Gamblers of Robinhood

As casinos and sports shut down in the name of Covid, the world’s gamblers naturally turn to the only thing they can bet on. Stonks. People like Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, in the wake of sports pausing, re-fashioned himself to Davey Day Trader, and started trading stocks and buying up airlines at the bottom of the market in March. Trading platform Robinhood reported an increase of 3 million users in 2020 alone, and pushed total users up to 13 million. Are these new traders on Robinhood actually gamblers with itchy hands?

What happens when a bunch of retail investors, stuck at home frustrated with nothing to do, goes on Robinhood? Death, apparently. A 20 year old Robinhood customer committed suicide after seeing his account with a negative $730,000 balance. The real bummer is, he didn’t even have losses amounting to that much, and it was simply a matter of the UI having updated one trade but not the other in a straddle options trade.

It’s really sad, but it also gives us a glimpse into the kind of new traders pouring into the market.

via GIPHY

2020 V-shaped recovery will become a scriggly M

Is the 2020 V shaped recovery a real recovery? All experts say no. Actually, you don’t even have to be an expert to see why. We’re still reeling from job losses, and it ain’t over. Companies are still looking to cut costs and reduce operational overheads in the face of growing uncertainty.

Grab recently announced layoffs impacting roughly 5% of their total workforce. As the unemployed population grows, mortgages will be under severe pressure, and I’m sure there will be some defaults incoming.

Commercial property iis having it worse. In Hong Kong, Prada and Tissot have called it quits on the world’s most expensive shopping street, Russell Street.

In the face of all these, how is it that the stock market is at all time highs? I don’t think it’s 100% retail idiots pushing the market higher, but then again how can anyone explain why Hertz, who announced bankruptcy, is seeing their share price more than quadruple after announcing said bankruptcy?? In what multiverse will buying Hertz end well? I don’t think even Doctor Strange has an answer. It’s a game of (extremely) hot potatoes at this point.

Covid wave II

Covid looks primed for a 2nd wave which we don’t know what the true impact will be. Even Hobbitland New Zealand has reported new cases after having had 0 cases for more than 2 weeks, and slowly re-opening their economy.

In Singapore, we’re re-opening the economy from 19 June, 2020. Allowing for restaurants to open for dine-in customers, and most retail stores re-opening. Only cinemas and a handful others remain closed.

I’m skeptical about this, because we’re still trying to control the dormitory numbers, which still number in the hundreds daily. But I do understand the frustrations of the citizens in being cooped up at home.

Plus, it’s no secret that the government intends to hold elections really soon, and it would seem highly hypocritical to have the economy remain closed because social distancing, yet call for an election that requires the nation to go out to vote.

We’re fucked

In a nutshell, I think the economy is going to be fucked, and remain fucked, for quite a while until we have a vaccine. There’s been a lot of news about vaccine trials, and for the sake of these robinhood “traders”, I hope a vaccine can be found and mass produced soon.