Draft:Folionet

Folionet Financial LLC. is an American financial services company based in Brickell, Miami that offers brokerage services for the United States stock exchanges. It offers low-fee trading on stocks and exchange-traded funds through a mobile application launched in 2017. It also provides private banking and investment management services.

Folionet is a FINRA regulated broker-dealer and has registrations with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).

The operation of its application and services is aimed at first-time investors, mainly Spanish-speaking.

History
The Folionet application was founded in 2017 by Juan Lorenzo Santos, current CEO of the company. In its beginnings, Folionet was presented as a commission-free trading application to buy stocks and exchange-traded funds as a product of Santos Capital Group LLC.

It offers its main instruments and the use of margin accounts, which offer loans in exchange for an interest rate.

By the beginning of 2018, Folionet's operations had reached a large part of Latin America, including Chile, Venezuela, Argentina and Colombia.

As of 2020, Folionet consolidated its operations into the company Folionet Financial LLC, retaining its headquarters in Brickell, Miami, and Juan Lorenzo Santos as its CEO.

Trading stocks and ETFs
Since its founding, the main assets offered by Folionet through its application are the purchase and sale of shares and exchange-traded funds; although from its application you can have access to all types of assets that are not traded in OTC markets, such as warrants, preferred shares or REITs.

Private banking
For clients who wish to use a more personalized and paid service, Folionet has created its Wealth Management division, which offers investment strategies to individuals in exchange for fees. Through this service, Folionet offers additional access to products such as bonds and mutual funds.

This activity is also regulated by the SEC and protected by the SIPC and responds to the company's need to offer specialized services for clients who request it, they say.

2021 short squeeze
On January 28, 2021, a short squeeze occurred on shares of American video game retailer GameStop and other stocks of companies such as AMC and BlackBerry. Product of a strangulation coordinated by individual investors globally, mainly by users of Robinhood and the r/wallstreetbets subreddit.

This event led Folionet to restrict trading of the stocks involved in the event, following in the footsteps of many brokers.

On the same day, January 28, as of market closing time, Folionet reactivated the availability of the restricted shares through its application, as did Robinhood, which allowed the purchase of the shares the following morning.