- Sen. Elizabeth Warren and AOC slammed hedge funds who are criticizing the GameStop traders.
- Both said that Wall Street investors and hedge funds have long treated the stock market ‘like a casino.’
- Redditors on a popular subreddit are buying up shares of GameStop, sending the stock price soaring.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts slammed hedge funds and investors criticizing the traders buying up GameStop stock for treating the stock market “like their own personal casino” and called for stricter regulations.
“With stocks soaring while millions are out of work and struggling to pay their bills, it’s not news that the stock market doesn’t reflect our actual economy.” Warren said on Twitter. “For years, the same hedge funds, private equity firms, and wealthy investors dismayed by the GameStop trades have treated the stock market like their own personal casino while everyone else pays the price.”
Warren added: “It’s long past time for the SEC and other financial regulators to wake up and do their jobs – and with a new administration and Democrats running Congress, I intend to make sure they do.”
Read more: One GameStop shareholder got $2.7 billion richer in one week, and the rally isn’t over yet
Progressive Democratic congresswoman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York echoed Warren’s sentiments, tweeting on Wednesday: “Gotta admit it’s really something to see Wall Streeters with a long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a casino.”
Earlier this week, a group of traders on the popular subreddit r/WallStreetBets decided to buy up shares of the video game retail store GameStop en masse on platforms like Robinhood and Ameritrade, sending the stock price soaring from under $20 a share at the beginning of 2021 to nearly $350 a share as of Wednesday afternoon.
The huge rally of GameStop stock has made countless Redditors a huge profit (at least temporarily) and caused major headaches for big hedge funds and investors who were also shorting GameStop's stock.
The Redditors of r/WallStreetBets have also begun reviving the stock prices of other frequently-shorted stocks including AMC, Bed Bath & Beyond, Blackberry, Koss headphones, and Nokia.
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