The brokerage’s official help account posted on X that the platform saw “record-breaking traffic today.”
- Downdetector showed a sharp spike in outage reports, at around 4,000 around midday Eastern Time.
- Complaints on social media included stuck stop-loss and limit orders, delayed executions and difficulty exiting positions during the volatile opening.
- Despite the brokerage hiccups, SPCX opened at around $150, an 11% premium to the IPO price.
Robinhood Markets Inc (HOOD) experienced significant platform strain on Friday as retail investors flooded the app to trade shares of SpaceX following its record-breaking initial public offering.
The brokerage’s official help account posted on X that the platform saw “record-breaking traffic today,” resulting in “latency and intermittent issues” for some customers. Essential systems later recovered, the company said, with teams continuing to monitor performance. Shares of the company, however, gained 1% at the time of writing.
The issues coincided with the Nasdaq debut of SpaceX (SPCX), the largest IPO in U.S. history. The company priced 555.6 million shares at $135 each, raising around $75 billion and valuing the business at roughly $1.77 trillion at the offering price.
Platform Disruptions And Trader Frustration
Downdetector showed a sharp spike in outage reports, at about 4,000 around midday Eastern Time, with users describing problems in placing, canceling or executing orders, particularly involving the newly listed SPCX shares.
Complaints on social media included stuck stop-loss and limit orders, delayed executions and difficulty exiting positions during the volatile opening. Several users reported being unable to adjust risk-management tools or sell shares promptly, with some alleging financial losses tied to the disruptions.
One trader posted that the outage prevented them from exiting a position, resulting in “thousands of dollars in losses.” Others described pending orders remaining unresolved for over an hour and an inability to modify stop orders on SPCX.
Robinhood had been a prominent channel for retail participation in the IPO through its IPO Access program, amplifying the surge in activity once trading began.
Despite the brokerage hiccups, SPCX opened at approximately $150 — an 11% premium to the IPO price — and climbed as much as 30% higher in early trading, briefly pushing the company’s market capitalization above $2.2 trillion.
At the time of writing, SPCX stock was up 25%.
How Did SPCX, HOOD Retail Traders React?
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around HOOD stayed within the ‘neutral’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume jumped from ‘normal’ to ‘high’ levels.
Meanwhile, sentiment around SPCX was ‘extremely bullish.’
A Stocktwits user highlighted the record-breaking traffic on brokerages with the IPO hype.
Another termed Robinhood the "finance super app."
HOOD stock fell 19% this year.
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