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YouTube streamer Roaring Kitty to testify on GameStop alongside hedge fund managers

Published 02/14/2021, 11:54 AM
Updated 02/14/2021, 11:55 AM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A GameStop store is pictured in New York

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A GameStop store is pictured in New York

(Reuters) - The YouTube streamer known as Roaring Kitty, who helped drive a surge of interest in GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME), will testify before a U.S. House panel on Thursday alongside top hedge fund managers.

The House Financial Services Committee is examining how a flood of retail trading drove GameStop and other shares to extreme highs, squeezing hedge funds like Melvin Capital that had bet against it.

The witness list was announced on Friday by Representative Maxine Waters (NYSE:WAT) and includes Keith Gill, who also goes by Roaring Kitty, Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad  Tenev, Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin, Melvin CEO Gabriel  Plotkin and Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.

The virtual hearing, entitled “Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide," will take place on Thursday at 12 p.m. ET (1700 GMT), according to the press release and will be livestreamed https://financialservices.house.gov/live. Waters, a Democrat, is chair of the House Committee on Financial Services.

"We are working with the House Financial Services Committee and plan to testify," Reddit's Huffman said in a statement. A spokesperson for Melvin confirmed that Plotkin plans to testify.

Representatives for Citadel and Robinhood did not respond to requests for comment. Gill could not be reached for comment.

Robinhood, Reddit, Melvin and Citadel have been at the center of the GameStop saga, which saw retail traders promote GameStop on the Reddit forum WallStreetBets. Robinhood emerged as a popular venue to trade the stocks but was criticized for temporarily restricting trading in the hot stock.

The GameStop surge resulted in massive losses for Melvin, after the hedge fund bet the retailer’s stock price would tumble. Citadel’s hedge funds, along with founder Griffin and firm partners, put $2 billion into Melvin.

Democrats and Republicans are united in their outrage by Robinhood's decision to suspend trading in the so-called "meme stocks" on Jan. 28. Tenev said the company had to impose the restrictions after wild trading in the stocks triggered a $3 billion margin call by Robinhood's clearing house, straining the company's balance sheet.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A GameStop store is pictured in New York

Massachusetts securities regulators have also issued a subpoena seeking Gill's testimony.

Latest comments

Brokers shutting down retail and shorts because of risk proves that they can shut down shorts when it exceeds a percentage or the stock. There is no reason to let it get to 140% let alone 40
Prepare for some senseless political grandstanding by ignorant politicians. Question is how will they squeeze out the little guy under the auspices of protecting them?
lol really wish they would have used his reddit handle for the headline.
Zero difference between wsb and cnbc. Both talk about stocks, opportunities, and why.
Robinhood makes interest and commisions from short sales and when shorters cant cover their positions robinhood was on the hook. So they sabotaged retail to protect the shorts and themselves.
Robinhood should be ashamed of themselves and should be heavily fined or even extinct for limiting free trade on stocks of their choosing. They just want the rich to get richer and not let the common folk make a buck for themselves for a change. Isn’t that what Robinhood promotes is investing for the little guys? I guess the truth is out. Sounds like the hedge fund managers are a much of rich cry babies when trades don’t go their way. The rest of us were just “playing the game” legally, but when the rest of us started to make some money Robinhood decided to change the rules in their favor. Can’t wait for Robinhood’s IPO to come out so we the people can short the the ******out of it. What goes around comes around! Karma ****
Why is everyone just talking about robinhood? So many other brokerages did the same thing
it would be interesting to see what comes from this.
If they halted all, there is no problem. The problem is only buy was restricted.
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