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Amid a rush of trading in GameStop fueled by members of the Reddit group WallStreetBets, Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade have put some limits on clients' trading of the game retailer's shares.
"The bottom line is that clients are still able to trade in GME, but we've put some restrictions on certain types of transactions in the interest of helping mitigate risk for our clients," Schwab said Wednesday in a statement.
For instance, the brokerage firm isn't letting clients sell naked call options "in order to mitigate an unlimited risk situation." (Naked call options are sold uncovered, meaning without any offsetting positions.)
"These decisions are based on risk and volatility and are made on an individual basis," Schwab said in a statement.
The volume of GameStop shares surged to over 177 million on Monday and Tuesday, dropping to a still-high 91 million on Wednesday and 42 million on Thursday.
Meanwhile, its stock rose more than 620% from late Friday, when it traded at about $65 per share, to $469 per share in intraday trading Thursday; however, the shares were down nearly 30% for the day on Thursday afternoon, trading at $250.
On Jan. 13, Schwab changed GameStop shares status to "non-marginable" from "marginable." Since then, clients couldn't use GME as collateral for margin loans used to buy other holdings; earlier, they could do so "in a limited way."
