Citadel Securities Gets the Spotlight
With banks hobbled by new regulation after the financial crisis, Citadel Securities became a major force in trading. But the GameStop episode that revealed the firm’s huge role in U.S. listed markets has attracted the attention of politicians and regulators.
For the world of finance, it was must-watch TV. A U.S. congressional committee summoned an odd assortment of Wall Street characters to testify about a saga that captured so much public attention it was discussed on Good Morning America. How did amateur traders, billionaire hedge fund managers, social media posts, and an opaque market structure fuel a dizzying surge, and sudden crash, in the shares of video game retailer GameStop Corp.?
But for Wall Street’s savviest, one person in particular mattered most of all. It wasn’t social media star Keith Gill, also known as Roaring Kitty or DeepF---ingValue, despite his viral memes and legions of Reddit fans. It wasn’t Gabe Plotkin, the hedge fund manager whose company lost billions after its short-selling positions were crushed. It wasn’t even Vlad Tenev, co-founder of retail brokerage Robinhood Markets Inc., who’d incensed customers by abruptly suspending trading in GameStop.