Robinhood's Chief Lawyer Balks at Plan to Rein In Trading Apps: SEC Roundup

Welcome to SEC Roundup, a bimonthly video series by Paul Hastings partners and former Securities and Exchange Commission senior trial counsels Nick Morgan and Tom Zaccaro exploring current SEC topics with thought leaders and industry experts.

In this episode, Morgan and Zaccaro talk with former SEC Commissioner Dan Gallagher, who’s now chief legal officer for Robinhood, about the aftershocks of the trading frenzy in GameStop and other meme stocks.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has said recently that he plans to propose rules to crack down on gamification by online stock brokerages and advisors and has asked SEC staff to weigh creating an order-by-order auction mechanism intended to help retail traders obtain the best pricing for their orders.

Gallagher explains why he believes Gensler’s plans amount to a “false impetus to regulate,” and why “it would be nice” to have an SEC best execution rule.

See the video above for the discussion with Gallagher.