- Fidelity’s website and the Robinhood app crashed for some users Monday, while panicky investors fled a stock market with inflated multiples.
- DownDetector reported a surge in problem reports for these stock trading platforms. The Dow Jones plummeted 3% at the opening bell.
- Meanwhile, the Washington Post started a wild YouTube live stream that lets you watch the DJI stock ticker go down.
Stock trading platforms like Fidelity and Robinhood suffered a bout of unwelcome problems on Monday. Panicky investors logged in to find they couldn’t run from a plunging stock market.
Some cynically speculated it’s a “feature” to prevent panic selling. But the Dow continued to drop as nervous investors went risk-off in the face of coronavirus and other uncertainties.
CNBC analyst and Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown pointed out the Fidelity website went down at 9:35 AM Eastern.
“Trades are still free tho,” he quipped in a now-deleted tweet:
Someone replied that their Fidelity balance was showing zero, suggesting that was not the correct balance:
can confirm. zero balance
Can’t sell if the website is down.
And another pointed out:
Not just them.
While someone confirmed:
Robinhood down as well. #marketmanipulation
Fidelity Showing Incorrect Zero Balance
DownDetector.com registered a surge in problem reports for Fidelity’s website and the Robinhood app Monday morning. Over 2,500 users reported problems with Fidelity’s website:
And there were 185 problem reports for Robinhood:
A Fidelity user reported:
Fidelity website is down? All tabs work except ‘accounts and trade’. Anybody else experiencing this?
Another said the problem has been going on all weekend:
@Fidelity i am showing a zero balance. You had a whole weekend to fix this problem
Meanwhile, a Robinhood user reported:
Robinhood website on chrome browser running on a Windows machine down? My options contracts are appearing then disappearing and I cannot buy/sell. #RobinHood
Others were having problems too:
Robinhood seems to be having problems this morning on both my account and my wife’s. Grr.
Stock Market Suffers Panic Sell-off
At 9:30 AM Eastern, the Washington Post started running a YouTube live stream just displaying the DJI ticker going down. The audio is presumably from some quiet corner of the New York Stock exchange, with beeping sounds and hushed voices.
This is just morbid:
And kind of terrifying. What a wild start to the week for the stock market.
This is what happens when you casually let P/E ratios expand toward dotcom bubble levels, while a global pandemic spreads.
Disclaimer: This article represents the author’s opinion and should not be considered investment or trading advice from CCN.com.
This article was edited by Josiah Wilmoth.
