4:03 PM PT -- Robinhood says it will resume allowing trading Friday for GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry and the other securities it blocked Thursday ... but "limited buys" only.
Robinhood adds that it will "continue to monitor the situation and may make adjustments as needed."
In an email sent to customers Thursday evening, the financial services company acknowledges, "It's been a tough day" ... while saying its decision to temporarily halt trading was "made to best continue serving you, and was not an easy one to make."
Robinhood goes on to explain that its decision "was not made on the direction of any market maker we route to or other market participants."
The GameStop stock battle between retail investors and hedge fund managers has resulted in Robinhood unlisting the stock and several others ... and people are pissed.
As of Thursday morning ... Robinhood customers can no longer buy Gamestop stock on the free-trading app, thereby blocking members of the WallStreetBets forum on Reddit. Of course, that group of investors sparked the resurgence of GameStop's stock.
It also aimed to do the same for AMC, Nokia, BlackBerry, Naked Brands and a few other stocks ... but Robinhood's unlisted those too!
In making the move, Robinhood emailed customers warning of "the current volatile market conditions." The notice stated, "It’s as important as ever to be an informed investor," and included links to its investment resources.
Of course, this has infuriated customers who believe this is market manipulation favoring the hedge funds that have shorted stocks like GameStop... and hurting retail investors who are backing them.
As one person on Twitter put it ... "The free market is only free until rich people lose money."
As we reported, GameStop's stock price has surged to $350 this week -- after starting the year at $19 -- thanks to the backing of retail investors encouraged by the WallStreetBets group.
By Robinhood blocking trading on Thursday, the general feeling among the public is that the financial services company is siding with the hedge fund people on Wall Street ... and screwing over the little guy.
This could get ugly.
Originally published -- 6:48 AM PT