Copycat traders are one-upping each other as they exploit Robinhood's 'infinite money' glitch - and one user now holds a $1.7 million portfolio
- Traders are using a glitch in Robinhood's app to trade with an infinite supply of borrowed cash, and one user set a new record after turning a $3,000 deposit into a $1.7 million stake.
- Call_Warrior, a member of the WallStreetBets subreddit, posted screenshots Tuesday night showing him use the glitch to buy 47,600 shares of Advanced Micro Devices. His post has since been deleted.
- The trade involves a glitch that adds the value of sold call options as buying power for users. There seems to be no limit to how many times the trade can be executed.
- Robinhood is "aware of the isolated situations and communicating directly with customers," spokesperson Lavinia Chirico said in a Tuesday email.
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Traders are one-upping each other with a glitch in Robinhood's trading app, and one user now holds the crown after turning a $3,000 deposit into a $1.7 million position.
A member of the WallStreetBets sub-reddit named Call_Warrior posted about his use of the trading glitch Tuesday night, detailing how he leveraged his deposit to hold more than $1.7 million worth of Advanced Micro Devices stock. The post has since been deleted, but screenshots show him using the app to amass 47,600 shares of AMD.
"After realizing I only had a few thousand dollars to gamble, I decided why not try this new 'glitch,'" he wrote. "After seeing people on the almighty wallstreetbets wager a timid 50k or so on average with this new feature available, I thought it was only a clear choice to raise the average for the good of all."
The trade involves Robinhood Gold users selling call options with money borrowed through the app. Robinhood then incorrectly adds the value of the options sold to the user's cash pile, giving them more buying power. Traders then repeat this cycle, and it seems there's no limit to how much a user can exploit the trick. One WallStreetBets described the glitch as an "infinite money cheat code."
Robinhood is "aware of the isolated situations and communicating directly with customers," spokesperson Lavinia Chirico said in a Tuesday email. The company didn't comment on when the bug would be patched, but the app received an update Tuesday.
Call_Warrior apparently saw the glitch's limitless potential as a challenge, commenting Wednesday morning that he plans to "buy as much AMD as possible," and that he was motivated to post his trades after other traders' positions "disappointed" him.
The app's bug was first discovered by WallStreetBets member ControlTheNarrative, who used the glitch to turn a $2,000 deposit into $50,000 worth of Apple put options. When the iPhone maker traded higher the day the options expired, the Reddit user lost the borrowed money and later posted a video of his reaction to YouTube.
Days later, user MoonYachts exploited the bug to turn a $4,000 deposit into a $1 million position. He explained how he pulled off the trades and told other users "DON'T DO THIS."
It isn't immediately clear what the legal repercussions of the trade are, but one Georgetown University professor warned the Robinhood traders could face a range of consequences from their actions.
"If there's an element of deceit, that you got this by exploiting a loophole in the system, I can see how that could become a securities fraud case," Donald Langevoort told Bloomberg, alerting the traders they may also need to pay restitution on the borrowed cash.
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