Co-CEO Vlad Tenev may be eating his words. After taking a dig at discount brokerages, saying they “aren’t really technology companies” at a conference this summer, TD Ameritrade’s social media account was trolling Robinhood after the zero-commission trading platform deactivated accounts and stopped options trading earlier today. Angry users lambasted Robinhood’s customer support account on social media and TD Ameritrade’s social media account got into the fray with laughing emojis and messages on pricing.
Robinhood’s had a rough time of late, facing problems as it transitions its clearing business away from Apex Clearing and onto its homemade system. Dividends were delayed for some investors in November, leading FINRA’s social media account to comment on threads from Robinhood’s support account. With today’s trouble, Robinhood noted that it’s “continuing to monitor the issue from this morning” and that options trading was reopened for most accounts by the time the markets closed.
It’s not the kind of attention Robinhood wants. The trading platform has plans for an IPO and recently hired a new CFO from Amazon and a head of operations from Google’s growth capital fund, CapitalG.
Update: TD Ameritrade has since deleted its tweets.