Citadel Securities addresses #CitadelScandal with screenshot of conversation with Robinhood

This company is tweeting more than Elon Musk these days. Another day, another hashtag, and another denial of wrongdoing from the market maker.

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Citadel Securities has taken to Twitter for the third time this week in an attempt to put out the fire that is raging on social media. Tripling down on their efforts to paint meme stock investors as conspiracy theorists, the company tweeted out what they believe to be evidence that they were unaware of Robinhood's plans to prevent retail investors from buying stocks like GameStop and AMC.


Here's a transcript of the latest Citadel Securities tweets:

  • Plaintiffs’ lawyers concealed the facts from the Court and the public causing conspiracy theorists to churn baseless theories. (link)
  • We FIRST learned of Robinhood’s trading restrictions from posts on Twitter – as evidenced by real-time communications. (link)
  • Our primary Robinhood point person had to ask Robinhood if the Twitter posts on the trading restrictions were “fact or fiction?” (link)
Citadel Securities tweeted out this screenshot of a conversation with Robinhood that took place on January 28, 2021.
Citadel Securities tweeted out this screenshot of a conversation with Robinhood that took place on January 28, 2021.

Here's a transcript of the screenshot image Citadel Securities tweeted of a conversation on January 28, 2021 between the company and Robinhood:

  • 2021-01-28 08:32:58 AM EST (Citadel Securities L) Morning
  • 2021-01-28 08:39:23 AM EST (Citadel Securities L) Saw a tweet that you guys are putting GME and AMC in close only?
  • 2021-01-28 08:39:32 AM EST (Citadel Securities L) Fact or Fiction?
  • 2021-01-28 08:42:48 AM EST (Robinhood Securities) Good morning - that is correct, was just going to notify you. AMC, GME, NOK, BB, NAKD, KOSS, EXPR, BBBY all PCO
  • 2021-01-28 08:43:01 AM EST (Citadel Securities L) These are all moving to closing only?
  • 2021-01-28 08:43:10 AM EST (Robinhood Securities) At the moment yes
  • 2021-01-28 08:43:13 AM EST (Citadel Securities L) Equities? Options? Can you send me the offical notice
  • 2021-01-28 08:43:25 AM EST (Robinhood Securities) Just equity at this time

The company just can't stop tweeting. This recent thread was also posted. It focuses entirely on the $3 billion margin call that Robinhood received. Here's a transcript:

  • It is crystal clear that Robinhood restricted trading in response to a $3 billion margin call from the NSCC. Multiple documents, statements and contemporaneous communications confirm this. (link)
  • Here is the email from 5:11 AM ET on January 28th alerting Robinhood to the $3 billion margin call. (link)
Citadel Securities posted a screenshot of a margin call notice sent to Robinhood via email.
Citadel Securities posted a screenshot of a margin call notice sent to Robinhood via email.
  • Robinhood’s CEO testified under oath that the $3 billion margin call “exceeded the amount of net capital at Robinhood Securities” and that led to it imposing trading restrictions. (link)
Citadel Securities also tweeted out a screenshot detailing the Robinhood margin call timeline.
Citadel Securities also tweeted out a screenshot detailing the Robinhood margin call timeline.
  • Robinhood’s President & COO submitted a sworn declaration in federal court that the trading restrictions were “a way to mitigate the sudden increase in the NSCC deposit requirements.” (link)
Citadel posted a screenshot of Robinhood's President and COO's testimony about the margin call.
Citadel posted a screenshot of Robinhood's President and COO's testimony about the margin call.
  • The DTCC, the parent company of the NSCC, corroborated Robinhood’s statements regarding the margin call in a letter to Representative McHenry. (link)
Citadel also tweeted out another screencap detailing the timeline of Robinhood's margin call.
Citadel also tweeted out another screencap detailing the timeline of Robinhood's margin call.
  • Numerous other retail brokerage firms also imposed restrictions on the trading of certain meme stocks due to capital constraints, liquidity concerns and other commercial reasons. (link)
  • During this volatile period, Citadel Securities was the ONLY major market maker that executed buy and sell orders for individual investors without limitations. (link)
    • This tweet contained a link to an article from The Wall Street Journal that was also published in January of 2021. 

Citadel Securities sure has gotten pretty active on Twitter after nearly eight months with zero activity on social media. The company continues to dance around the questions being asked by investors, and is seemingly trying to move the goalposts away from the topic of when Citadel knew of Robinhood's plans towards Robinhood's own margin call issue. In the past week, meme stock investors have been able to get #KenGriffinLied and #CitadelScandal to trend on Twitter, as outrage continues to grow over the market maker and Robinhood's treatment of clients. Name-calling is a pretty weak tactic, but it is par for the course from these elitist Wall Street professionals like Citadel Securities CEO and Founder Ken Griffin.

As a market maker in the stock market, Citadel Securities has already been fined for trading ahead of customers just a few years ago, so it is not that big of a leap of faith to believe that this company may not be acting in the best interest of small retail investors. At the core of what happened in late January of 2021 is the fact that brokers and market makers worked together to prevent buying of shares. Citadel has repeatedly stated that they proudly executed trades for 7.4 billion shares on January 27, 2021, but they have conveniently left out key information from that statement. What stocks were traded? Who were the counter parties? What percent of trades were made to help shorts cover? 

It is pretty clear to the little guy, the retail investor, that Wall Street does not have their back, but what happened in January will have lasting negative effects when it comes to market confidence. Citadel Securities is clearly trying to do damage control for some reason, but outside of hand-picked info dumps and name-calling, what exactly have they said to stop the onslaught of tweets from angry meme stock investors? 

Keep it locked on Shacknews for all of the latest information surrounding the ongoing GameStop short squeeze and the drip of ham-fisted statements from associated market players like Citadel Securities and Robinhood.

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