Think Twice, It’s All Right. Lessons from the GameStop Saga

Abstract

Online trading platforms and internet communities facilitate access to financial markets and let investors reduce transaction and coordination costs. In this way: (1) they permit many people to be directed towards a single goal, but, at the same time, (2) they allow operations aimed at influencing the prices of financial instruments that were previously not granted to those who did not have high resources and expose the participants to significant risks. Thus, it seems appropriate to ask the question of rethinking the discipline of EU executive investment services, typically provided by the online trading platforms. From the perspective of increasing investors protection and the efficient functioning of the markets, after having presented and discussed the solutions proposed by ESMA, this paper proposes a cooling-off period in the execution only and appropriateness regime and an increase in the product governance discipline.

Keywords: Financial Regulation, Investor Protection, Investment Services, Information Paradigm, Conduct of Business Rules, Product Intervention, Product Governance, MiFID II

JEL Classification: K2, K22