'We're going to have to get answers': Rep. Steil among lawmakers calling for hearing after trading freeze
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It's the trading frenzy that saw some unlikely companies' stocks soar. Now members of Congress want answers, including Wisconsin's Bryan Steil.
"We’re going to have to get answers to what exactly played out," said Steil.
Retail investors chatting online pushed the price up of stocks like GameStop and Milwaukee-based Koss, leaving investors who had bet the stock's value would go down, in a tough spot.
That led some to question if those platforms and brokers were trying to protect big investors from losing to smaller investors.
"For far too long, the system has been set up to give an advantage to Wall Street investors over mom and pop investors and what we need to do is make sure that everyone’s on a fair playing field and that we make sure that mom and pop investors have a seat at the table, so that they can invest and reap the benefits of U.S. capitalism the same way that Wall Street is," said Steil.
Steil says there are a lot of questions across the table.
"We need to make sure that securities laws weren’t violated either by collusion, by folks trying to run the price up in an illegal way, that has to be answered, but very importantly, we need to make sure small investors have a seat at the table at the same way big wall street hedge funds or private equity have."
"I don’t believe there was anything nefarious with hedge funds saying 'Robinhood stop buys so stock could go down.' I really think it had to do with capital requirements," said Adam Peck, founder and CIO of Riverwater Partners.
He says he believes Robinhood is safe, but has concerns about how they glamorize investing.
"When they throw confetti and make it a game, it can create the situation like we have today."