US lawmakers to grill key figures in GameStop stock probe

Thursday’s House Committee on Financial Services hearing gives US representatives a chance to question CEOs from Robinhood, Reddit and several hedge funds.

Members of the United States House Committee on Financial Services are going head to head on Thursday with top executives from key stakeholder firms in the GameStop trading frenzy. The inquiry aims to shed light on the hazy sequence of events that precipitated the ascent and rapid decline of the struggling video-game retailer’s share price just weeks ago, when it rocketed from $17.25 on January 1 to $347.51 on January 27 – then plunged to hover near $50 since then. Individual retail investors, taking their cue from posts on social media sites such as Reddit, combined in a rarely seen move that forced some of the largest names on Wall Street to take big losses on their bets that shares of companies, including GameStop and US theatre operator AMC Entertainment, would fall.