This is Why Robinhood Halted the Buying of GameStop

GameStop has been making headlines all week after having been crazily traded to the point that it went from $65 last Friday to $347 on Wednesday. A 437% gain.
Robinhood, Interactive Brokers and WeBull Financial have shut down the buying of any shares of the company.

“We continuously monitor the markets and make changes where necessary. In light of recent volatility, we are restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Robinhood has also shut down buying of AMC (AMC), BlackBerry (BB), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Express (EXPR), Koss (KOSS), Naked Brand Corp (NAKD) and Nokia (NOK). Users can only liquidate or close positions.

GameStop’s rally came after a Reddit forum Wall Street Bets touted it as a value investment.

The popular Reddit forum targets struggling stocks that hedge funds have shorted on.

Shares of AMC were also soaring on Wednesday over 200% after members of the Reddit board had promoted the stock with the hashtag #SaveAMC which was trending on Twitter.

Both AMC and GameStop jumped so significantly on Wednesday that they triggered automatic halts designed to protect against volatility.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.