> I'd argue that the SEC policy of breaking "clearly erroneous" trades before settlement exacerbates that kind of flash crash: market-makers can't step in to prop up prices and then hedge their exposure, because their trades will be broken and their hedges won't.
I'm a bit lost on your response. Are you advocating against SEC or stock exchange intervention? Remember that trading can be halted by stock exchanges also in order to decelerate massive movements. If the settlement happens on even a by-minute increment, then there is no effective recourse for these interventions. Flash crashes are black swan events and as such there's little incentive (as of now) for companies to build safeguards against it.
> It's not a diversion, it's a genuine explanation - the collateral requirements were why RH had to impose a bunch of limits.
It's an explanation but doesn't explain why other stock brokers didn't impose the same limitations, nor why RH is tapping its credit lines. I say it's a diversion because it's an attempt to deflect blame for its own poor business practices and policies - e.g. if my server can't handle the load, I can't just say "well, if I had a faster load balancer...." to my users.
> "It's an explanation but doesn't explain why other stock brokers didn't impose the same limitations"
Other brokers did impose trading restrictions on GME (and other stocks) around the same time as Robinhood. Webull, M1 Finance, Public, and E-Trade all halted buys of GME.
Others, including Interactive Brokers, TD Ameritrade, Schwab, and Trading 212 implemented restrictions such as halting options trading and greatly increasing margin requirements.
> Are you advocating against SEC or stock exchange intervention? Remember that trading can be halted by stock exchanges also in order to decelerate massive movements. If the settlement happens on even a by-minute increment, then there is no effective recourse for these interventions.
Yes, I'm advocating against them. My position is that SEC and exchange intervention makes flash crashes more rather than less severe. (Also they're harmless; artificially suppressing the volatility of the stock market makes everything more fragile, we'd be better off embracing them and making sure all market participants are equipped to handle volatility. It's like how decades of suppressing forest fires has made forest fires much worse)
> It's an explanation but doesn't explain why other stock brokers didn't impose the same limitations, nor why RH is tapping its credit lines. I say it's a diversion because it's an attempt to deflect blame for its own poor business practices and policies - e.g. if my server can't handle the load, I can't just say "well, if I had a faster load balancer...." to my users.
If your hosting service suddenly cuts your server capacity down by 2/3, I think it'd be fair to complain about that to your users.
I'm a bit lost on your response. Are you advocating against SEC or stock exchange intervention? Remember that trading can be halted by stock exchanges also in order to decelerate massive movements. If the settlement happens on even a by-minute increment, then there is no effective recourse for these interventions. Flash crashes are black swan events and as such there's little incentive (as of now) for companies to build safeguards against it.
> It's not a diversion, it's a genuine explanation - the collateral requirements were why RH had to impose a bunch of limits.
It's an explanation but doesn't explain why other stock brokers didn't impose the same limitations, nor why RH is tapping its credit lines. I say it's a diversion because it's an attempt to deflect blame for its own poor business practices and policies - e.g. if my server can't handle the load, I can't just say "well, if I had a faster load balancer...." to my users.