On August 6, Robinhood suspended overnight trading at its 24-hour market execution venue, Blue Ocean ATS (BOATs).
BOATs suspended overnight trading on Robinhood from 12:00 am UTC to 8:00 am UTC on August 6, according to Robinhood Help, the company’s support account on X.
“You have the option to cancel your order at any time, and you may still place an order for a subsequent trading session,” Robinhood’s support team stated. They also noted that all open trades as of midnight UTC would be executed within approximately eight hours.
Robinhood Suspends 24-hour trading for two consecutive days
On August 5, numerous users reported that Robinhood’s most recent 24-hour trading halt followed a purported overnight suspension by BOATs the day before. The alleged suspension occurred amid a global stock market collapse on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei experiencing its most substantial decline since Black Monday in 1987.
On August 5, Robinhood did not expressly acknowledge the trading halt to Cointelegraph; rather, it stated that the platform was operational at the time of the communication.
When asked to confirm or deny the 24-hour trading service halt, a spokesperson for Robinhood responded, “Our overnight trading session is currently operational.”
In May 2023, Robinhood launched its 24-hour market service, enabling consumers to invest outside traditional trading hours. Robinhood employs BOATs to execute overnight trading orders for its 24-hour market.
BOATs have their risk controls to prevent stocks from trading more than 20% above or below the price established near the end of an extended hours trading session, according to a support page on Robinhood. Page addition:
“Public exchanges have similar controls to prevent extreme price movements during market hours, including limit up and limit down halts […] This means individual securities in the 24-hour market won’t trade outside these pricing bands. BOATS may also reject orders with limit prices outside these price bands.”
According to social media reports, Robinhood was one of many brokerage platforms that encountered difficulties due to the stock market’s volatility. Additional brokerage platforms, including Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, TD Ameritrade, E-Trade, UPS, and CenturyLink, have also reported experiencing trading outages.
Numerous Robinhood users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the cancellation of transactions.
In response to Robinhood’s suspension announcement, numerous investors expressed dissatisfaction with the public cancellation of trades on X.
Kyle Babbit, an apparent Robinhood user, wrote on X, “What about my shares of Nvidia that I purchased last night, which were up nearly 10% before you clawed them back this morning?”
The investor shared a screenshot of an email from Robinhood informing him that all transactions executed during the suspension period would be “canceled due to an issue experienced by Blue Ocean ATS.”
Several investors also requested that United States regulators verify whether the trading halt complied with US laws.
Another disgruntled investor wrote on X, “How is any of this even legal?” and requested that Robinhood provide a rationale for deactivating the 24-hour trading execution.
One purported Robinhood investor, who reported a $500 loss due to the BOATs’ suspension, also emphasized that the platform had “zero records” of its purchases during the suspension period.
The user asked, “I am curious as to what FINRA would have to say about the theft of my profits.”
