Source: Chicago Tribune

Retail stockbrokers placed restrictions on Wednesday on trading of GameStop, AMC Entertainment Holdings and other securities as the companies have become the center of a frenzy that has driven triple-digit spikes in their stock prices in recent days.

TD Ameritrade said it placed restrictions on certain types of trading activity on the companies “in the interest of mitigating risk for our company and clients.”

“We made these decisions out of an abundance of caution amid unprecedented market conditions and other factors,” said Alyson Nikulicz, a spokeswoman for TD Ameritrade, which is part of Charles Schwab.

She said the restrictions vary, depending on the security, but can include limiting certain types of transactions, including short sales — when investors bet on a stock’s decline by selling shares they don’t actually own.

Charles Schwab said shares of GameStop could no longer be traded on margin, meaning trades cannot be placed with money borrowed from the company. And Robinhood, the trading app that has made it easier for inexperienced traders to enter the market, said it wouldn’t allow margin trading of shares of both GameStop and AMC.

Full Story @ Chicago Tribune