The Chamber’s Financial Services Committee will hold a virtual hearing on February 18 as part of its investigation into the coordinated effort of the Reddit stock trading community to raise GameStop’s stock price as a big middle finger for hedge fund managers.
The list of witnesses includes some of the main actors involved in the The GameStonks saga, including Robinhood co-CEO Vlad Tenev, Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman, Melvin Capital CEO Gabriel Plotkin and Keith Gill (also known as Roaring Kitty), a Reddit and YouTuber user who allegedly helped start the shopping frenzy, for example a press release from Friday the Chairman of the Chamber’s Financial Services Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters. Additional witnesses can still be appointed, says the press release.
Last month, small investors in the subreddit WallStreetBets came together to buy GameStop shares, in part to screw with hedge funds that made significant bets against the besieged game retailer. The plan worked and GameStop’s stock price shot at least 500% while short sellers like Melvin bled billions estimated losses. According The New York TimesGill played a central role in launching the campaign, frequently tweeting and making videos about his investment in GameStop shares. At one point, hIts original investment of $ 53,000 in 2019 was supposedly worth about $ 48 million.
Gill and his fellow Reddit users flocked to the free online trading platform Robinhood to buy GameStop stock before turning their attention to other struggling companies favored by WallStreetBets. Robinhood is looking down several judicial actions and accusations of manipulation of the stock market after abruptly blocking users from buying so-called “YOLO shares” during the height of the frenzy fueled by social media.
In January, Waters said the Chamber hearing “will examine recent activity around GameStop (GME) shares and other impacted actions focusing on short selling, online trading platforms, gamification and their systemic impact on our capital markets and investors. retail”.
G / O Media can receive a commission
The Senate Banking Commission also announced plans to hold a hearing “on the current state of the stock market” following the GameStonks saga. You can get the House audience live on your website starting at 12pm ET on February 18