You know, when I think about the stock market, I don’t really think about Michael Bolton. But I think Public – which refers to itself as “the social investment network” – was jealous that Robinhood was getting all the press attention, so he hired Bolton to reshape his 1989 hit “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You “. The new version is a lament about payment for order flow, which was recently the subject of Reddit’s outrage and a point of investigation at a House hearing.
Bolton is absolutely solemn at first – almost to the point of convincing me that this is a video of proof of hostage life. But his voice is as beautiful as ever as he starts to sing. It is not the first time that he lampoons his image of the late 80s / early 90s as a passionate singer; he did something similar for Panera with “When a Man Loves a Woman”. In both cases, he received a paycheck and demonstrated that you have a sense of humor. Good for him!
The practice that Bolton laments is controversial, payment by order flow, which has recently been the target of Reddit’s fury. A market maker pays to see a portion of retail investor trades; that could theoretically they allow the anticipation of orders, but this is illegal and also, separately, it is not very profitable for the market maker. (Most of Reddit’s rage assumed that high-end retail deals were the whole point of payment for the order flow.) Payments are part of the reason why apps like Robinhood can offer deals for free.
And make no mistake, Public is targeting Robinhood. After the uproar over Robinhood during the GameStop disaster, Público announced that it would no longer be involved in paying for the order flow. Last week, the day before Robinhood was asked about payment for the order flow at a largely inconsistent hearing by the House subcommittee, Public announced that it had raised $ 220 million. The next day, Dep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) asked Robinhood’s CEO Vlad Tenev if he would commit to sending payment proceeds to the order flow to his customers, a question he dodged. .
To continue lobbying Robinhood, Public is offering to cover any transfer fees from its previous broker to itself.
In a second, more animated video, Bolton says, “Hey, beautiful! You did it. Congratulations on breaking up with your broker. ”He also says that once in Público, you can follow him. This is true! Here is your portfolio. He didn’t invest in Panera – it’s on his “watch list” – but Amazon, Apple, Disney, Peloton and Spotify are part of his public portfolio. Well, investing in Spotify is probably the best way to make money from it than waiting for royalty payments.