[mbesto]

Here are the facts:

- Ken Griffin owns 85% of Citadel

- Citadel handles 40% of stock trades in the US

- Citadel has $38 billion of assets under management as of March 2021

- On January 25, it was announced that Griffin's Citadel would invest $2 billion into Melvin Capital, which had suffered losses of more than 30% on account of its short positions, particularly on GameStop

- On January 28, Robinhood, an electronic trading platform favored by many traders involved in buying GameStop stock and options, abruptly announced that it would halt all purchases of GameStop securities except to cover shorts and would only allow these securities to be sold if already held (but not sold short); the price of GME stock declined steeply shortly thereafter.

This is not a silly assertion.

EDIT: PS - I know US Senators can be silly, but here is the implication from a US Senator and former law professor: https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/02.16.2021%20Let...

[tptacek]

It is entirely silly, as, for what it's worth, is Warren's letter. Virtu handles a comparable amount of stock trading in the US; maybe you think they can strong-arm Schwab, too? You can pretty easily pull up a list of firms ranked by their AUM to put that scary-sounding "$38 billion" in perspective, too.

[mbesto]

You keep saying it's "silly" and provide no specifics (the one you did was incorrect) and keep saying things like "they aren't even that large" without provide comparable numbers.

> maybe you think they can strong-arm Schwab, too?

I never said that, did I? I think its well known that PFOF is a controversial business practice because it can create conflicts of interest. That's not a new thought.

[tptacek]

It's well known on message boards that it's controversial. It's a universal practice in the industry.

[mbesto]

So are S&P/Moody ratings yet those got us in trouble in 2008. Just because something is a universal practice in the financial industry doesn't absolve it from conflicts / potential legalities.

[mbesto]

PS - fun fact, PFOF was pioneered by Bernie Madoff https://archive.fortune.com/2009/04/24/news/newsmakers/madof...

[gruez]

What's the point of this "fun fact"? I guess the implication you're trying to make is that PFOF is bad by association with maddoff. It's easy to see the flaw with this logic, eg. the autobahn was "pioneered" by hitler, therefore it's bad.

[tptacek]

This is deeply silly. PFOF improves outcomes for retail investors.

[kasey_junk]

I’ll note Elizabeth Warren has made it a particular point of her platform to beat on Wall Street. I largely don’t mind cause someone ought to. But she is far from an unbiased source.