July 1, 2021
I received the mailed noticed on July 1, 2021 referencing \"Proceeding No. 3-20171. I think it is a great step in the right direction to hold Robinhood accountable for their wrongdoings. However, I agree with comments from many others that the fine imposed on Robinhood needs to be higher, to adequately compensate all the customers who lost money due to their hidden schemes.
I also want to highlight some issues with the mailed notice even though the first one doesn't affect me personally.
- The notice was received in my mailbox on July 1 while certain customers may need to send W-9 to Robinhood's Seattle, WA office which is required to be received by mail no later than July 2. How is that possible when customers like me would have received and read the notice in the night on July 1? It almost looks to be designed to exclude some of the beneficiaries and \"assume\" information about them as noted in the \"NOTICE\" by Robinhood (dated June 18) but mailed and received by customer on July 1.
- It is clear that Robinhood engaged in the practice intentionally as noted in the \"Release\" document by SEC dated June 4: \"Robinhood also instructed its customer service representatives not to mention payment for order flow ....\" and \"... Robinhood violated its duty of best execution..\" I currently use two trading platforms and started noticing the difference in execution prices when I traded same securities on both platforms. Even with a limit order placed at almost same time on both platforms and in certain cases placed first on Robinhood, the other platform executed the order first while Robinhood executed it later and at a worse price or didn't execute the order at all. How did that happen? I now know why my orders through Robinhood were processed at worse rates or not processed.
I hope that SEC considers our comments and takes appropriate actions against Robinhood to adequately cover losses incurred by its customers.