空？GameStop股票为何暴涨？
把Robinhood卷入风暴中心的，是一场罕见的美国散户抱团“痛打”空头的事件。
视频游戏零售商GameStop经历了由散户推动的不可思议的股价大涨，这是本周商界最受关注的新闻。GameStop的股价从今年1月初的约19美元飙升至1月27日收盘时的近350美元，涨幅高达1700%。
GameStop的资产负债表平淡无奇（过去12个月净亏损2.75亿美元），且其采用的实体零售商业模式貌似已经过时，这样一家公司怎么可能实现如此令人难以置信的股价飙升？答案就是投机，其中一种常见的形式被称为做空。这样的情况在华尔街经常出现。
做空作为一种投资策略，被对冲基金和其它机构投资者广泛运用，目的各异。但仅靠主要市场参与者的行动并不能解释GameStop的非凡表现。还有一个由数百万普通散户组成的网络大军，大部分明显是由Reddit的r/wallstreetbets论坛动员起来的。他们有力地揭露了主要GameStop做空者虚张声势的做法，打乱了做空者的计划。
结果导致在公开市场上出现了历史上几乎前所未有的局面：疯狂的投机、在线众包和数字化市场阴谋——更不用说大量的段子——这一切只能在2021年发生。
但首先，让我们来看看发生了什么。我们从做空本身说起。
什么是做空？
简单地说，做空是指投资者押注某只股票的价格会下跌。这与市场通常的买入/卖出策略相反，通常情况下，大多数投资者都是押注某只股票会升值的买家。
为了做空股票，投资者以给定价格从证券机构借入股票，然后立即在市场上抛出。在未来的某一时间，他们需要向出借人归还他们所借的同样数量的股票。他们预想的是，随着时间的推移，股价会下跌，这样他们就能够以更低的价格买回股票，并偿还给原来的所有者。如果这种情况真的发生了，那么投资者就会在较高的卖出价格和较低的买回价格之间获得差价。
做空是一种伴随大量风险的高度投机性策略，因为从理论上讲，股价上涨的幅度是没有上限的，那么做空者在押注失败时所遭受的损失也没有上限。不过做空还可以用于其它目的，不仅仅是押注一只股票的下跌，许多投资者将其作为一种对冲策略，以抵消他们在同一证券机构或行业中看涨的“多头”头寸所带来的下行风险。
什么是轧空？
如果很多做空者做空某只股票，但股票价格开始上涨，会发生什么？在这种情况下，你就会看到所谓的轧空——这是GameStop股价最近暴涨的核心所在。
一旦一只被大量做空的股票在投资者看涨情绪的推动下开始攀升，做空者就会开始产生损失，并认为自己需要购买更多股票以回补他们在这只股票中（损失）的头寸。但是，股票做空比例（被做空股数的百分比）越高，做空者能够买入的份额就越少——这种供需动态会让股价进一步走高，从而加剧做空者的损失。
GameStop发生了什么？
华尔街的投机性投资者认为GameStop股价会下跌，于是他们大量做空该公司股票，GameStop的做空比例超过了130%。然而，活跃着数百万散户的r/wallstreetbets上的投资者们加入了进来，他们对GameStop股票的共同兴趣提高了对该股票的需求，并在本月开始推高股价。
本周，GameStop的股价逐渐接近并超过每股100美元，做空者——包括发现自己正在亏损的大型华尔街对冲基金——纷纷涌入市场，回补他们的空头头寸。这让GameStop股价涨到了当前的水平，这在以前是不可想象的。对此，做空者非常懊恼，而全球各地的散户投资者和市场观察人士却感到高兴。
为何其它公司也被卷入？
口口相传的力量非常强大，r/wallstreetbets之类的论坛让庞大的在线投资者社区组织起来寻找机会。和在GameStop（一家苦苦挣扎但相对稳定的公司，华尔街预言家曾经强烈预测它会破产）找到机会的许多人一样，他们也纷纷涌向高做空比例的类似公司。这些公司包括影院运营商AMC娱乐、家居用品零售商Bed Bath & Beyond和耳机制造商Koss。
然而，除了投资者的热情之外，其它公司的股价上涨几乎没有其它明显的原因。涉及的公司包括芬兰通讯产品公司诺基亚，该公司股价飙升，尽管它没有其它公司那样的高做空比例。
轧空之后会发生什么？
一旦投资者开始结算和退出头寸，对某只股票的需求（可能）开始减少，轧空也会有所缓解，通常股票会回到更为常规的、基本面良好的水平。
目前，特别是在Robinhood和其它在线股票交易平台于1月28日限制了这些股票的交易之后，一些受轧空趋势影响的股票正在下跌。（财富中文网）
译者：夏晴、郝秀
审校：汪皓
当地时间周三，美国流行炒股手机应用Robinhood停止用户买入GameStop等上周以来的热门交易股票，犯了众怒。
到周四下午，Robinhood恢复了部分交易。如果这项决定早点做出，这家平台就能避免遭到至少两起集体诉讼。诉讼声称，Robinhood阻止散户通过买入或卖空股票获利，从而损害了散户的利益。
提起诉讼时，恰逢社交媒体上大量网友谴责Robinhood选择与华尔街权贵站在同一阵线，而弃普通投资者于不顾；社交媒体言论也对GameStop、AMC Cinemas等股价起到了推波助澜的作用，这些一度下跌的股票出现了惊人的反弹。
社交媒体批评家指出，Robinhood中断股票买入，目的是为了帮助那些押注GameStop股价急遽下跌的卖空型投资者，这些投资者后来却因散户推高股价而深受打击。这场论战也引起了美国国会成员的关注，要求对Robinhood发起调查。
目前，还没有明显证据表明Robinhood与卖空型投资者合谋；一些市场观察员称，此举是为了保护公司自己的资产负债表。但不管是什么原因，Robinhood的用户在诉讼中很有可能面临一场硬仗。
尽管Robinhood等经纪公司有以最佳价格执行用户交易的信托义务，但这不一定意味着，这些公司必须为指定的证券执行交易。美国哥伦比亚大学法学院教授约书亚·米茨指出，实际上，Robinhood可能声称，公司在股市极其动荡期间停止交易，只是在履行义务。
米茨撰写过有关证券法的大量文章。他特别提到，在某种程度上，Robinhood义务的范围由公司的服务条款确定。而用户在注册时必须同意这些条款，这为公司提供了充分的自由裁量权：公司可以按自己认为合适的方式运营平台，甚至可以终止用户账户。
另外，GameStop诉讼是否是帮助股东的严肃尝试，或者仅仅是与Robinhood迅速达成和解的手段，这一点尚不清楚。诉讼是专打证券官司的律师事务所常用的策略。至少其中一起诉讼让人感到特别仓促，律师提起诉讼时，居然把“集体诉讼”的英文拼错了。
其他法律专家也建议道，对Robinhood提出集体诉讼不太可能成功。关于诉讼，Robinhood发言人拒绝置评；对于公司的服务条款是否给予公司暂停买入指定证券的许可，发言人也保持沉默。
此次论战很有可能引发旷日持久的讨论，即：经纪公司或证券交易所在股市极其动荡期间停止交易，是否是合理的政策？米茨认为，几乎没有证据表明，这类停止交易的做法可以起到保护散户的作用。他补充道，鉴于对冲基金长期以来一直采取卖空等交易策略、使散户蒙受数十亿美元的损失，因此很多人对Robinhood表示怀疑，这并不令人感到惊讶。
“这些散户对权贵阶层过分猜疑，认为机构没有为他们的最大利益着想，这源于经验，”米茨称。“基于过去发生的事件产生多疑情绪，是合乎情理的。”
做空？轧空？GameStop股票为何暴涨？
把Robinhood卷入风暴中心的，是一场罕见的美国散户抱团“痛打”空头的事件。
视频游戏零售商GameStop经历了由散户推动的不可思议的股价大涨，这是本周商界最受关注的新闻。GameStop的股价从今年1月初的约19美元飙升至1月27日收盘时的近350美元，涨幅高达1700%。
GameStop的资产负债表平淡无奇（过去12个月净亏损2.75亿美元），且其采用的实体零售商业模式貌似已经过时，这样一家公司怎么可能实现如此令人难以置信的股价飙升？答案就是投机，其中一种常见的形式被称为做空。这样的情况在华尔街经常出现。
做空作为一种投资策略，被对冲基金和其它机构投资者广泛运用，目的各异。但仅靠主要市场参与者的行动并不能解释GameStop的非凡表现。还有一个由数百万普通散户组成的网络大军，大部分明显是由Reddit的r/wallstreetbets论坛动员起来的。他们有力地揭露了主要GameStop做空者虚张声势的做法，打乱了做空者的计划。
结果导致在公开市场上出现了历史上几乎前所未有的局面：疯狂的投机、在线众包和数字化市场阴谋——更不用说大量的段子——这一切只能在2021年发生。
但首先，让我们来看看发生了什么。我们从做空本身说起。
什么是做空？
简单地说，做空是指投资者押注某只股票的价格会下跌。这与市场通常的买入/卖出策略相反，通常情况下，大多数投资者都是押注某只股票会升值的买家。
为了做空股票，投资者以给定价格从证券机构借入股票，然后立即在市场上抛出。在未来的某一时间，他们需要向出借人归还他们所借的同样数量的股票。他们预想的是，随着时间的推移，股价会下跌，这样他们就能够以更低的价格买回股票，并偿还给原来的所有者。如果这种情况真的发生了，那么投资者就会在较高的卖出价格和较低的买回价格之间获得差价。
做空是一种伴随大量风险的高度投机性策略，因为从理论上讲，股价上涨的幅度是没有上限的，那么做空者在押注失败时所遭受的损失也没有上限。不过做空还可以用于其它目的，不仅仅是押注一只股票的下跌，许多投资者将其作为一种对冲策略，以抵消他们在同一证券机构或行业中看涨的“多头”头寸所带来的下行风险。
什么是轧空？
如果很多做空者做空某只股票，但股票价格开始上涨，会发生什么？在这种情况下，你就会看到所谓的轧空——这是GameStop股价最近暴涨的核心所在。
一旦一只被大量做空的股票在投资者看涨情绪的推动下开始攀升，做空者就会开始产生损失，并认为自己需要购买更多股票以回补他们在这只股票中（损失）的头寸。但是，股票做空比例（被做空股数的百分比）越高，做空者能够买入的份额就越少——这种供需动态会让股价进一步走高，从而加剧做空者的损失。
GameStop发生了什么？
华尔街的投机性投资者认为GameStop股价会下跌，于是他们大量做空该公司股票，GameStop的做空比例超过了130%。然而，活跃着数百万散户的r/wallstreetbets上的投资者们加入了进来，他们对GameStop股票的共同兴趣提高了对该股票的需求，并在本月开始推高股价。
本周，GameStop的股价逐渐接近并超过每股100美元，做空者——包括发现自己正在亏损的大型华尔街对冲基金——纷纷涌入市场，回补他们的空头头寸。这让GameStop股价涨到了当前的水平，这在以前是不可想象的。对此，做空者非常懊恼，而全球各地的散户投资者和市场观察人士却感到高兴。
为何其它公司也被卷入？
口口相传的力量非常强大，r/wallstreetbets之类的论坛让庞大的在线投资者社区组织起来寻找机会。和在GameStop（一家苦苦挣扎但相对稳定的公司，华尔街预言家曾经强烈预测它会破产）找到机会的许多人一样，他们也纷纷涌向高做空比例的类似公司。这些公司包括影院运营商AMC娱乐、家居用品零售商Bed Bath & Beyond和耳机制造商Koss。
然而，除了投资者的热情之外，其它公司的股价上涨几乎没有其它明显的原因。涉及的公司包括芬兰通讯产品公司诺基亚，该公司股价飙升，尽管它没有其它公司那样的高做空比例。
轧空之后会发生什么？
一旦投资者开始结算和退出头寸，对某只股票的需求（可能）开始减少，轧空也会有所缓解，通常股票会回到更为常规的、基本面良好的水平。
目前，特别是在Robinhood和其它在线股票交易平台于1月28日限制了这些股票的交易之后，一些受轧空趋势影响的股票正在下跌。（财富中文网）
译者：夏晴、郝秀
审校：汪皓
Robinhood touched off widespread fury on Wednesday after the popular stock-buying app halted customers' ability to purchase GameStop and a handful of other stocks that have been the subject of frenetic trading in the past week.
By Thursday afternoon, Robinhood has partially reversed the decision but not before getting smacked with at least two class action lawsuits. The lawsuits claim the company has harmed retail investors by preventing them from profiting by buying the stock or selling it short.
The lawsuits comes as many on social media—which has been fueling eye-popping rallies in GameStop, AMC Cinemas and other once beaten-down stocks—accuse Robinhood of siding with Wall Street bigwigs over ordinary investors.
According to such critics, Robinhood cut off stock purchases in order to help short sellers who had bet the price of GameStop would tumble, but then got battered as retail investors drove it up instead. The controversy has also led members of Congress to demand an investigation of Robinhood.
For now, there's no clear evidence of a conspiracy between Robinhood and the short sellers, and some market watchers say the move was to protect the company's own balance sheet. But whatever the reason, Robinhood customers are likely to face an uphill battle in the lawsuit.
While brokers like Robinhood have a fiduciary obligation to execute customer trades at the best price, that doesn't necessarily mean they must carry out trades in a given security. And in fact, the company might claim it was meeting its obligations by halting trades during a time of extreme volatility, according to Joshua Mitts, a professor at Columbia Law School.
Mitts, who has written extensively about securities law, also notes that the scope of Robinhood's obligation is determined in part by the company's terms of service. Those terms, which users must agree to upon signing up, provide the company with ample discretion to operate the platform as it sees fit or even terminate users' accounts.
Meanwhile, it's unclear whether the GameStop lawsuits are a serious attempt to help shareholders or simply to extract a quick settlement from Robinhood—a common tactic among a group of law firms who specialize in securities litigation. At least one of the claims feels particularly rushed with the lawyer who filed the case even misspelling "class action."
Other legal experts have likewise suggested the class action suits against Robinhood are a long shot. A spokesperson for Robinhood declined to comment on the litigation or if the company's terms of service grant it permission to suspend the purchase of given securities.
The controversy is likely to fuel a long-running debate over whether it is sound policy for brokerages or exchanges to halt trading at the time of extreme volatility. According to Mitts, there is little evidence that such halts serve to protect retail investors. He added that it's not surprising that many are suspicious of the financial establishment given that hedge funds have long deployed trading strategies, including short selling, that have cost retail investors billions of dollars.
"These retail investors feeling paranoid about the elites, and that institutions are not looking out for their best interests is rooted in experience," Mitts said. "It’s a justified paranoia based on what’s happened historically."
Short selling? Short squeeze? GameStop? What? A beginner’s guide to the most chaotic business news story of 2021
It’s been the biggest story in the wide world of business this week: GameStop’s incredible, crowd-fueled stock rally, which saw the video game retailer’s share price climb from around $19 at the start of January to nearly $350 at the close of trading January 27—an extraordinary 1,700% gain.
How could a company with such an unspectacular balance sheet (it has posted a net loss of $275 million over the last 12 months) and an seemingly outdated, brick-and-mortar retail business model go on such an incredible rally? The answer, as often is the case on Wall Street, is speculation—a form of it, in particular, that’s known as short-selling.
As an investment strategy, short-selling is widely deployed by hedge funds and other institutional investors, to varying ends. But the moves of major market players alone don’t account for GameStop’s remarkable ride; there is also an online army of millions of ordinary retail investors—most notably mobilized via Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets forum—who have thrown a spanner in the works, after effectively calling major GameStop short-sellers on their bluff.
The result has been a historic, near-unprecedented situation on public markets: a combination of rampant speculation, online crowdsourcing, and digitally-enabled market machinations—not to mention loads of memes—that could only take place in 2021.
But first, let’s get to the basics of what’s going on—beginning with short-selling itself.
What is short selling?
Simply put, shorting is when an investor bets that a given stock’s price will decline—a reversal of the market’s usual buy/sell machinations, wherein most investors are buyers betting a stock will appreciate in value.
In order to short a stock, an investor borrows shares in a security at a given price, and then immediately sells them on the market. At some point in the future they'll need to give the borrower back the same amount of stock they borrowed. They are betting that as time goes on, the stock price will fall, so they'll be able to buy it back at much lower price and repay original owner. Should that transpire, then the investor will find themselves with a profit between the higher price at which they sold the security and the lower price at which they bought it back.
Short-selling is a highly speculative strategy that comes with plenty of risks; since there’s theoretically no limit to how high a stock’s price can climb, then there’s also no cap on the losses a short-seller could sustain on a bad bet. But it also serves a purpose beyond simply betting on a stock’s losses; many investors use it as a hedging tactic, to offset the downside risks of their more optimistic, “long” positions in the same security or sector.
What is a short squeeze?
What happens if a lot of short-sellers bet against a given stock, but the stock starts to rise? Then you get what’s known as a short squeeze—something at the core of GameStop’s recent run-up.
Once a heavily shorted stock begins to climb on the strength of investor optimism, short sellers begin to feel the losses, and find themselves needing to buy more shares to cover their (losing) position in the stock. But the higher a stock’s short interest (the percentage of its total shares that are being sold short), the fewer shares available for those short sellers to buy—a supply/demand dynamic that sends shares even higher, further exacerbating losses for shorts.
What is happening with GameStop?
With a short interest north of 130%, GameStop found itself heavily shorted by speculative Wall Street investors who were betting on the company to fail. Enter the folks at r/wallstreetbets—a community of millions of retail investors whose combined, collaborative interest in GameStop stock raised demand for the stock and began to drive shares higher this month.
As GameStop’s stock gradually approached, and then exceeded, $100 a share this week, short sellers—including major Wall Street hedge funds who found themselves bleeding money—flocked into the market to cover their short positions. That’s sent GameStop to its current, previously unthinkable levels, much to the chagrin of shorts and the delight of retail investors and market observers around the globe.
Why are other companies now involved?
Word of mouth can be a powerful thing, and forums like r/wallstreetbets have allowed enormous communities of online investors to mobilize in search of opportunity. Just as many sensed an opportunity in GameStop—a struggling yet relatively stable company whose demise had been heavily forecast by Wall Street prognosticators—so have they flocked to similar companies with high short interest levels. Those include movie theater operator AMC Entertainment, home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond, and headphone manufacturer Koss.
Yet other companies have seen their stock rally for little to no apparent reason beyond investor enthusiasm—including Finnish telecom player Nokia, which surged despite not having the short interest profile of other firms.
What happens after a short squeeze?
Once investors begin to settle and exit their positions and demand for a stock (presumably) begins to recede, so does the short squeeze ease, which usually sends shares back down to more conventional, fundamentally sound levels.
Already, some of the stocks affected by the current short squeeze trend are seeing their shares deflate, particularly after Robinhood and other online stock trading platforms curbed trading of those equities on January 28.
