January 28th, 2021
We believe free and fair markets should be just that. Free and fair. We are a self directed brokerage firm which means we facilitate access to markets. We do not dictate them. The recent moves in a handful of stocks like GME, AMC, KOSS, etc. have created a pivotable moment in our industry. It is a teachable moment; a lesson in probabilities and possibilities.
It is very possible these stocks are completely detached from their real value. If true, the downside of these moves can and will be painful. The prevailing wisdom is that they are not investments at this point. They are highly speculative instruments. However, the question at hand is access.
We do not know why GameStop and a handful of other stocks did what they did. But we also do not know whether Tesla should be more expensive than all other major car companies combined. We do not know whether bitcoin should be trading at $5k or $50k. We do not know whether our markets should consistently be at consistent all time highs when so many of our fellow citizens are still feeling the pain of the recession.
Here’s what we believe.
- Risk is real and cannot be avoided.
- Markets are cyclical.
- At some point buyers want to sell and sellers want to buy, regardless of their reasons or strength in the logic.
We encourage everyone to approach every trade in equity, options, and futures markets as if you could lose the capital. We encourage people to respect risk because risk is real. We have always encouraged market participation via small position sizes in all cases because it steers away from the poor decisions that come from the fear of missing out and... you just never know. Most importantly, we encourage people to use the markets for long term wealth building. The more you treat the markets as a shortcut to a new lifestyle the more risk you will inherently take and the lower your probabilities of success.
We believe in your choice to decide whether to take risk of any kind. That said, our clearing firm has set these symbols to closing only.
It would have been easier for our firm to restrict your access this morning along with everyone else. That’s the honest truth. We didn't. We held firm because we believe in market access; not as a convenient and catchy slogan when it serves our purpose but as a matter of principle.
Today, we stood on our principles even if we were alone.
Sincerely,
Victor Jones
CEO, dough