Wednesday’s retail trading crush sent online brokerages reeling, with several sites reporting disruptions and glitches and one even limiting trades of hot stocks.
Charles Schwab was among those hit by service disruptions as traders were transfixed by wild swings in shares of heavily shorted stocks such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment. Robinhood Markets, Morgan Stanley’s E-Trade and Fidelity were also affected, according to Downdetector.com, which tracks user complaints.
Schwab’s TD Ameritrade took the rare step of limiting some transactions on shares of GameStop, AMC and others. The firm said high volume may have curtailed access to its mobile app and urged clients to use its other platforms.
“We made these decisions out of an abundance of caution amid unprecedented market conditions and other factors,” TD Ameritrade spokeswoman Margaret Farrell said in an email.
So GME seems to have literally broken retail investors access to the market right now. Trading212 down. ETrade down. Robinhood in the US down. Ameritrade down. If you aren't following this story you need to start, it is crazy.
— Jason Mountford (@jmountfordfp) January 27, 2021
Robinhood said it managed to resolve problems with its web app, while Schwab said some clients were struggling with online trading because of a technical issue.
Schwab clients were experiencing trouble amid “heightened trading across the market,” spokeswoman Mayura Hooper said in an email.
Spokeswomen for Schwab and Fidelity said the companies had resolved the issues with their platforms. E-Trade declined to comment.
