Retail investors rallying around a bad news cycle for some of their least favorite people also managed to buck the larger indices and put major meme stocks back in the green as September drew to a close.
With hashtags like #KenGriffinLied and #CitadelScandal still dominating retail investment social media, Citadel used its suddenly hyperactive Twitter account to both defend itself and make clear that Robinhood acted alone in restricting access to certain meme stocks at the height of January’s short squeeze.
In a short Twitter burst Thursday afternoon, Citadel clapped back once again at its online accusers. After claiming that the lawyers who filed an explosive revised lawsuit in a Florida federal court “concealed the facts from the court and the public causing conspiracy theorists to churn baseless theories,” the financial services giant opened up on the zero-commission trading app that sells more than half of its order flow to Citadel Securities.
“We FIRST learned of Robinhood’s trading restrictions from posts on Twitter – as evidenced by real-time communications,” read the tweet.
And then Citadel posted a screenshot of what appears to be a chat between a Citadel Securities executive and a Robinhood exec on Jan. 28.
“Saw a tweet that young’s are putting GME and AMC in close only?” asks the Citadel player.
“Good morning,” replies the Robinhood counterpart. “That is correct, was just going to notify.”
The Robinhood exec goes on to list the stocks being halted, the most volatile and heavily-squeezed: GameStop, AMC Entertainment, Nokia
NOK,
,
BlackBerry, Naked Brand
NAKD,
,
Koss, Express Inc.
EXPR,
and Bed, Bath & Beyond
BBBY,
.
A Citadel spokesman confirmed to MarketWatch that the screenshot in the tweet was part of discovery in the Florida federal suit.
But neither the tweet nor the new evidence are likely to do much for retail investors’ belief that something was rotten in January’s dealings between Robinhood and its biggest client.
Twitter responses included a number of accusations that Citadel photoshopped the document, calling for the firm to submit to a full investigation into January’s timeline, and simply letting them have it, Twitter-style.
But all of that rage was not for nothing.
Using the energy of their anti-Griffin crusade, the stock market’s merry band of upstarts pushed their favorite ticker symbols well into the green on Thursday, even as they eyed a new rotation and stepped back from taking credit for one new high-flyer.
GameStop
GME,
closed down just 0.3% after a late-afternoon surge into positive territory, and AMC
AMC,
soared 7%, while stocks like BlackBerry
BB,
and Koss
KOSS,
closed higher as well.
On…
Read More: Meme-stock traders revel in more anti-Citadel and Robinhood drama as