Where is Ja?

The voice we’ve all been waiting for has finally weighed in on the Robinhood, r/WallStreetBets, and GameStop situation.

Ja Rule – the man of the people.

He joined CNBC’s Squawk Alley yesterday to help make sense of the situation for the many Americans who needed his guidance.

All jokes aside though, he actually knows what he’s talking about in this situation. The prevailing thinking is that Robinhood didn’t have enough money to cover the margin requirements on the unprecedented volume of options and stocks being bought per regulations (source). That is the reason why they needed to shut down trades for users.

Robinhood is the face of this controversy, but there were many, many other players like TD Ameritrade, Schwab, and others who also are restricting retail traders from buying. Let’s be sure they are held accountable also.

Robinhood, in this situation, is a victim of their own branding and success.

They were at the vanguard of democratizing trading for the common person. No one cares about the other players in this space because it is already assumed they would do shitty things to make extra money or to protect the already powerful.

Robinhood felt different.

It was like if your dog and a pack of other wild animals one day viciously attacked your child. Sure, all of the other animals share the blame, but what really hurt you was that your dog joined in because you didn’t expect it from them. So the situation cuts a little deeper because we thought Robinhood was our protector and it showed itself to just be another animal.

There’s really only two options moving forward . Robinhood will learn from this and emerge a stronger company or a new player will come into the mix that can deliver on the promise of Robinhood -

At Robinhood, we believe the financial system should be built to work for everyone. That’s why we create products that let you start investing at your own pace, on your own terms.

Let’s see what happens next.