Brokerage platforms falter during GameStop surge

Leading online and mobile brokerage platforms Wednesday morning cracked and sputtered with outages under the surge of speculators trading in high-risk stocks like GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., which have seen the value of their shares soar this week in the frenzy.

Th outages include the most prominent names in the discount and online brokerage industry, including Fidelity, the Charles Schwab Corp., TD Ameritrade, which is owned by Schwab, ETrade Financial Corp., owned by Morgan Stanley, and Robinhood.

The brokers’ clients experienced a variety of problems, from trading to accessing accounts. While individual online brokers and platforms have problems with their trading technology from time to time, a wholesale breakdown across many platforms is rare.

Technical issues for Fidelity clients Wednesday morning had been resolved, a spokesperson wrote in an email. “We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Some Charles Schwab clients early Wednesday experienced issues with trading and other online functionality and those matters had also been resolved, according to a spokesperson. “We will work with all clients to ensure their situations are made right and apologize for any inconvenience our clients experienced this morning.”

Some TD Ameritrade clients this morning experienced slowness or difficulty accessing their accounts on its mobile platform due to unprecedented volumes, wrote a company spokesperson in an email. “This issue has been resolved,” she wrote, adding clients could access their accounts and place trades through all other TD Ameritrade platforms.

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Robinhood reported a service disruption in its crypto trading platform that had an impact on some customers but it was resolved, according to a spokesperson. Equities and options trades using Robinhood’s iOS and Android applications remained operational, but clients may have had problems accessing its web app. 

ETrade was also reportedly affected, according to Downdetector.com, which tracks user complaints. A spokesperson did not comment.

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