2021年经济学人 零售投资：Robinhood和满心欢喜的散户（2）

For decades retail¹ investors² were overlooked and underserved.

几十年来，散户投资者都被忽视，得到的服务也不够。

The rich might have dabbled³ in trading stocks directly, but most workers earned defined-benefit pensions, which kicked any portfolio-management decisions regarding their biggest pot of savings⁴ to pension funds.

富人可能早已直接进入股票交易市场，但大多数工人获得的是固定收益的养老金，这导致他们所有的投资组合管理决定都与养老基金相关。

The transition to self-directed 401K retirement⁵ plans, registered investment advisers⁶ and retail brokers⁸ was at first accompanied by wide trading spreads and meaty fees.

起初，向自我导向的401K退休计划、注册投资顾问和零售经纪人的转变，都伴随着巨大的交易差价和巨额费用。

Then the adoption⁹ of new technologies—such as computerised trading and wicked-fast marketmaking algorithms—helped erode¹⁰ spreads.

后来，新技术的采用——比如计算机化交易和极快的做市算法——帮助降低了价差。

In 2013 Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s founders¹¹ and former employees of marketmakers, saw that it might be possible for a retail broker⁷ to make money by offering consumers commission-free stock trading.

2013年，Robinhood的创始人拜菊·巴特(Baiju Bhatt)和弗拉德·特涅夫(Vlad Tenev)发现，零售经纪商或许可以通过向消费者提供免佣金的股票交易来赚钱。

It could instead earn revenues through “payment for order flow”.

相反，它可以通过“订单流支付”来赚取收入。

This is the practice by which a high-frequency marketmaker pays a broker a cut of the spread it earns from trading in exchange for the broker directing its customers’ trades to the marketmaker.

通过这种做法，高频做市商向经纪商支付交易差价的一部分，作为交换，经纪商将客户的交易引流给做市商。

For a time the big retail brokers ignored the plucky¹² upstart and continued to charge commissions and fees.

有一段时间，大型零售经纪商并没有重视这种大胆的新模式，他们继续收取佣金和费用。

But by 2019 the writing was on the wall. A quick, brutal¹³ price war broke out.

但到了2019年，不祥之兆已成定局。

Charles Schwab, followed by E*Trade, TD Ameritrade and eventually the biggest broker of all, Fidelity¹⁴, succumbed¹⁵, scrapping¹⁶ their commissions and trading fees.

一场迅速又残酷的价格战爆发了。嘉信理财(Charles Schwab)、E*Trade (E*Trade)、TD Ameritrade以及最后，最大的经纪商富达(Fidelity)都屈服了，取消了它们的佣金和交易费用。

Lower costs for investors are a laudable thing.

对投资者来说，成本降低是值得称赞的事情。

At Robinhood’s roadshow Mr Tenev claimed that his firm helped people buy shares in firms they love and got them excited about investing.

在Robinhood的路演中，Tenev先生声称他的公司会帮助人们购买他们喜欢的公司的股票，并让他们对投资感到兴奋。

By Robinhood’s reckoning, half of all brokerage accounts opened in America since 2015 have been set up on its platform.

据Robinhood估计，2015年以来在美国开设的所有经纪账户中，有一半是通过其平台开设的。

But the broker has also been at the centre of unease about the retail revolution, which peaked during the speculative¹⁷ frenzy¹⁸ in GameStop, a struggling video-game retailer¹⁹, earlier this year.

但这家经纪商也一直处于人们对零售革命担忧的风口浪尖上。今年早些时候，在苦苦挣扎的视频游戏零售商GameStop的投机狂潮中，人们的担忧达到了巅峰。

The company’s share price spiked²⁰ from $17 in January to more than $450 two weeks later.

两周后，GameStop的股价从1月份的17美元飙升至450美元以上。

So much of the trading volume came from retail investors, and so much of it was directed through Robinhood,

大量的交易来自散户投资者，也有大量的交易是通过Robinhood引流的，

that the broker was forced to suspend trading in GameStop because it lacked the capital to cover the two-day lag between its users’ trades and their settlement.

导致Robinhood被迫暂停GameStop的交易，因为它没有足够的资金去填补用户交易和结算之间两天延迟期的金额。

1 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 dabbled   

v.涉猎( dabble的过去式和过去分词 )；涉足；浅尝；少量投资

参考例句：

• He dabbled in business. 他搞过一点生意。 来自辞典例句
• His vesture was dabbled in blood. 他穿的衣服上溅满了鲜血。 来自辞典例句

4 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

5 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

6 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

7 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

8 brokers   

n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• The firm in question was Alsbery & Co., whiskey brokers. 那家公司叫阿尔斯伯里公司，经销威士忌。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• From time to time a telephone would ring in the brokers' offices. 那两排经纪人房间里不时响着叮令的电话。 来自子夜部分

9 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

10 erode   

v.侵蚀，腐蚀，使...减少、减弱或消失

参考例句：

• Once exposed,soil is quickly eroded by wind and rain.一旦暴露在外，土壤很快就会被风雨侵蚀。
• Competition in the financial marketplace has eroded profits.金融市场的竞争降低了利润。

11 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

12 plucky   

adj.勇敢的

参考例句：

• The plucky schoolgirl amazed doctors by hanging on to life for nearly two months.这名勇敢的女生坚持不放弃生命近两个月的精神令医生感到震惊。
• This story featured a plucky heroine.这个故事描述了一个勇敢的女英雄。

13 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

14 fidelity   

n.忠诚，忠实；精确

参考例句：

• There is nothing like a dog's fidelity.没有什么能比得上狗的忠诚。
• His fidelity and industry brought him speedy promotion.他的尽职及勤奋使他很快地得到晋升。

15 succumbed   

不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死

参考例句：

• The town succumbed after a short siege. 该城被围困不久即告失守。
• After an artillery bombardment lasting several days the town finally succumbed. 在持续炮轰数日后，该城终于屈服了。

16 scrapping   

刮，切除坯体余泥

参考例句：

• He was always scrapping at school. 他在学校总打架。
• These two dogs are always scrapping. 这两条狗总是打架。

17 speculative   

adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的

参考例句：

• Much of our information is speculative.我们的许多信息是带推测性的。
• The report is highly speculative and should be ignored.那个报道推测的成分很大，不应理会。

18 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

19 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。

20 spiked   

adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的

参考例句：

• The editor spiked the story. 编辑删去了这篇报道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They wondered whether their drinks had been spiked. 他们有些疑惑自己的饮料里是否被偷偷搀了烈性酒。 来自辞典例句