July 14, 2021
To the SEC and whomever it may concern:
My name is Christopher DeCambra and I received an eligible investor notice regarding Robinhood's practices, particularly as they pertain to options investing and eligibility. I began trading on Robinhood in March of 2017 as a new investor. In June of 2018 I was approved for options trading and invested approx. $5000 in JCPenney (ticker JCP) options, not knowing at all what that meant or what I was doing. In an instant, my Robinhood account doubled in value for approximately 15 minutes based on these options. I now look back and understand that the increase in my account value was an error in the Robinhood platform. Nonetheless, I spent the next 16 months chasing that performance by investing roughly$5000 per quarter in JCP options that would ultimately result in approximately $35000 in losses in a 16 month period.
I was approved for options trading with no prior knowledge of how they work or what they are intended for. Throughout these 16 months of purchasing JCP options at strike prices that were simply unattainable a more reputable brokerage would have reached out to me personally to insure I knew what I was doing, and likely at some point removed my options trading priviledgesonce it was realized that I was not qualified to be trading them.
I would not have behaved in this type of risky investing if I had known the outcome and if it had not been for the Robinhood platform and that initial spike and dreams of cashing in big on this extremely risky vehicle. If I had stuck with TD Ameritrade, the vetting process would have been more in depth and the follow up more thorough through personalized investment advice. I still suffer from the $35000 loss during that time and have not traded options since.
I would like this note added to the pending order against Robinhood in hopes of recouping these losses and getting another chance to invest this amount of money correctly.
Christopher DeCambra