A Note on Access with Responsibility
Today was a remarkable day in the markets. With that, we wanted to take some time and share with you all where we stand on the recent events.
Here’s what happened
We’ve been watching the movement behind highly volatile stocks like GameStop and AMC for days. During that time, we kept trading on these open as we’ve built features directly in our platform that give our members context when a stock is potentially risky (more on that later).
A little after 11 a.m. today, we received a call from our clearing firm, Apex Clearing — which services many other financial platforms — notifying us that they were halting the buying of $GME, $AMC, and $KOSS.
For context, clearing firms handle the execution of transactions and act as the custodian to customers’ securities and cash to minimize risk of threat or loss. Breaking it down further, if a clearing firm halts the further buying of securities, we aren’t able to make those transactions happen in our app.
To be clear, this wasn’t our decision. We appreciate Apex working hard throughout the day to resolve this issue on behalf of our members. Around 2:30 p.m., Apex removed the halt and we resumed the ability to buy those stocks on Public. We are thankful for Apex’s cooperation with us and are grateful to our community for their patience and understanding.
Our stance on investing for all
We believe that in order to open the stock market up to all, you need to change its underlying culture.
For us, that means building an inclusive community where a diverse mix of ideas can flourish. It also means giving members pathways for education and context to help guide their own decisions, no matter where they are on their investing journey.
Last year, we introduced Safety Labels on certain securities that may be potentially risky due to volatility or other factors. We believe that as our members — many of them novice investors — trade at their own discretion, context is critical. We also have a no day-trading policy and do not offer more complex trading tools like options and margin accounts.
We included Safety Labels on $GME, $AMC, and other stocks this week to ensure our members had the information they would need to make a decision that was appropriate for their risk profile and financial situation.
We purposely did not want to preemptively halt buying on these stocks, as we believe that our members should be able to make their own decisions with the necessary context.
The educational power of community
We have seen this time and time again: In uncertain times, people look to communities to navigate what’s happening together. Our community is built on the principle of collaboration over competition, and the tone is educational by design.
Nearly three-fourths of Public’s members say they are predominantly long-term investors. Further, 40% of our members are women and 45% are POC. The conversations in the app reflect a cross-section of professional backgrounds, experience level, and investment style. We believe that a diversity of thought makes us all smarter, and also makes the market more accessible to more people. No matter what circles you run in.
Throughout all this, our community has kept each other informed — on their own investing decisions, as well as the risks.
We’d like to again extend our thanks to our incredible community members for their patience, and for making Public an inclusive, accessible, and educational place for everyone to navigate the stock market. We build Public for you and we’re always listening at hello@public.com and @public on Twitter.
For those of you just getting to know us, we hope to see you in our community soon.
*This is not investment advice. See Public.com/disclosures/
