Former SEC Chairman Calls For an Agency Investigation Into Online Stock Trading Platforms

Arthur Levitt Jr., a former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, writes at Bloomberg Opinion: They say history occurs first as tragedy, then as farce -- I fear we're about to see that in U.S. financial markets. Two decades ago, U.S. financial markets were riding all-time records. Day traders were using chat rooms to swap what they thought were reliable tips about stocks that were about to pop. Stocks with negative earnings were trading at astronomical valuations by almost any measure. People without any experience in stock market trading -- no less any understanding of how to read a financial statement or earnings report -- were confidently pouring dollars saved for college tuition or rent into short-term bets on companies they knew little to nothing about. And the surest sign of mania was this: People found stock market investing terribly entertaining. I remember high school students asking me for stock tips. It all came to a crashing end as the dot-com bubble burst, blowing up a few companies and several billion dollars of investor savings. And in retrospect, it seemed so obvious. All the signs of a market bubble were there. People chose not to pay attention.

By all indications, today's investors are repeating the same mistakes. Consider the following: Significant stock movements are now spurred by social-media-driven gossip about the company and short squeezes (when an investor betting against a stock is forced to pay up for shares to cover their position). Novice investors are learning about investing not through fundamental rules of the road (study the company and its leadership, read its filings, study its markets, consider its price-to-earnings ratios, evaluate its cash generation versus its debt load, review its earnings expectations versus reality, etc.) but rather through a casino-like focus on ticker symbols alone. It's quite common for novice investors on day-trading platforms to buy a stock for the same reason they might choose a specific color of sweater -- for aesthetic purposes only. This is all terribly familiar. Now, with the benefit of hindsight and history, how do we not repeat the dot-com experience as a dark comedy? WH Press Secretary said moments ago at a briefing that Biden team is 'monitoring the situation' around GameStop.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.