#ROARING KITTY REGISTRATION#

'The self-deprecating jokes, the memes, the crass-at-times language, all reflect this,' Huffman said. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman described the WallStreetBets community as one that specializes in 'higher risk, higher-reward investments' but also one with 'significant depth,' where members show 'affection' towards each other. Bill Huizenga about Citadel Securities' business model, Griffin said that his market maker business 'has saved retail investors billions of dollars' by setting better prices for stock order execution. A separate business Griffin also co-founded, Citadel Securities, drew scrutiny due to its role as a 'market maker,' an entity that stands to profit from increasing trading volatility and volume by earning tiny profits on millions of stock transactions. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin also testified at today's hearing. Robinhood has drawn criticism for making investing perhaps too easy and game-like, and allowing inexperienced investors access to leveraged tools like options trading.Īt the hearing, hedge funder Gabriel Plotkin said his firm, Melvin Capital, 'played absolutely no role in those trading platforms' decisions.' Melvin Capital lost more than 50% of its investments in January on losses from short selling, betting against stocks like GameStop and others.Īs Melvin's losses mounted, the investment firm Citadel LLC stepped in with a large cash investment in Melvin. The popular no-commission stock trading app has changed the industry, leading other retail brokerages to abandon their own trading fees, and spurring a huge influx of new retail stock investors attracted by the app's user-friendly design. Carolyn Maloney about whether the trading restrictions resulted in 'wild speculation and confusion,' Tenev apologized to customers. And today went in front of Congress to testify about his role in the saga. Gill soon became the face of a movement of small traders taking on Wall Street titans. It all started with the forum WallStreetBets and one particular user named Keith Gill, whose Reddit screen name contains an expletive-he goes by the alias RoaringKitty on YouTube. For several days, the little investors beat out the big ones and captured the imagination of investors and even people with no interest in the stock market. Goliath battle between small investors and powerful hedge fund professionals. The popular narrative was that the GameStop trade devolved into a David vs.

In January, GameStop stock soared nearly 2,000%, and turned Wall Street upside down. Waters titled the hearing titled 'Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide.' 'The market volatility surrounding GameStop has highlighted how many people feel that the cards are stacked against them,' said Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters.

#ROARING KITTY REGISTRATION#

In a separate, unrelated order against MML, Galvin ordered the BD to seek registration of 478 broker-dealer agents and pay a $750,000 administrative fine.Planet Money After GameStop, A Better Way To Take On Wall Street? The inquiry opened by Galvin’s Securities Division in late January showed that MassMutual failed to detect or monitor nearly 1,700 trades effected by Gill in the accounts of three other individuals, as well as transactions effected by Gill that were nearly double MassMutual’s per-transaction limit of $250,000.Īlso without notice of his employer, Gill was able to execute at least two trades in GameStop in excess of $700,000. MML’s policies and procedures, the order states, were “inadequate to detect Gill’s social media activities, including over 250 hours, or 10 days’ worth of YouTube videos detailing investment strategies, at least 590 securities related tweets on Twitter, and a similar volume of posts on other social media platforms all concerning securities related information.” While employed by MassMutual, Gill was responsible for creating educational content for use by MassMutual broker-dealer agents to present to individuals.Īccording to the order, MML failed to supervise Gill, who was registered as a broker-dealer agent and subject to regulatory supervision. The period of Gill’s employment overlapped with his involvement in the GameStop and meme stock frenzy that occurred in late 2020 and early 2021.

Roaring kitty