Trading 212 has stopped taking on new customers amid market mania
New users will be able to register once the existing queue is processed
The stock trading app and FCA-regulated broker Trading 212 is no longer taking on new users after retail investors began signing up for the service in droves.
The London-based firm said that it would once again allow new accounts to be created only after it had processed all of the existing applications in its queue.
Trading 212 isn't the only platform having difficulties though as Robinhood, IG Group and others have experienced outages as the number of retail trades have soared this week.
- We've built a list of the best Forex trading apps around
- Get your finances in order with the best personal finance software
- Also check out our roundup of the best budgeting software
In a statement posted on Twitter, the company provided further details on its decision to stop onboarding new clients, saying:
“Due to the unprecedented demand, we have temporarily stopped onboarding new clients. Once we process the existing queue, we will be open for new registrations. We apologise for the caused inconvenience and highly appreciate your understanding”
Service disruptions
Before announcing that it would stop onboarding new users, Trading 212 also experienced difficulties in transmitting orders due to the high level of demand. This led existing orders to possibly be executed with a delay while placing new orders became impossible using the service.
For those out of the loop, the current market mania is a direct result of Reddit users on the subreddit WallStreetBets. Once these users realized that hedge funds were shorting the stock of the brick and mortar video game retailer GameStop, they began buying up the company's stock themselves.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
Once GameStop's stock increased from $20 a share to a high of $347 on Wednesday, WallStreetBets users then began trying to inflate the price of other company's stocks including AMC, BlackBerry and Nokia. This led Trading 212, Robinhood and other platforms to halt trading and no longer allow their users to purchase GameStop stock.
Trading 212 will soon start onboarding new users but the US financial market and even global financial markets for that matter will likely crackdown on WallStreetBets and other retail investors organizing online.
- We've also highlighted the best Bitcoin exchanges
Via Finance Magnates
After working with the TechRadar Pro team for the last several years, Anthony is now the security and networking editor at Tom’s Guide where he covers everything from data breaches and ransomware gangs to the best way to cover your whole home or business with Wi-Fi. When not writing, you can find him tinkering with PCs and game consoles, managing cables and upgrading his smart home.
This tiny super cheap $13 PC is barely bigger than an adult pinkie finger and has no OS — and yet this hacker-friendly device packs a display, MicroSD card slot plus Wi-Fi connectivity
Hardware startup wants to solve the multi billion dollar problem of bandwidth by using an ancient technique — AI memory compression technique could save Google, Microsoft billions but Nvidia won't be happy