Update: Robinhood shares have been stopped from being traded due to volatility. Robinhood placed a $65.60 halt to trading of the company's stock. Yahoo Finance currently has a $77.03 higher price for the equity of the company, an incredible 64.59% increase. Although things are fluid, Robinhood could have been stopped and then resumed trading. Yes, indeed.Robinhood shares, an investing-focused consumer fintech firm, rose in pre-market trading this morning. Robinhoods stock appears to be being affected by the stonk phenomenon that helped small companies like GameStop or AMC rise earlier in the year. This irony is not lost on this publication.According to Yahoo Finance, here's how things look this morningRemember that Robinhood went public for $38 per share. This was the lowest end of its range. However, Robinhood's stock price plummeted in its first trading sessions below its IPO price. It is now worth $54 per share.Cool.Normally, we would make a joke and close this news item. But Robinhoods IPO has a unique twist to the traditional public offering. Robinhood made a portion of its equity available for purchase by its users when it went public. This meant that Robinhood equity was likely to be owned by more retail investors than would have been the case with a traditional IPO.Robinhood's slow trading performance in the early days of its existence could be explained by Robinhood's efforts to let its users buy stock in its shares. This led to a more balanced supply/demand curve at its debut.The world has changed. What's the deal? An analyst set a target price of $65 per share last week. There are many other ratings you can chew on. From our perspective, the wild swing in Robinhood's price today is another shock moment. Even though the stock is being traded as a short squeeze, some market participants remain skeptical due to a small short interest in it.The Robinhood IR page has no new information. Robinhood has not reported earnings in recent months. The company's 606 filings, which deal with PFOF Incomes, seemed to be in line with revenue expectations. This is in contrast to what the company presented in its Q2 2021 flash figures. There was perhaps more crypto than anticipated, but it wasn't anything truly wild.Robinhood seems to be going up simply because it is. This will happen in 2021. We just need to accept it.What matters the most is that Robinhood's decision to offer some IPO stock to its customers did not create enough float to allow for normal trading to decrease. It is possible to go public in an unconventional way and still get a big wave. We now know.
