0/ We have the @RobinhoodApp & @vladtenev testimony today. The prepared remarks provide some insights on the business & what happened with $GME etc...

They have 13M customers, 13% trade options, 2% multi leg options and 3% are margin enabled

1/ The median age of an investors is 31; 1/2 are first time investors.

The median / average customer account size is $240 / $5,000.

This supports various theses that RH is the “play account” while users have another longer term oriented brokerage account.
2/ On the $GME saga they provide the timeline of collateral requirements during the week of 1/25.

Their obligation 1/25 as $124M the same day the VIX spiked 62% (3rd largest daily gain since 1990).

On 1/28 NSCC told them they had a deposit deficit of $3B. ($1.3B of VaR based)
3/ In addition to the VaR based they had an "excess capital premium charge" over $2.2B. The NSCC indicated RH owed $3.7B versus $696M already on deposit with NSCC, so the net amount due was approximately $3B
4/ They also mentioned over the course of 4 days they raised ~$3.4B from investors
5/ On PFOF they highlighted that their customers received more than $1B in price improvement during 1H20 from PFOF. They were paid ~$271M for that with the vast majority in options (which is not where most of their investors transact)
6/ On app design they take issue with "gamification" claims (who doesn't use confetti?)

"RH designed its app to appeal to a new generation of investors who are more comfortable trading on smartphones than speaking with a broker."
7/ "I am confident that the easy-to-use interface enables customers to understand, control, & direct
their finances in a responsible way. RH does not offer rewards or levels to encourage more trading. RH does sparingly use features like confetti animation
to celebrate..."
8/ They also spoke about financial literacy and their efforts around this. In '20 RH Learn articles were read by more than 3.2M people, and unique visits
rose 260% from January-November '20.

RH Snacks Daily podcast, was downloaded 40M times in '20.
9/ Interestingly they spoke about exercise of OTM call options.

"In January 2021 RH became aware that some customers were occasionally exercising OTM options causing them to suffer losses immediately upon exercise. To prevent these losses, RH implemented a procedure requiring
10/ customers to speak to a live registered representative before exercising OTM options."

On 1/29/21 they finally prevented customers from exercising these.
11/ RH also talks about market microstructure & the T+2 settlement system & why they think it needs to change to "protect small investors."
12/ Finally they spoke about diversity. Hispanic investors account for ~16% of the investor base while African Americans account for ~9%.

They announced women tripled in '20 & represent a "higher % of customers than ever before" but don't disclose the metric cc @eldavis8

More from Trading

Many of you have seen the famous Westrum Organizational Typology model, so prominently featured in State of DevOps Research, Accelerate, DevOps Handbook, etc.

This model was created Dr. Ron Westrum, a widely-cited sociologist who studied the impact of culture on safety


Thanks to Dr. @nicolefv, I was able to interview him for an upcoming episode of the Idealcast! 🤯

It was a very heady experience, and while preparing to interview him, I was startled to discover how much work he's done in healthcare, aviation, spaceflight, but also innovation.

I've read 4+ of his papers, so I thought I was familiar with his work. (Here's one paper:
https://t.co/7X00O67VgS)

I was startled to learn he has also studied in depth what enables innovation. He wrote a wonderful book "Sidewinder: Creative Missile Development at China Lake"


Dr. Westrum writes about China Lake Research Labs: "its design and structure had one purpose: to foster technical creativity. It did; China Lake operated far outside the normal envelope... Sidewinder & others were "impossible" accomplishments,

I love this book because it describes traits of organizations that routinely create and maintain greatness: US space program (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo), US Naval Reactors, Toyota, Team of Teams, Tesla, the tech giants (Amazon, Google, Netflix, Google)

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Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel was previously CEO of bioMerieux in France from 07-10.

Alain Merieux, who owns bioMerieux, was instrumental in the creation of the Wuhan Institute of Virology P4 Lab.

The same people who helped create the virus, also helped to create the vaccines...


Moderna partnered with French Pasteur Institute in 2015 to develop mRNA vaccine technology.

Pasteur Institute partnered with the Wuhan P4 Laboratory in 2017 along with the Merieux Foundation to study emerging viruses...
https://t.co/yFsHwrNYaK
https://t.co/9M5lydBKhM


Nobel prize winning scientist Luc Montagnier asserts that Sars-Cov-2 is man-made and originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Montagnier did extensive work with the Pasteur Institute in France which was partnered with the Wuhan P4.

Merieux Foundation & the Chinese government have worked together since 1965, and partnered to study emerging pathogens in Africa in 2015.

Their research included "PATHOGENS CARRIED BY BATS" that provoke respiratory diseases.

🚨🚨🚨
https://t.co/gVwpT0ssqI
🌺कैसे बने गरुड़ भगवान विष्णु के वाहन और क्यों दो भागों में फटी होती है नागों की जिह्वा🌺

महर्षि कश्यप की तेरह पत्नियां थीं।लेकिन विनता व कद्रु नामक अपनी दो पत्नियों से उन्हे विशेष लगाव था।एक दिन महर्षि आनन्दभाव में बैठे थे कि तभी वे दोनों उनके समीप आकर उनके पैर दबाने लगी।


प्रसन्न होकर महर्षि कश्यप बोले,"मुझे तुम दोनों से विशेष लगाव है, इसलिए यदि तुम्हारी कोई विशेष इच्छा हो तो मुझे बताओ। मैं उसे अवश्य पूरा करूंगा ।"

कद्रू बोली,"स्वामी! मेरी इच्छा है कि मैं हज़ार पुत्रों की मां बनूंगी।"
विनता बोली,"स्वामी! मुझे केवल एक पुत्र की मां बनना है जो इतना बलवान हो की कद्रू के हज़ार पुत्रों पर भारी पड़े।"
महर्षि बोले,"शीघ्र ही मैं यज्ञ करूंगा और यज्ञ के उपरांत तुम दोनो की इच्छाएं अवश्य पूर्ण होंगी"।


महर्षि ने यज्ञ किया,विनता व कद्रू को आशीर्वाद देकर तपस्या करने चले गए। कुछ काल पश्चात कद्रू ने हज़ार अंडों से काले सर्पों को जन्म दिया व विनता ने एक अंडे से तेजस्वी बालक को जन्म दिया जिसका नाम गरूड़ रखा।जैसे जैसे समय बीता गरुड़ बलवान होता गया और कद्रू के पुत्रों पर भारी पड़ने लगा


परिणामस्वरूप दिन प्रतिदिन कद्रू व विनता के सम्बंधों में कटुता बढ़ती गयी।एकदिन जब दोनो भ्रमण कर रहीं थी तब कद्रू ने दूर खड़े सफेद घोड़े को देख कर कहा,"बता सकती हो विनता!दूर खड़ा वो घोड़ा किस रंग का है?"
विनता बोली,"सफेद रंग का"।
तो कद्रू बोली,"शर्त लगाती हो? इसकी पूँछ तो काली है"।