Separately, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating how the horde of casual investors aimed to bid up silver by trading futures and a silver-tracking exchange-traded fund, according to the report. Wall Street Bets traders pivoted to silver shortly after GameStop shares fell back to earth. More recently, the crowd has targeted cannabis stocks for their next bullish bets.
Proving the GameStop phenomenon was a case of market manipulation requires authorities to wade into a murky regulatory environment. Officials would need to prove that investors used online forums to disseminate incorrect information and lift shares to an artificially inflated price. This kind of manipulation is commonly known as a pump-and-dump scheme.
Decoding such a scheme is made harder by the anonymous nature of Reddit accounts. Posts calling on more traders to buy shares were also largely comical and enthusiastic in nature and lacked claims about companies' underlying businesses. While some Wall Street Bets members stood out for their outsize gains or popular memes, most blended into the army of faceless day traders.
Lawmakers have also shown interest in dissecting the event and how it exploded into the mainstream. The House Financial Services Committee is slated to hold a hearing on February 18 on the matter. Rep. Maxine Waters of California said last week she wantedSenate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown indicated last month he too aims to hold a hearing.
Why not investigating hedge fund short sellers and medias manipulating in front of TV all the time
SAI No surprise. This new administration was funded by Wall Street. Now they need to obey their masters since they are mad that others are trying to play the speculation betting game. Shorting is illegal in other countries because what is it if not market manipulation...?
themoneygame Great news. Brokerages like Robinhood need to be held responsible
thisisinsider Of course it'd be investigated. Capitalism only works well when the big fishes uses it. While the common people live the lie of 'you can't touch us'. Well, it seems we can touch them and they didn't like it.
insidernews Surprised it took this long actually.
Waiting to hear what’s illegal with a lot of people getting together and investing in the same company
Seems to me that Robinhood was the party attempting market manipulation here.
Wait till they figure out crypto😂
RobinhoodApp is a tool to create a better life for yourself and people around you if you choose. Individuals manipulate the market not the tool. A gun isn’t a murder weapon till someone pulls the trigger, and even then you don’t blame the gun.
😂
When big shot hedge funders do it it’s ok but when the little guys eat it’s a problem
Time to switch platforms?
It's going to be against the law to buy stock and hold it if the hedgefunds want you to sell. Why not just take the money directly from our accounts?