London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Aug 13, 2026

WallStreetBets founder on GameStop stock surge: The little guys ‘can’t be ignored anymore’

WallStreetBets founder on GameStop stock surge: The little guys ‘can’t be ignored anymore’

Pent-up emotions are just beginning to surface and its ‘absolutely fascinating to watch,’ Jaime Rogozinski said

Jaime Rogozinski, who created Reddit’s WallStreetBets, discussed on “Mornings with Maria” on Tuesday how the forum morphed into a force so powerful, it sent GameStop shares surging and rattled Wall Street.

“The little guys can’t be ignored anymore,” Rogozinski told host Maria Bartiromo of the GameStop trading frenzy, adding that the “little guys figured out a strategic way to push back.”

“They knew that their disadvantage was money and they overcame it,” he continued.

Rogozinski also told Bartiromo that “worldwide I see there’s a lot of sentiments that have been pent-up for a while that are just starting to surface so this is just absolutely fascinating to watch.”

Stock restrictions on Robinhood were put in place last week as the mobile brokerage app confronted high trading volume. The high volatility was spurred by the speculative investing discussion forum WallStreetBets. The group of Reddit users banded together to buy up GameStop's call options, causing the struggling retailer's shares to soar to unprecedented levels and hurting market short-sellers. The group then proceeded to target other heavily-shorted stocks.

Rogozinski argued that “Pandora's box is open” and “there's no going back at this point.”

“This has been a long time in the making,” he added.

“There’s been, over the past 10 years, access to Wall Street and financial markets through, first discount brokers, now free brokers, these app-based brokers that give the little guys access to the system and Wall Street,” Rogozinski noted. “For too long it’s been too hard and too expensive and too inaccessible.”

He went on to point out that now that retail investor participants “have access to this, it’s really difficult to turn the clocks back.”

On Friday morning, short sellers were facing more than $19 billion in combined losses on GameStop, according to an estimate provided to FOX Business by financial data service Ortex.

“I think it’s sad that a lot of people ended up losing money,” Rogozinski said. “I suppose it’s good that they’re starting to address this.”

On Sunday, President Biden’s top economic adviser said the administration will take a look at the legal questions surrounding the market activity of GameStop shares, which soared to astronomical levels last week, The New York Post reported, citing comments made on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

“I could tell you the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] is focused on understanding fully what happened here. And their focus is on protecting retail investors and also the integrity of the market,” Brian Deese, the head of the National Economic Council, reportedly said.

The SEC said on Friday that it is monitoring developments and will “act to protect retail investors when the facts demonstrate abusive or manipulative trading activity that is prohibited by the federal securities laws.” In addition, New York Attorney General Leticia James said she would launch her own review into the market activity.

Rogozinski stressed that there must be a “shift of mentality,” which he noted comes “in many different ways,” including from a regulatory or legal standpoint.

“But whatever it is, they have to consider the little guys because the little guys have now gotten together in such big numbers that they cannot be ignored anymore,” he continued.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has floated the possibility of an investigation into the matter by the House Financial Services Committee, which has received bipartisan support from other lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Congressman Ro Khanna, D-Calif., as well as business leaders like Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Ocasio-Cortez added that the inquiry should "not be solely limited to Robinhood."

Other competitors who previously restricted securities include TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwabb, WeBull, E*TRADE, and Interactive Brokers.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said in a tweet Sunday evening that any SEC and Congressional investigations of decisions to restrict access to trade GameStop "must happen ASAP."

"We cannot have a stock market where players are also refs," Schumer said.

On Sunday, Robinhood narrowed its stock trade restrictions from 50 to eight companies, including GameStop, AMC Entertainment Holdings, and BlackBerry Limited.



Robinhood co-founder Vladimir Tenev said in a Twitter thread on Thursday that as a brokerage firm, the company has many financial requirements, including "SEC net capital obligations and clearinghouse deposits", which fluctuate based on market volatility and exist to "protect investors and the markets."

"It was not because we wanted to stop people from buying these stocks," Robinhood added in a blog post. "We did this because the required amount we had to deposit with the clearinghouse was so large—with individual volatile securities accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in deposit requirements—that we had to take steps to limit buying in those volatile securities to ensure we could comfortably meet our requirements."

“These retail investors shouldn’t have to worry about these clearing house mumbo jumbos,” Rogozinski said.

“It’s obvious that the system was not designed with them in mind, it was designed for large Wall Street institutions and now that these amateur traders, these retail traders are getting involved, it’s never been more evident that the system was never designed for them to actually participate and have control over their participation in the financial markets.”

He went on to say that “there needs to be a bigger conversation regarding the playing field” so that “retail traders are taken into account with the rules.”

“The system was clearly designed for the big guys and the little guy obviously have a seat at this table and they need to address that,” he continued.

Rogozinski then pointed out “the other thing that needs to seriously be addressed,” which he said “is the strength of the system in Wall Street.”

“It is too weak,” Rogozinski noted.

“We saw the entire thing come down crashing 12, 13 years ago and we are starting to see cracks of things that were never addressed,” citing “the clearing house process” and other “very technical things.”

“Obviously we still get flash crashes, we still get all sorts of different things, but with so many participants, we need to see the system strengthen so that it can withstand all the participants inside this market,” he continued.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
China’s Kimi Launches AI-Focused Credit Card With Agricultural Bank of China and American Express
UK Residents Gather to Watch Rare Partial Solar Eclipse
Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice Faces Criticism Over Legal Threat Against Guardian Journalist
Michael Forsyth Elected Speaker of the House of Lords
Cambridge Researchers Launch £20 Million Human Organoid Drug Testing Programme
Heathrow Loses European Passenger Traffic Lead to Istanbul Airport
Households Near New UK Electricity Pylons to Receive £250 Annual Energy Bill Discount
UK Government Estimates Zero-Hours Contract Ban Could Cost Employers Up to £3 Billion a Year
Robert Jenrick Leaves Conservatives for Reform UK in Major Parliamentary Defection
UK Police Chiefs Urge Government to Block Early Release of Andrew Harper Killers
UK Government Holds Emergency Cobra Meeting as Drought and Heatwave Raise Wildfire Risks
Former Labour Adviser Arrested on Suspicion of Spying for China Held Privileged Access as Top Party Donor
Turkish Parliament Passes Landmark Bill Granting Conditional Amnesty to Disarmed PKK Members
Donald Trump Warns FIFA Against Ousting Gianni Infantino Amid Revolt by Global Football Leaders
Jeff Bezos Joins Investor Group Closing In on $6 Billion Liverpool FC Stake
Police Conduct Cross-Border Raids Against Northern England Drug Network
Nicola Sturgeon Protested at Edinburgh Festival Fringe Event
Major UK Retail Chain Enters Administration With One Hundred Fifty-Four Stores Set to Close
Heathrow Renews Call for Runway Expansion After Losing Europe’s Busiest Airport Ranking
Government Condemns One Million Pound Thames Water Executive Bonus Amid Drought
NHS England Says More Than One Hundred Thousand Hepatitis C Patients Have Been Cured
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband Calls for End to West Bank Settler Violence
UK Prepares for Deepest Partial Solar Eclipse Since Nineteen Ninety-Nine
UK Heatwave Triggers Amber Health Alerts as Economic Losses Reach Four Point Four Billion Pounds
UK Offers Electricity Bill Discounts to Communities Hosting New Power Infrastructure
Bank of England Expected to Hold Interest Rates at Three Point Seven Five Percent
UK Government Moves to Ban Subscription Traps and Misleading Retail Discounts
Andy Burnham Gives Councils New Powers to Block Betting and Vape Shops
UK Councils to Receive Sweeping Planning Powers to Ban New Vape and Betting Shops
Nicola Sturgeon Says She Has No Contact With Estranged Husband After SNP Embezzlement Case
Police Arrest Two Men After Aberdeenshire Defense Technology Office Break-In
Greater Manchester Councils Gain Powers to Restrict New Vape and Betting Shops
Coroner Finds Treasury Workplace Failures Contributed to Personal Assistant’s Suicide
English and Welsh Courts Ban Meta Smart Glasses Over Recording and Privacy Risks
Strait of Hormuz Disruption Could Double UK Inflation and Trigger Recession, Forecasters Warn
UK Expands Global Talent Visa Scheme to Support Research-Intensive Companies
UK Equity Funds Suffer Record One Point Six Billion Pound Outflow Amid Capital Gains Tax Fears
Three-Quarters of England Enters Drought as Fifth Summer Heatwave Raises Economic Risks
UK Hiring Stabilizes for First Time Since 2022 as Employers Adjust to Higher Payroll Costs
UK Chancellor Orders Whitehall Spending Cuts as Public Debt Exceeds Three Trillion Pounds
UK Manufacturing Output Records Fourth Straight Month of Growth
UK Condemns Russian Torture of Ukrainian Prisoners and Recruitment of Foreign Nationals
Long-Lost Royal Navy Warship HMS Tiger Found in English Channel After 118 Years
Northern Ireland Finance Minister Seeks Urgent Treasury Talks Over Regional Budget Pressures
UK Government Targets Subscription Traps and Misleading Discounts in New Consumer Rules
Alleged Cartel Boss Daniel Kinahan Extradited From Dubai to Face Criminal Charges
AI Chatbots Challenge Traditional News Consumption and Raise Job Concerns
Andy Burnham Government Promises Crackdown on Exploitative Business Practices
UK University Funding Model Faces Growing Pressure From Unsustainable Student Debt
Government Urged to Subsidise Energy Bills for Vulnerable UK Households
×