Robinhood: mobile stock trading app

The Revolution That Wasn't: GameStop, Reddit, and the Fleecing of Small Investors
by Spencer Jakab
Published 1 Feb 2022

A small amount of money could go “poof” or turn into a much larger sum all by a certain date. Either way, you then have to put up more cash to keep playing. Also unlike typical stock investors, but like sports bettors, most options buyers lose money. In the summer of 2021, Robinhood agreed to the largest-ever fine imposed by brokers’ own regulator, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Part of the complaint said that Robinhood used bots to approve people for options trading. FINRA gave the example of a twenty-year-old who said he had low risk tolerance and little experience and was rejected. Three minutes later, he changed his risk tolerance to medium and said he had three years of trading experience—difficult to have at age twenty—and was approved to trade options.[21] Robinhood had good reason to encourage the instruments’ use, though.

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A little more than a decade after the global financial crisis that was such a formative event for its young customers and whose ripples were still being felt in widening income inequality, Robinhood had supposedly stabbed them in the back. Millions of New Customers Many users claimed on social media that they were done with Robinhood after it restricted trading of the meme stocks on January 28. There is a big difference between what people say and what they do, though. On the same day that trading in meme stocks was limited, the Robinhood app rose to the most downloaded rank on the iOS App Store for the first time ever (Reddit was number two, also for the first time, inspired by the heroics of WallStreetBets, which quadrupled its membership in a week).[13] On Friday, January 29, just as the airplane with the rude banner was circling its headquarters and with some trading still curtailed, Robinhood hit a record 600,000 daily downloads according to JMP Securities—four times better than its best day in raucous March 2020.

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It nearly did anyway. Republican senator Josh Hawley of Missouri was one of the few not to accuse Robinhood of restricting trading to save hedge funds, though he got many facts wrong in an impassioned essay, “Calling Wall Street’s Bluff,” in which he lumped together conservative ire at coastal elites and social media platforms accused of being unfair to those on the right with Robinhood. “And the elites are happy to help. Enter Robinhood—as in, steal from the rich. Robinhood was the trading platform for the little guy. No fees, no hassle. It was Big Tech, once again, allegedly democratizing another sphere of American life captured by elite control.

The Elements of Choice: Why the Way We Decide Matters
by Eric J. Johnson
Published 12 Oct 2021

The SEC contended that Robinhood steered trades to whomever gave them the highest fees and not those that gave their customers the best price, costing, it alleged, customers $34 million between 2015 and late 2018.12 If Robinhood makes money from stock trades, they make much more from option trading.13 Perhaps because Robinhood has increased the volume of options trades, the market makers pay Robinhood three times more for options trades than for stocks. Options might not be an appropriate investment for a naive trader with limited funds—Robinhood’s core customer—but they are ideal for maximizing Robinhood’s profitability. In the second quarter of 2020, commissions for sending options to market makers provided $111 million of Robinhood’s $180 million revenue. It is easy to trade stocks on Robinhood.

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What this means to customers is complex, but what is clear is that this arrangement means that Robinhood (and potentially other commission-free brokers) makes more money if you trade more, and even more if you trade options. Not everyone takes a payment for order flow. Fidelity Investments passes all its share of the spread to its customers, and in the United Kingdom, payments for order flow are banned by the Financial Conduct Authority. 12. Popper and Merced, “Robinhood Pays $65 Million Fine to Settle Charges of Misleading Customers.” 13. You need to be certified by Robinhood, like in many financial services firms, to trade some kinds of options, but simply stating you have experience in trading options is often enough to get certified, and approval can happen in as little as ten minutes. 14.

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Options are not much harder; they require only one more screen to buy than a stock. But while Robinhood may have made options easy to trade, choice architecture did not make them easy to understand. At least one customer thought he had made a terrible mistake. Alexander Kearns, the newly active trader, was known at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln as someone who always wanted to cheer up friends. He had been selected to be a teaching assistant in the introductory course Investing in Strengths at the university’s business school.14 Kearns’s new options trading hobby went badly wrong, or so he thought. One day, he opened his Robinhood app and saw an apparent $730,000 loss, listed in red.

The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees
by Ben Mezrich
Published 6 Sep 2021

Melvin’s short position had exploded into a short squeeze because the retail traders on WallStreetBets had targeted GameStop, had bought and bought and bought, causing massive volume and price volatility. Robinhood, through which a large portion of those retail traders had bought their GameStop, had suddenly faced a massive deposit requirement because of that volatility—and had been forced to shut down buying of GameStop. True, one could argue, this in turn would stop the rise in GameStop’s stock, poking a pin into the short squeeze, potentially allowing the hedge funds to cover. And also, true, Citadel—who BY COINCIDENCE handled most of Robinhood’s trades and BY COINCIDENCE provided the lion’s share of Robinhood’s profits through its payment for order flow mechanism—now had a financial stake in Melvin Capital, most associated with those shorts—and had just helped lift—NOT BAIL—Melvin out of its precarious financial situation via a $2.75 billion infusion of cash along with Steve Cohen.

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Maybe those crazy, foul-mouthed, degenerate posters on WallStreetBets were on to something. Reclining in the chair, running one hand over her grapefruit-cantaloupe belly while she scrolled through the Robinhood app, looking at the charts of stocks she’d read about on WSB—she wondered—would it be so wrong to take a chance? You couldn’t get farther from a Wall Street trading desk than the Shiny Locks Salon in Caledonia, Michigan. But with the information she was getting from the WSB board, married to the powerful tools of the Robinhood app, right under her fingertips—for once, the odds didn’t seem so stacked against her, the playing field didn’t feel so unfair. She shook her head, then turned off her phone.

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In simple terms, Robinhood was able to offer zero commissions because their users weren’t actually their customers—they were, essentially, the product. Robinhood bundled up and sold their users’ trades to market makers—giant financial firms such as Two Sigma, Susquehanna, but primarily Citadel—who could near-instantly analyze the trading flow and profit by taking tiny slivers out of the spreads between bids and asks. Because Robinhood’s main users were amateurs who made risky trades—and more and more, gravitated toward more leveraged and even riskier plays such as options—Robinhood could command a premium from the market makers, whose profits went even higher the more volatile the trading flow.

You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All
by Adrian Hon
Published 14 Sep 2022

This is an interface issue, they [Robinhood] have slick interfaces. Confetti popping everywhere. They try to gamify trading and couch it as investment.” Brewster added on Twitter, “I strongly believe there are Pavlovian gambling associations embedded into that product.”47 Despite Robinhood’s denials, users keep comparing the app to gambling and games.48 Siddarth Shrikanth wrote in the Financial Times in 2020 of a millennial investor who regretted the “progressively riskier bets” he made, amounting to thousands of dollars in just two weeks, saying, “Robinhood has gamified investing. Trading is now so simple that it can be easy to make impulsive decisions.

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YOUR SCORE IS YOUR BALANCE One of the most interesting video games that launched in 2020 was Hyperbolic Arcade Trading.42 It promised to teach players the fundamentals of trading and technical analysis by compressing an entire day’s trading into just two minutes, accompanied by an appropriately retro ’80s aesthetic. Hyperbolic Arcade Trading is far from the first to simulate stock markets, but one wonders whether it could be the last given the advent of Robinhood’s trading app. Robinhood launched in 2015 with the promise to “democratize” finance for retail investors (i.e., individual, nonprofessional investors), partly by means of commission-free trading, but also through a simplified interface filled with confetti and scratch-off cards and free stock giveaways.43 The company quickly attracted investment, and by late 2021 it had gained over eighteen million users, though not without running into a seemingly endless stream of controversies.44 Every trading service has its share of users who lose more money than they can afford; that there are Robinhood users with tales of woe is not surprising.

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Robinhood launched in 2015 with the promise to “democratize” finance for retail investors (i.e., individual, nonprofessional investors), partly by means of commission-free trading, but also through a simplified interface filled with confetti and scratch-off cards and free stock giveaways.43 The company quickly attracted investment, and by late 2021 it had gained over eighteen million users, though not without running into a seemingly endless stream of controversies.44 Every trading service has its share of users who lose more money than they can afford; that there are Robinhood users with tales of woe is not surprising. The problem is that in its pursuit of accessibility and growth, Robinhood’s gamification of trading may have encouraged inexperienced investors to make risky trades. According to research by the New York Times, during the first quarter of 2020, Robinhood users traded nine times as many shares as users on E-Trade, another online trading platform, and bought and sold over ten times as many risky options contracts as TD Ameritrade users.45 Most tragically, twenty-year-old Robinhood user Alex Kearns killed himself in 2020 after seeing a negative $730,165 cash balance in the app due to his trade of a “bull put spread.”46 Kearns left a note saying, in part, “How was a 20-year-old with no income able to get assigned almost a million dollars of leverage?”

Buy Now, Pay Later: The Extraordinary Story of Afterpay
by Jonathan Shapiro and James Eyers
Published 2 Aug 2021

In all past episodes of market crashes, generations of traders nursing crushing losses swore off the stock market. But for the ‘corona generation’, it was their siren. Stuck at home, idle and with stimulus cash to play with, millennials were dabbling in the market. In the United States, the Robinhood mobile trading app, which allowed users to trade commission-free, made it cheap to speculate on stocks. The rise of social media allowed day traders with limited capital to amalgamate and form vigilante mobs akin to decentralised hedge funds. As the market boomed, the retail army gathered on Facebook and Reddit to share tips.

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Morgan 53, 120, 162, 251 Juul Labs 237–8 Kardashian, Kim 189 the Kardashians 188 Karzis, Sophie 116 Kassabgi, Damian 196, 207, 299, 304, 322 Katsalidis, Nona 57 Kaufman, Lilly 1–2 Kaufman, Susie 2, 3 Kaufman, Zoltan 1, 2 Kell, Peter 144, 163, 202, 207 Kelly, Rachel 129, 130–1, 135, 136 Khalifa, Mia 311 Kidman, Matthew 18, 95 King, Phil 185 Kingston, Beverley Basket, Bag and Trolley 45 Kitney, Damon 194 Klarna 81, 133, 187, 245, 279, 284, 291, 316, 317 Commonwealth Bank and 247–8, 337–8 United States launch 190 Kohler, Alan 209 Laffont, Philippe 234–5, 257, 258, 295, 335 Langley, Ron 83 Latitude Financial 118, 256–7 Lau, Sarah 128 Lawrence, Martin 149 lay-by 41, 44, 45, 46–7 costs to retailer 48–9 digitising of 47–8 Leeser, Julian 304 Lehman Brothers 177 Leibovich, Gabby Catch of the Day 89 Leigh, Andrew 287, 288 Lennie, Nadine 116 Lenton, Shane 88 Letts, Darren 175, 176 Levchin, Max 81, 190, 284, 312 Levis, Justin 87 Levis, Rod 87, 88 Lew, Solomon 129, 133, 270 Lindenberg, Brad 131, 279 Lipski, Simon 8 Little, Jason 11 Liu, Jun Bei 160 Livewire 240, 292 Lone Pine Capital 235, 236, 281, 295, 311 Loton, Brian 71 Lowde, Rebecca 289 Lowe, Philip 204, 205, 206, 260, 261, 266, 301, 341 Lowy, Frank 6, 7, 9, 31, 174 Lowy, Hugo 6 Lu, Janet 95 Lululemon 161 Lustig, Ted 9 McAllister, Jenny 146, 329 McBain, John 85 McCann, Edwina 305 Macaulay, Louise 142 McClelland, Colin 309 McCrohan, Sharon 197–8 McGarry, Ben 261, 267, 289–90 MacGraw, Beth 305 MacGraw, Tessa 305 McKenzie, Mark 262 McNamara, Peter 205, 206 Madden, Steve 191 Malek, Ron 23 Mandel, Steve 236, 295 Marshall, David 83 Mastercard 46, 108, 219, 220, 255, 263, 302, 339 Masters of the Market 18, 31 Matrix 157, 172, 173, 242, 331–2 Mawhinney, Simon 292 Maxsted, Lindsay 258 Maxwell, Robert 28 May, Rob 48–9 Mayne, Stephen 258 Medcraft, Greg 142, 144 Melbourne Jewish community 5 Melvin Capital 308–9 Meriton 6 Messara, Mike 127 Mickey Mouse report 148–51, 167, 227 millennials, Gen Z, Gen X 208–9, 331 credit cards and 40, 41, 52, 73, 208, 217, 222 trend makers, as 308, 311 Mitchell, Jacob 177 Mitchell, James 275 Mitchell, Paula 87 Moar, Max 9 Molnar, Michele 4, 13, 40, 76, 134 Molnar, Nick 3, 4, 11, 38, 73, 194 Afterpay see Afterpay Banking and Wealth Summit 2020 303 bar mitzvah 12 Eisen, meeting 39–40 fortune, personal 277, 333 Ice Online see Ice Online marriage and family 88, 194, 210, 277, 303 online jewellery sales 13, 14, 38–9 real estate purchases 343 rugby 11, 12, 13 Senate inquiry appearance 210–11 Shmuel Gniwisch 14, 16, 40, 172 TEDxYouth@Sydney 2017 171 United States expansion 172–3, 187, 190, 188, 226, 244–5 Molnar, Ronald 3–4, 12, 38–9, 108, 134, 168 Molnar, Simon 4, 13, 40 Ice Online see Ice Online Molnar, Vivian 3, 4 Montgomery, Roger 181, 182 Moore, Daniel 291 Mordant, Simon 23, 117 Moreno, Antonio 244 Morgan Stanley 97, 282 Moriah War Memorial College 4, 5–6, 10, 100, 131, 343 Morrison, Scott 145, 225, 226, 250, 260 pro-fintech position 250, 302–3 Mott, Jonathan 252, 255 Mulcahy, Julian 136, 336 Mumbrella 153 Murdoch, Rupert 126 Musk, Elon 176–8, 309, 311 Myer 44 MYOB 24, 30, 34, 96 Nadella, Satya 302 Nagley, Harold 4, 5, 10 Narev, Ian 217–18, 247 Nasdaq index 101, 102, 180, 232–3 National Australia Bank Afterpay financing 108–10, 121, 123, 168, 216, 251 Hayne Royal Commission 141, 142, 216 National Consumer Credit Protection Act 146, 203, 205, 212, 223, 326 National Debt Helpline 144, 201 National Press Club 260 Netflix 182 Ng, Jeffery 84 Ng, Wendy 58, 116, 117, 159, 267 Nguyen, John 55 Ngwe, Donald 244 Nixon, Blake 28, 31 Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria 310 O’Connor, Debbie 153 O’Dwyer, Kelly 143 O’Halloran, Xavier 151 O’Neil, Clare 146 online classified platforms 126, 127 Openpay 251 Ord Minnett 175, 246, 251 Orr, Rowena 141 Ovienrioba, Oghosa 319–20 Ownership Matters 148–51, 167, 241, 242 Paatsch, Dean 149, 150–1 Packer, James 126 Packer, Kerry 27, 126 Padley, Marcus 160, 192, 282–3 Pagantis 286 Pape, Scott The Barefoot Investor 154 Paulson, Hank 302 payday lending 146, 212, 320 PayPal 54, 77, 166, 172, 187, 285, 302, 314 Peloton 313–14 Phillpot, Rob 155 Pichai, Sundar 302 Piper, Tim 315 platform companies 128, 240, 263 Plotkin, Gabe 308, 310 Portnoy, Dave 278, 309, 310 Poseidon bubble 96 Powell, Jerome 186, 207 Press, Danielle 202 Princess Polly 76, 77, 79, 106 property development 7, 20 Prunty, Chris 128, 129 Quadpay 131, 187, 270, 315 QVG 128 rag trade 9, 19 REA Group 126, 127 Rechtman, Andrew 76 Redrup, Yolanda 156 regulation of BNPL sector 201 ASIC inquiry 137, 140, 144, 145, 148, 191 ASIC reports 202–4, 297, 298, 299 Reserve Bank 206, 254, 296 Bragg inquiry see Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology Senate inquiry see Senate Economics References Committee inquiry United Kingdom 288, 320–2 regulators, role 287, 296, 297, 298, 300–1 research analysts 252, 253, 280 risk-averse 271 Reserve Bank 206, 254, 295, 302, 341 bond-buying program 269 no-surcharge rules 254, 255, 262, 295, 301, 302, 341 Richardson, Tom 311, 316 Roberts, Matt 251 Robertson, Hugh Walter 58, 67, 133 Afterpay 78, 84, 90, 93, 99 background and early career 70 private investors 71, 72, 84 Touchcorp IPO and 67, 72–3, 85 Robertson, Julian 232 , 233, 235, 245, 295 Robinhood trading app 278, 310 Rose, Nicole 228 Rosenberg, Cliff 84, 90 Rosenblum, Rupert 12 Roth, Mike 94 Rubin, Elana 67, 116, 229, 262 Rudd, Kevin 134, 196, 205, 226, 326 Ryan, Tony 28, 29 Saadat, Michael 139, 143, 144, 202, 212, 213, 221 Afterpay role 229, 248 code of conduct 324–6, 328 Salt, Bernard 208 Sams, Lauren 306, 307, 311, 312 Samson, James 241–2 Samway, Tim 156 Saunders, John 6, 7, 9, 174 Saville, Duncan 63, 65, 68, 84 Afterpay Touch shareholding 118, 175 Scheinberg, Albert 9 Schulman, Daniel 314 Schwarz, Stephanie 10–11, 343 Seafolly 8 SEEK 126 Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology 249 Afterpay presentation to 262–3 report 286–7, 296, 297 Senate Economics References Committee inquiry 145–8, 154, 186 hearings 209, 210–12 report 223 scope 200–1 Serjeant, Tim 187 Sezzle 131, 175, 187, 267, 285, 315 ASX listing 246, 247 share market banks and mining, dominance of 91, 92 day traders 278–9, 308–10 dual-class share structure companies 102 founders, sale of shares by 156, 281, 333 short-sellers 156, 165, 167, 175, 176–7, 185, 186, 276, 289, 308–9 tech companies 96, 101 value 91 Shein, David 90 Sher, Steve 84 Shervington, Laurie 65 Shipton, James 142, 143 Shopify 282, 284, 313 Shorten, Bill 139, 145, 198, 225, 226, 249 Showpo 95 Shulman, Gabi 86, 88 Sidereal Holdings 83, 117 Siemiatkowski, Sebastien 190 Simmonds, Julian 287 Singer Sewing Machines 42 Skamvougeras, Paul 84 Smith, Steve 197 Snapchat 98 Solution 6 23, 24 Soros, George 232, 233 Sotiriou, Lafitani 113, 121, 133, 162, 164–5, 166, 224 Spiro, Dov 24 Splitit 246 Stadnik, Andrei 282 Stalder, Dana 157, 172, 187, 242, 243 Stevens, Chris 289 Stockland Trust 9 Stocks Down Under 276, 284 Stouffer, Tracy 133 Strachman, Daniel 233 Strasser, Nicole 5 Sugar, Brian 188 PopSugar 188 Sullivan, Angus 338 Summers, Larry 249 superannuation 182, 270 Surowiecki, James 47 Surry Hills 19–20 Swanson, Eleanor 272, 292 Sydney Jewish community 3, 5, 7–8 Sydney Morning Herald 40 Sykes, Trevor 29, 30 Tabakoff, Nick 23 TAFMO 61, 63, 64, 84 Tagliaferro, Anton 291 ‘tap and go’ payments 120 Tate, Diane 325, 326, 329 Taub, Stephen 295 Taylor, Mike 114 tech-stock bubble 15, 16, 23, 98, 180, 183, 232–3 Telstra privatisation 21, 22 Temple Emanuel 4 Tencent 274–6, 280, 289 Ters, Jason 36, 83 Tesla 176–8, 268, 275, 295 Textor, Mark 340 Thiel, Peter 122, 176, 284 Thompson, Sarah 168 Thorburn, Andrew 141, 216 Thread Together 307, 308 Tiger Cubs 233, 234, 235, 236, 239, 258, 275, 295, 311 Tiger Global 234, 282, 295, 311 Tiger Management 228, 232, 233, 235 TikTok 307 Touch Payments 82 Touchcorp 54, 58, 59 Afterpay payment platform 54–5, 59 Intellect and 62 Touchcorp Holdings Pty Ltd 64, 66, 104, 116 Afterpay, merger with see Afterpay Touch (APT) IPO 58, 59, 67–8, 84 Treasury 296, 297, 300, 301 ‘responsible lending’ laws 326–7 Triguboff, Harry 6 Trump, Donald 112 Turnbull, Malcolm 140, 145, 197, 213, 225, 249 Twitter 98, 102 Tyabji, Hatim 63–4, 66 Tyler, Chris 23 Uber 140, 196, 242, 263, 289, 299 UBS investment conference 2016 110, 111 October 2019 report 252, 253, 255–6 ‘unicorn’ status 120, 183 United Kingdom Afterpay expansion into 184, 224, 264 Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) 320, 321, 323 regulation of BNPL sector 288, 320–2 United States Black Lives Matter 277 election 2016 111–12 expansion into 157–8, 173–4, 190, 243–4, 265 fashion market 158 Federal Reserve COVID-19 response 273 regulatory risks in 267 Uphold & Recognise 304 Valmorbida, Val 57 van den Berg, Stefan 184 van Dongen, Yvonne 27 Vanguard 293, 294 venture funds 98, 99 Veronika Maine 107, 111, 113 Verrender, Ian 152 Verwer, Peter 302 VGI Partners 186–7 Visa 46, 108, 219, 220, 246, 263, 279, 302, 339 WAAAX stocks 182 Waislitz, Alex 71, 112, 183, 274, 342 Walburgh, Fetzie 55 Walker, Gavin 35 The Wall Street Journal 295 Wallis, Stan 220 Walsh, Michael 110 Warner, David 198 Warren, Elizabeth 310 Waters, Tony 128, 129 WeChat 275 The Weekend Australian 194 Weiss, Gary 17, 18, 19, 24, 35, 63, 125 background 25–6 ClearView 36 Coats acquisition 31–2 GPG see Guinness Peat Group (GPG) Industrial Equity Limited (IEL) 26 Westfield 6–7, 90, 174, 306–7, 310–11 Westpac Banking Corporation 51, 247, 327 Afterpay Money and 290–1, 338, 339, 340 anti-money laundering breaches 258–9 White, Richard 97, 281 Whitlam Turnbull bank 18 Whittaker, Marc 240 Wilson, Geoff 18, 94, 125, 225 Future Generations fund 125, 126 Wilson, Matthew 336 Wilson, Tim 225 Wilson Asset Management 93, 94, 125, 251 Wilson HTM 67, 68, 72, 93, 113, 184 Winkler, Craig 34 Winters, John 101 WiseTech Global 97, 182, 281 Women’s Wear Daily 188, 226 Wonga pay day loan scandal 322 Woodson Capital 238–9, 295, 311 Woolard, Christopher 320, 321, 322 World Health Organization 261 World Maccabiah Games 12 World War II 1 Wran, Neville 18 Wylie, John 13, 22, 39 Xenita, Natalie 307 Xero 34, 96, 182 Xu, Nesta 55 Yahoo!

The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy
by Christopher Leonard
Published 11 Jan 2022

The people who traded on Robinhood were not the company’s real customers. Its real customers were big hedge funds and trading firms like Citadel Securities. Robinhood might have organized all the trading through its app, but the trades were actually executed by companies like Citadel. These firms paid Robinhood millions of dollars for the privilege because it allowed them to see what people were buying, then make trades based on that information as they filled the order. This was called paying for order flow. Robinhood earned about $19,000 from trading firms for each dollar that a normal retail investor had in their account. Robinhood’s cash from order flow more than tripled from the start of 2020 to the same period in 2021.

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Another half a mill on Shake Shack,” Portnoy shouted during one video. Portnoy bragged about his profits and advertised the thrill of it all. Viewers who wanted to join the fun could do so by creating an account on the stock trading platform called Robinhood, which had been founded in 2013. Robinhood charged no fees for trading stock, enticing people to open up 10 million accounts on its platform by the end of 2019. These were average people who put their stock trades on credit cards, or paid for them with home equity loans. This made Robinhood’s platform look like something that democratized high finance, moving the riches of stock trading from Wall Street to the family living room.

On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything
by Nate Silver
Published 12 Aug 2024

Other people just want to lean back and press a button. And whichever product most appeals to your inner degen will be algorithmically tailored to reduce friction and get you to gamble even more. “The [Robinhood] app is just really gamified to make it feel like you are spinning a roulette machine,” Li told me, citing techniques such as confetti graphics when you achieve a trading milestone—although some of these animations have since been retired. The data shows that this works—Robinhood customers trade options at much higher volumes than at stodgier, more traditional brokerage sites like Charles Schwab. Finally, there’s the influence of forums like r/wallstreetbets—the camaraderie and competition between mostly young men who are inexperienced traders.

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GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT some of these animations: Maggie Fitzgerald, “Robinhood Gets Rid of Confetti Feature amid Scrutiny over Gamification of Investing,” CNBC, March 31, 2021, cnbc.com/2021/03/31/robinhood-gets-rid-of-confetti-feature-amid-scrutiny-over-gamification.html. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT much higher volumes: Nathaniel Popper, “Robinhood Has Lured Young Traders, Sometimes with Devastating Results,” The New York Times, July 8, 2020, sec. Technology, nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/robinhood-risky-trading.html. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT the first Bitcoins: Though due to a quirk in the code, these particular BTC can’t be spent or traded. “Genesis Block,” Bitcoin Wiki, en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Times of London: Benedict George, “The Genesis Block: The First Bitcoin Block,” CoinDesk, January 3, 2023, coindesk.com/tech/2023/01/03/the-genesis-block-the-first-bitcoin-block [inactive].

Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be
by Diane Coyle
Published 11 Oct 2021

There is evidence that the so-called flash crash of 6 May 2010, when the Dow Jones share price index fell 600 points in 6 minutes only to recover fully 20 minutes later, was due to automated trading of this kind. In 2015 the US authorities tried to pin the blame on a solo mathematically-gifted day trader, based in suburban West London, but as a recent account details, the crash was not the work of a human mastermind but rather of a complex network of machines and regulation (Vaughan 2020). Robinhood, the retail trading platform driving much of the Gamestop phenomenon in early 2021, was running orders through Citadel, an HFT trader that paid for those retail orders so it could glean intelligence about market conditions to give its own algorithms an advantage (Van Doren 2021). The Gamestop rise and fall was all too obvious, but there is some evidence that there are very many flash crashes—more than 18,500 in the five years to 2011—too fast for humans to notice them (Johnson et al. 2012).

The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion
by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell
Published 19 Jul 2021

* * * — By late 2020, it was clear there was a bigger shift in the financial markets going on. Perhaps it was the economic rescue actions that came after the virus first hit, perhaps it was the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates and printing trillions in new money, or perhaps it was the growth of stock trading at home by bored millennials wielding the Robinhood app. The U.S. economy was still struggling, yet stocks were surging to all-time highs. Startups—not just software companies, but money-losing consumer-friendly brands—were back in vogue, and the post-WeWork chill was quickly forgotten. DoorDash and Airbnb—once worried that WeWork’s fallout would spread their way—had extraordinarily successful IPOs, landing on the public markets with valuations that left many of their early investors struggling to understand what was going on.

Limitless: The Federal Reserve Takes on a New Age of Crisis
by Jeanna Smialek
Published 27 Feb 2023

Gill, along with investors across America, had piled money into the stock of video game store GameStop over the prior months, sending its price on a precipitous rise that eventually gave way to a roller-coaster decline. It and other meme assets—stocks of Bitcoin and the movie theater chain AMC—had drawn lawmaker attention, as had the explosion in small-time trading on the Robinhood app and other platforms. Ordinary investors were carrying out complex transactions involving options, trading on borrowed money, and even staging crowdsourced rebellions against hedge funds. In GameStop’s case, a plan had coalesced on the forum Reddit and small-time investors had shut down a bet that Wall Street funds had taken against the stock.

Mastering Blockchain: Unlocking the Power of Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts
by Lorne Lantz and Daniel Cawrey
Published 8 Dec 2020

There are five categories of stakeholders that a typical user might interact with in cryptocurrency: brokerages, exchanges, custody services, analytics services, and information providers. Brokerages As services that help facilitate cryptocurrency transactions, brokerages act as intermediaries for buying, selling, and holding crypto in the ecosystem. This includes merchant payments. In name-brand services like the mobile apps Robinhood and Square’s Cash App, which allow people to purchase cryptocurrency, a brokerage transaction occurs. Robinhood acts as an intermediary, doing the work of acquiring cryptocurrency and storing it for the user. For merchant transactions, companies like BitPay handle all of the processing. Any merchant that accepts bitcoin or other cryptocurrency usually has a brokerage take possession of the cryptocurrency.

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nonce space or overflow, The mining process in Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper, The Whitepaper noncustodial wallets, Wallet Types: Custodial Versus Noncustodial(see also wallets) nonfungible tokens, Fungible and Nonfungible TokensERC-721 standard for, ERC-721 Nothing-at-Stake problem, Proof-of-Stake Novi wallet, Novi NuBits, NuBits NXT blockchain, NXT O oligarchical model dominating the web, Web 3.0 Omni Core, Understanding Omni Layerlimitations of, Deploying and Executing Smart Contracts in Ethereum Omni Layer, Understanding Omni Layer-Adding custom logicadding custom logical operations to Bitcoin, Adding custom logic-Adding custom logic how it works, How Omni Layer works limitations of, Deploying and Executing Smart Contracts in Ethereum technical stack, overview of, Understanding Omni Layer Tether project built on, Tether opcodes, Gas and Pricing Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, The More Things Change operating system platform (EOS), Blockchains to Watch operators, ERC-777, ERC-1155 Optimistic Rollups, Other Altchain Solutions, Lightning nodes and wallets options, Derivatives OP_RETURN field, Adding custom logictranslation of metadata in, Adding custom logic Oracle, Blockchain Platform, Blockchain as a Service oracles, Important Definitionsmanipulation in Fulcrum attack, The Fulcrum Exploit order books, Order Booksthin, slippages and, Slippage over-the-counter (OTC) market, Slippage P paper wallets, Wallet Type Variations Parity, Parity Parity hack (2017), Parity participants, Participants passwordssecurity vulnerabilities, Zero-Knowledge Proof Thinbus Secure Remote Password protocol, Zero-Knowledge Proof pay-to-play, Tools for fundamental analysis payment channels, Lightningnode dropping or losing connection to, Lightning nodes and wallets opening by sending funding transaction, Funding transactions withdrawing funds from, Off-chain transactions payment systemsLibra, Borrowing from Existing Blockchains permissioned ledger uses of blockchain, Payments physical cash versus digital, Electronic Systems and Trust Permacoin, Alternative methods permissioned ledger uses of blockchain, Permissioned Ledger Uses-Paymentsbanking, Banking central bank digital currencies, Central Bank Digital Currencies gaming, Gaming health care, Health Care Internet of Things, Internet of Things IT systems, IT payments systems, Payments permissioned ledgers, Databases and Ledgers permissionless ledgers, Databases and Ledgers person-to-person trading of cryptocurrency, Evolution of the Price of Bitcoin phishing attacks, Security Fundamentals Plasma implementation of sidechains, Other Altchain Solutions Ponzi schemes in cryptocurrency, Skirting the Laws PotCoin, More Altcoin Experiments precompilation of zk-SNARKs, zk-SNARKs preminingissues with, Litecoin premined altcoin, Ixcoin, Altcoins prices (gas), Gas and Pricing Primecoin, Altcoins privacyand censorship resistance with dapps, Use Cases Ethereum-based privacy implementations, Ethereum-Based Privacy Implementations future developments in blockchains, Privacy information security in decentralizing finance and the web, Privacy-Ring Signaturesring signatures, Ring Signatures Zcash, Zcash zero-knowledge proof, Zero-Knowledge Proof zk-SNARKs, zk-SNARKs insufficient anonymity on Bitcoin, The Evolution of Crypto Laundering paired with scalability, Mimblewimble blockchain protocol, Mimblewimble, Beam, and Grin privacy-focused blockchains, PrivacyMonero, Blockchains to Watch-How Monero Works Zcash, Zcash privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, Privacy-Focused CryptocurrenciesDash, Dash Monero, Monero Zcash, Zcash private blockchain networks, Privacy private blockchains, The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance private keys, Public/private key cryptography(see also public/private key cryptography) products/services, buying or selling, Evolution of the Price of Bitcoin proof-of-history, Alternative methods proof-of-stake, Proof-of-Stake-Proof-of-StakeByzantine fault-tolerant algorithm, HotStuff, Borrowing from Existing Blockchains Casper algorithm in Ethereum 2.0, Ethereum Scaling proof-of-stake velocity, More Altcoin Experiments proof-of-storage, Alternative methods proof-of-work, Block Generation, Proof-of-Work-Confirmationsbit gold's client puzzle function type, Bit Gold block discovery, Block discovery confirmations by miners of blocks to include in blockchain, Confirmations criticisms of, Proof-of-Stake, Ripple and Stellar CryptoNote protocol, Monero Ethereum's Ethash protocol, Ethereum: Taking Mastercoin to the Next Level longest chain rule, The mining process mining process for block discovery on Bitcoin, The mining process mining process on Bitcoin, The mining process in Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper, The Whitepaper transaction life cycle, Transaction life cycle use by B-Money, B-Money use by Hashcash, Hashcash X11 ASIC-resistant, Dash protocols, Electronic Systems and Trust pseudonimity, KYC rules and, KYC and pseudonymity public keys, Public/private key cryptography(see also public/private key cryptography) public/private key cryptographyBitcoin's use of, Public/private key cryptography examples of public and private keys, Naming Services generating keys, Generating keys private key storage for digital wallets, Authoring a smart contract private keys for wallets, Private Keys public and private keys in cryptocurrency systems, Public and Private Keys in Cryptocurrency Systems-Public and Private Keys in Cryptocurrency Systems unauthorized access to private key, Bitcoin Transaction Security use in controlling access to personal information, Identity and the Dangers of Hacking pull transactions, Bitcoin Transaction Security, ERC-777 push transactions, Bitcoin Transaction Security, ERC-777 Q Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB), Blockchain as a Service Quorum blockchain, Quorum, JPMorgan R ransomware, CryptoLocker and, CryptoLocker and Ransomware rate limiting, Exchange Risk, Rate Limiting real estate transactions, using tokens on a blockchain, Tokens on the Ethereum Platform recovery seed, Recovery Seed recursive call vulnerability, Forking Ethereum and the creation of Ethereum Classic regulationof cryptocurrency exchanges, Jurisdiction FATF and the Travel Rule, The FATF and the Travel Rule FinCEN guidance and beginnings of, FinCEN Guidance and the Beginning of Regulation-FinCEN Guidance and the Beginning of Regulation regulatory challenges in cryptocurrency market, Regulatory Challenges-Basic Mistakes regulatory issues with ICOs, Tokenize Everything regulatory arbitrage, Avoiding Scrutiny: Regulatory Arbitrage-Crypto-Based StablecoinsICOs as example of, Initial Coin Offerings relational databases, Databases and Ledgers replay attacks, Replay attacksprotecting against, on Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, The Ethereum Classic Fork replication systems, Databases and Ledgers REST APIsEthereum network, Interacting with Code WebSocket versus, REST Versus WebSocket ring confidential transactions, Blockchains to Watch, How Monero Works ring signatures, Monero, Ring Signatures, Blockchains to Watchhiding public address of sender on Monero, How Monero Works Ripple, Other Concepts for Consensus, Rippleblock times, Float Configuration 2 Robinhood mobile app, Brokerages Rollups, Zero Knowledge (ZK) and Optimistic, Other Altchain Solutions, Lightning nodes and wallets Royal Mint, The Royal Mint S Santander, blockchain-issued bonds, Banking SAP, Blockchain as a Service, Blockchain as a Service satoshi, Gas and Pricing Satoshi Nakamotobitcoin address related to, The Evolution of Crypto Laundering efforts to establish identity of, Storing Data in a Chain of Blocks identity, guesses at, Bahamas Satoshi's Vision group (Bitcoin SV), The Bitcoin Cash Fork whitepaper, The Whitepaper savings services (DeFi), Savings scalabilitycentralized versus decentralized exchanges, Scalability discontent over Bitcoin network's scaling, The Bitcoin Cash Fork EOS solution to blockchain issues, Tokenize Everything privacy paired with, Mimblewimble blockchain potocol, Mimblewimble, Beam, and Grin Scalable Transparent ARguments of Knowledge (STARKs), STARKs scaling blockchains, Scaling Blockchains-Other Altchain Solutions, The Scaling Problem-Ethereum ScalingAvalanche consensus mechanism, Avalanche DAG network design, DAGs Ethereum, Ethereum Scaling-Ethereum Scaling Lightning solution, Lightning, Lightning-Lightning nodes and wallets Liquid multisignature wallet, Liquid other altchain solutions, Other Altchain Solutions SegWit, SegWit sharding, Sharding sidechains, Sidechains STARKs, STARKs Schnorr algorithm, Privacy Scott, Mark, Skirting the Laws SCP consensus protocol, Stellar scripted money, Improving Bitcoin’s Limited Functionality Scrypt mining, Altcoins, Litecoin Secret Network, Privacy securitiestokens proposed in ICOs, Different Token Types unregistered securities offerings, Skirting the Laws Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), FinCEN Guidance and the Beginning of Regulation securityBitcoin transaction security, Bitcoin Transaction Security custody infrastructure for exchanges, Counterparty Risk detection of blockchain tampering with Merkle roots, The Merkle Root early vulnerability on Bitcoin, An Early Vulnerability exchanges taking care of private keys, Counterparty Risk flash loans exploiting vulnerabilities in DeFi platforms, The Fulcrum Exploit fundamentals for cryptocurrencies, Security Fundamentals-Recovery Seed identity and dangers of hacking, Identity and the Dangers of Hacking information security in decentralizing finance and the web, Privacy Lightning Network vulnerabilities, Lightning proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, criticisms of, Proof-of-Stake recursive call vulnerability, Forking Ethereum and the creation of Ethereum Classic replay attacks vulnerability, Replay attacks, The Ethereum Classic Fork sharding, vulnerabilities with, Other Altchain Solutions theft of cryptocurrencies in exchange hacks, Exchange Hacks-NiceHash theft of cryptocurrencies in other hacks, Other Hacks-Summary transaction malleability vulnerability, Lightning nodes and wallets security token offerings (STOs), Different Token Types security tokens, Token Economics seeds (recovery), Recovery Seedstorage of, Authoring a smart contract SegWit (Segregated Witness), SegWit, Lightning nodes and wallets self-sovereign identity, Identity and the Dangers of Hacking SHA-256 hash algorithm, Introducing the Timestamp Server, Hashes SHA256 and RIPEMD160 functions, Generating keys shadow market for disinformation, Tools for fundamental analysis sharding, Other Altchain Solutions, Shardingin Ethereum 2.0, Ethereum Scaling Shavers, Trendon, Skirting the Laws Shrem, Charlie, Skirting the Laws sidechains, Other Altchain Solutions, SidechainsLiquid technology and, Liquid Optimistic Rollups and, Lightning nodes and wallets Silk Road, Catch Me If You Cancriminal investigation tracking bitcoin address to operator, The Evolution of Crypto Laundering provision of bitcoin to users without KYC/AML, Skirting the Laws SIM swapping, SIM Swapping-SIM Swapping Singapore, regulatory arbitrage, Singapore single-shard takeover attacks, Other Altchain Solutions slashing algorithms, Proof-of-Stake slippage, Slippage smart contracts, Mastercoin and Smart ContractsDAML language for distributed applications, DAML for decentralized exchanges, Decentralized Exchange Contracts, Custody and counterparty risk deploying and executing in Ethereum, Deploying and Executing Smart Contracts in Ethereum-Interacting with Codeauthoring a smart contract, Authoring a smart contract deployment, Deploying a smart contract-Deploying a smart contract Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), The Ethereum Virtual Machine executing a smart contract, Executing a smart contract gas and pricing, Gas and Pricing interacting with a smart contract, Interacting with a smart contract programmatically interacting with Ethereum, Interacting with Code reading a smart contract, Reading a smart contract writing a smart contract, Writing a smart contract deployment for dapps, Challenges in Developing Dapps EOS platform, Blockchains to Watch ERC-20 compliantevents supported by, ERC-20 example of, ERC-20-ERC-20 methods implemented, ERC-20 ERC-compliant, library of, Decentralized Exchange Contracts flash loanscreating the contract, Creating a Flash Loan Contract-Deploying the Contract deploying the contract, Deploying the Contract manipulation of oracles in Fulcrum attack, The Fulcrum Exploit steps in process, Flash Loans Libra support for, Borrowing from Existing Blockchains Omni Layer providing, Understanding Omni Layer publicly viewable record of method call to Uniswap smart contract, Custody and counterparty risk-Exchange rate sending tokens to via push and pull transactions, ERC-777 third-party auditors of, Fungible and Nonfungible Tokens Uniswap contract viewable on Ethereum, Infrastructure social media, campaigns to influence cryptocurrencies, Tools for fundamental analysis soft forks, Understanding Forks software development, changes from use of cryptcurrency and blockchain, Web 3.0 software forks, Understanding Forks software wallets, Wallets Solidcoin, Altcoins Solidity language, Authoring a smart contract South Korean exchanges, Regulatory Challenges speculation in cryptocurrency, Market Infrastructure, Tulip Mania or the internet?

Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History
by Jim Campbell
Published 26 Apr 2021

What they don’t mention is that they’re still receiving payment from the market makers for sending them order flow. In December 2020, Robinhood, a hot electronic retail broker that lures individuals into day trading, which turns the stock market into a gambling casino, was cited for screwing its customers via the conflict of interest of offering free trades, but then putting the firm’s interests first by abusing payment for order to flow to maximize firm revenues versus its fiduciary responsibility to get customers best prices in the market. The SEC allegations cited Robinhood for marketing its trades as commission-free and matching or exceeding its peers in pricing, while the brokerage actually delivered inferior trade prices that cost clients at least $34 million collectively in not getting best buy and sell prices, even when considering the free commissions.

How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story
by Billy Gallagher
Published 13 Feb 2018

Perhaps especially them—the Greek system naturally drew out the more social students, who mixed that outgoing nature with the brains and work ethic that got them into Stanford into a potent recipe for creating popular consumer companies. Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom was a member of Sigma Nu a couple of years before Evan, Reggie, and Bobby arrived on campus. Other high-profile companies like Chubbies, a men’s shorts and lifestyle brand, and Robinhood, a stock-trading app that would eventually be valued north of $1 billion, would be founded from the fraternities’ members in the years to come. The founder of Hewlett-Packard was a brother in Kappa Sig at Stanford as well, but that was many years ago. Most of the ideas people pitched sounded idiotic. And there was a definite fatigue that set in among students who were sick of hearing so many classmates pitching so many apps.

The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything
by Matthew Ball
Published 18 Jul 2022

What’s more, it’s impossible to imagine how a platform might justify taking a 30% commission from the purchase or selling a multi-thousand- or million-dollar NFT—and if such commissions did apply, the entirety of the NFT’s value would be devoured if it traded hands enough times. Apple’s efforts to support cryptocurrencies even as it protects its app store gaming revenue has produced more confusion. Apple enables users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using trading applications such as Robinhood or Interactive Brokers, for example, but they cannot purchase NFTs through these same applications. What makes this distinction strange is the fact that there is no technical distinction between these two purchases—the only difference is that bitcoin is a “fungible” crypto-based token, in that every bitcoin is substitutable with another, while buying an NFT piece of artwork is a non-fungible token, in that it isn’t substitutable with any other token.

…

The most accurate forecasts were typically platitudes such as “more of us will be online, more often, using more devices, and for more purposes,” while the least accurate ones tended to be those that described exactly what we’d do online, when, where, how, and to what end. Certainly, few imagined a future in which entire generations would communicate primarily through emojis, tweets, or short filmed “Stories.” Or where Reddit’s stock investing forum, combined with free and easy investing via platforms such as Robinhood, would drive the rise of “You Only Live Once” trading strategies—which in turn saved companies such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment from COVID-19–driven bankruptcy. Or where 60-second-long TikTok remixes would define the Billboard charts, and with it, the soundtrack of our daily commutes. In 1950, IBM’s product planning department reportedly spent the entire year “insisting that the market would never amount to more than about eighteen computers nationwide.”16 Why?

Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
by Michael Lewis
Published 2 Oct 2023

And not even the most famous Shark Tank person. Maybe not even the second-­most famous Shark Tank person. “So,” said Sam. “There’s one type of product that’s like shampoo. The way shampoo works is, you want shampoo, you buy shampoo. You don’t tweet about shampoo. Financial products are different. Why do you trade on Robinhood? Because your friends trade on Robinhood. It’s a conscious decision.” He’d entered the mode that maybe came most naturally to him. I thought of it as Sam's patiently-­explaining-­things-­to-­an-­idiot mode. He’d have made a great high school physics teacher. “You agreed to pay fifteen million dollars to Kevin O’Leary,” I said.

The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest
by Edward Chancellor
Published 15 Aug 2022

Warren Buffett’s long-time partner, Charlie Munger, described the market frenzy as ‘the most dramatic thing that almost ever happened in the entire world history of finance’.8 He wasn’t exaggerating. Cash flowed from American stimulus cheques into the millions of new accounts opened at Robinhood Markets. The app-based broker offered zero-commission trading, margin loans at 2 per cent and options trading for the masses, and blended techniques developed in Silicon Valley to attract users to its app with those developed in Las Vegas to keep gamers hooked. Neophyte speculators gathered on WallStreetBets, a subreddit forum, where they styled themselves ‘retards’, ‘autists’ and ‘degens’.

The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance
by Eswar S. Prasad
Published 27 Sep 2021

But the consistency, reliability, and low cost of robo-advisors are likely to eventually win the day. Technological developments have fostered competition to traditional wealth managers in two ways: first, by bringing down costs and, second, by reducing entry barriers to new and nimbler competitors who can challenge the business models of incumbents. Robinhood, an online trading platform, charges its customers zero commission fees to trade in stocks, mutual funds, and certain derivatives. It also allows its customers to buy fractional shares so they can invest in companies whose stock prices might put buying a full share out of reach. For instance, one share of Amazon would have cost more than $3,000 in December 2020.

…

In December 2020, Robinhood paid a $65 million fine to the SEC for steering its customers’ “commission-free” trades to brokers who paid the company higher fees and executed the trades at unfavorable prices that caused customers to lose tens of millions of dollars. Around the same time, the Massachusetts securities regulator launched a legal action against Robinhood, accusing it of encouraging inexperienced investors to trade excessively using “gamification” strategies—online rewards for trading activity and other forms of engagement with the platform—and not putting in place safeguards to protect such investors. Sure enough, in early 2021, Robinhood became embroiled in the speculative frenzy around the shares of GameStop, a video game and electronics retailer, that eventually left many inexperienced investors on the platform nursing losses.

…

Not All Glitter See US Securities and Exchange Commission, “SEC Charges Robinhood Financial with Misleading Customers about Revenue Sources and Failing to Satisfy Duty of Best Execution,” news release, December 17, 2020, https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-321. The text of the Massachusetts Securities Division’s administrative complaint against Robinhood is available at Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Secretary Galvin Charges Robinhood over Gamification and Options Trading, December 16, 2020, https://www.sec.state.ma.us/sct/current/sctrobinhood/robinhoodidx.htm. For a report on retail investors being hurt by the GameStop saga, see Madison Darbyshire, Robin Wigglesworth, Alice Kantor, and Aziza Kasumov, “ ‘Moment of Weakness’: Amateur Investors Left Counting GameStop Losses,” Financial Times, February 5, 2021, https://www.ft.com/content/04e6c524-389b-47fc-afaa-eb52c1e76048.

DeFi and the Future of Finance
by Campbell R. Harvey , Ashwin Ramachandran , Joey Santoro , Vitalik Buterin and Fred Ehrsam
Published 23 Aug 2021

The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power
by Max Chafkin
Published 14 Sep 2021

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
by Zeke Faux
Published 11 Sep 2023

Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires
by Douglas Rushkoff
Published 7 Sep 2022

Shutdown: How COVID Shook the World's Economy
by Adam Tooze
Published 15 Nov 2021

Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud
by Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman
Published 17 Jul 2023

Bankman-Fried was in the media constantly, appearing at conferences, doing CNBC hits, tweeting threads about lessons learned from the ongoing crisis, and generally trying to present himself as a steady hand at the tiller. Meanwhile, FTX was expanding, gobbling up shares of companies like Robinhood and moving into stock trading and derivatives markets. Perhaps most important, FTX was considered the leading force pushing for the underfunded Commodity Futures Trading Commission to assume greater regulatory authority over crypto, rather than the better-heeled, enforcement-ready Securities and Exchange Commission.

Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data
by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Thomas Ramge
Published 27 Feb 2018

Woke, Inc: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam
by Vivek Ramaswamy
Published 16 Aug 2021