Sky Blog
Decentralized finance, commonly referred to as DeFi, is often celebrated as a transformative innovation in financial markets. By replacing banks, broker-dealers, exchanges, clearinghouses, and other traditional intermediaries with smart contracts and decentralized protocols, DeFi promises faster transactions, lower costs, broader …
In the summer of 2025, shares of Robinhood hit an all-time high following the announcement of ambitious plans from the e-trading giant to expand its financial services. The plans involve launching new initiatives, including Robinhood Strategies, Robinhood Banking, a …
Stock trading has been gamified – transformed into a fun and at times casino-like game whose addictive potential captures the attention of consumers and revenues for brokerage firms. Given the widespread notoriety of meme stocks like AMC Entertainment, and Robinhood’s …
The influence of retail investors on the stock market is controversial among experts. Some studies conclude that retail investors are uninformed, overconfident investors who assess risk poorly and thus destabilize the financial markets (e.g., Grinblatt and Keloharju, 2009; Barber and …
Commission-free trading apps like Robinhood and coordinated action by retail investors on Twitter, WallStreetBets, and other social media have created an unprecedented force on Wall Street that specifically targets short sellers. One result has been a massive run-up in the …
Thank you, Rich, for that kind introduction and for inviting me here today. As is customary, I’d like to note that my views are my own, and I am not speaking on behalf of my fellow Commissioners or the staff.…
The GameStop and meme-stock trading frenzy are evidence of a potential revolution in corporate governance and signal the rise of Generation Y (“Millennials”) and Generation Z (“GenZ”) as retail investors. In a new article, we discuss how these investors, who …
In a new article, I examine the regulatory goals of creating “fair, orderly, and efficient” securities markets in light of the recent issues involving trading in the shares of GameStop Corp. (GME) through the broker-dealer firm Robinhood Financial LLC. The …
What a difference a week makes! Almost two weeks ago, the frenzied discussion of GameStop assumed that a proletarian revolution was in progress, that the masses had organized themselves through Reddit and Robinhood, and that they were marching on the …