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WASHINGTON/BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tension, irate questions, people talking over one another, and a cat photo. Thursday’s five-plus hour U.S. congressional hearing on GameStop had all of that, as top hedge fund managers, the head of Robinhood, and Roaring Kitty himself answered a barrage of questions over who was at fault in January’s trading frenzy.
GameStop rose more than 1,000% during two weeks as retail traders using the Reddit platform encouraged each other to pile in, socking it to hedge fund managers who were short the stock - a bet GameStop would fall.
The trade deflated, however, after online brokerage Robinhood and several other brokers controversially restricted buying GameStop’s shares - leaving retail investors frustrated but capping the losses for the hedge funds.