© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A GameStop Store Pictured in New York
(Reuters) – The YouTube streamer known as Roaring Kitty, who helped drive an increase in interest in GameStop Corp. (NYSE :), will testify in front of a US House panel on Thursday with the best hedge fund managers.
The House Financial Services Committee is investigating how a flood of retail has driven GameStop and other stocks to extreme highs, squeezing hedge funds like Melvin Capital who have bet against it.
The list of testimonies was announced Friday by Representative Maxine Waters (NYSE 🙂 and includes Keith Gill, who is also represented by Roaring Kitty, Vladhood’s CEO, Robinhood, Kenneth Griffin, Citadel’s CEO, Gabriel Plotkin, Melvin’s CEO, and Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, goes.
The virtual trial, titled “Game Stopped? Whoever wins and loses when short sellers, social media and retail investors clash, according to the press release, takes place on Thursday at 12 o’clock ET (1700 GMT) and is streamed live https://financialservices.house.gov/ Waters, a Democrat, is chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services.
“We are working with the House Financial Services Committee and plan to testify,” Huffman of Reddit said in a statement. A Melvin spokesman confirmed that Plotkin was planning to testify.
Representatives from Citadel and Robinhood did not respond to requests for comment. Gill could not be reached for comment.
Robinhood, Reddit, Melvin and Citadel were at the center of the GameStop saga, in which retailers promoted GameStop on the RedStit forum WallStreetBets. Robinhood has emerged as a popular place to trade stocks, but has been criticized for temporarily restricting trading in the hot stocks.
The boom in GameStop led to huge losses for Melvin after the hedge fund bet the retailer’s share price would tumble. Citadel’s hedge funds, along with founder Griffin and regular partners, have poured $ 2 billion into Melvin.
Democrats and Republicans are united in their outrage over Robinhood’s decision to halt trading in the so-called ‘meme shares’ on January 28. Tenev said the company had to impose the restrictions after wild trading in the shares prompted a $ 3 billion call to Robinhood’s clearing house, which strained the company’s balance sheet.
Security regulators in Massachusetts also issued a subpoena requesting Gill’s testimony.
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