Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

As it happenedended1612227482

GameStop news: Robinhood CEO to testify before Congress as GME stocks fell 30 per cent to close at $225

Follow the latest updates

Joe Sommerlad,Justin Vallejo
Tuesday 02 February 2021 00:58 GMT
Comments
Robinhood boss defends GameStop trading restrictions

The Reddit army that last week launched into an extraordinary trading war with Wall Street hedge funds over shares in failing video game retailer GameStop has switched its focus to silver, sending the price of stock in precious metal producers like First Majestic Silver and Fresnillo soaring by 35 per cent and 18 per cent respectively on Monday.

Reddit-propelled buying drove the price of the commodity up by as much as seven per cent to $29.70 an ounce at the start of the new week, its highest value since March 2013 as amateur investors looked to further exert their influence over the markets.

Vlad Tenev, under-fire CEO of trading app Robinhood, has meanwhile accused Elon Musk of “getting into conspiracy theories” after the tech entrepreneur suggested during a livestream interview that established funds and US financial regulators had conspired to rein-in purchases of GameStop shares on Tenev’s platform.

1612199631

Robinhood’s $3.4bn funding to invest in ‘customer growth’

The company has just confirmed earlier reports of it’s additional $2.4 in funding, for a total of $3.4 since Thursday, to invest in growing its customer base.

No word on whether those customers will be able to invest in GameStop, which remains restricted.

“This round of funding will help us scale to meet the incredible growth we’ve seen and demand for our platform. We are humbled by our customers’ response to our offering, and remain inspired by everyday people taking control of their financial futures,” said Jason Warnick, CFO, Robinhood in a statement.

The round was led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from existing investors including ICONIQ, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Index Ventures, and NEA with terms being finalized.

But, GameStonk?

Justin Vallejo1 February 2021 17:13
1612201944

White House supports Congress on legislative reforms in wake of GameStop frenzy, says press secretary

Asked if the Biden administration supports reforms like restricting short selling and financial transactions tax to address the GameStop situation, Jen Psaki said that Congressional attention is “appropriate”.

“This is under the purview of the SEC in terms of their review and monitoring, but there is an important set of policy issues that have been raised as a result of market volatility in recent days and we think Congressional attention to these issues is appropriate and would welcome working with Congress moving forward as we dig into these further policy issues,” Psaki said.

Justin Vallejo1 February 2021 17:52
1612206075

GameStop short-squeeze losses at $12.5 billion YTD

Shorting shares in GameStop, the video game retailer at the centre of the ongoing retail trading frenzy, cost hedge funds a total $12.5 billion over January, data from financial analytics firm Ortex showed on Monday.

The losses were inflicted by small-time investors who piled into GameStop, pushing up the shares and forcing many hedge funds to buy them back to cover losses. GameStop shares are up 1600 per cent year-to-date.

Ortex data showed $5.9 billion worth of GameStop shares were out on loan as of Friday or 49 per cent of the total freefloat.

In Europe, short-sellers booked $28 million loss on their bets against Cineworld. Almost 24 per cent of its freefloat is on loan. - Reuters

Justin Vallejo1 February 2021 19:01
1612206956

Let them eat chicken

Thanks Popeyes for reminding everyone to never let a good crisis for hedge funds go to waste.

Justin Vallejo1 February 2021 19:15
1612211652

Ilhan Omar pushes for tax on stock trades to cancel student loans

Ilhan Omar is pushing for a 0.1 per cent tax on every stock market trade to raise $1trillion to cancel student loans and make college free.

“Wall Street has made billions on the back of the worst recession since the Great Depression, and fought to deregulate finance to pre-2008 levels. And the moment regular folks beat them at their own rigged game, it's "SHUT IT DOWN”, she said in a tweet.

Justin Vallejo1 February 2021 20:34
1612212605

Mark Cuban says Reddit investors have ‘every right’ to kick Wall Street’s ass

In a blog post this weekend, billionaire Mark Cuban backed the GameStonk investors over at Reddit’s WallStreetbets, saying that “fat and happy Wall Street” had gotten old and the new generation of investors doesn’t care what they think about valuations.

“They don’t care about Price Earnings Ratios, or NPV of future cash flows , or what the analysts say the earnings per share this quarter. Don’t care at all,” Cuban wrote.

“They have learned from their experiences watching Wall Street go up and down and making people who aren’t them a ton of money that it’s a game designed to reward the people with the most money. That all these narratives are just sales pitches designed to sell stocks and they want to change the game and kick their ass. Which they should and have every right to.”

Justin Vallejo1 February 2021 20:50
1612215629

Are Reddit investors really targeting silver? Don’t bet on it

The top post on the WallStreetBets subreddit all day today has been calling out the so-called moves to precious metal a misdirection.

“Literally a 5 second scroll of our board would inform this to be untrue,” the post says, highlighting CNN”s reporting.

The post has a 90 per cent upvote ratio, meaning the vast majority of the subreddit that started the GameStonk frenzy seems to agree.

Four of the five top post are calling the story “fake news”, and  “them trying to take the focus away from GME”.

Justin Vallejo1 February 2021 21:40
1612216812

GameStonk billboards across America

If there are stocks in billboard companies up for sale, now might be a time to have a look (this is meme advice, not financial advice.)

Justin Vallejo1 February 2021 22:00
1612218319

Robinhood CEO expected to testify at Congressional panel on its role in GameStonk saga, reports

Vlad Tenev, the CEO of app Robinhood that restricted trading in GameStop stocks, is expected to testify before the House Financial Services Committee, according to Politico.

The 18 February panel will look at the company’s role in the frenzy over retail stocks, with committee chair Maxine Waters concerned whether Robinhood colluded with hedge funds to prevent the buying of stocks while allowing their sale.

Justin Vallejo1 February 2021 22:25
1612219838

GameStop closes 30 per cent down

Shares in GameStop closed 30.8 per cent down on Monday as Reddit traders held the line to keep GME stocks at $225 per share.

While that’s a big swing in a single day, the stock has still something like 1600 per cent throughout January.

Silver, meanwhile, jumped more than 10 per cent but WallStreetBets maintained reports the forum was pushing the precious metals were a misdirection to divert attention away from GameStonks.

Justin Vallejo1 February 2021 22:50

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in