Bulletins

SEC: GameStop trading frenzy ‘tested the capacity of our markets’

The 45-page report listed key areas that merit further investigation.

A trading app shows shares of GameStop during the January rally.

The SEC released its much awaited report on the GameStop trading frenzy.

Photo: Clay Banks/Unsplash

The Securities and Exchange Commission said the January GameStop trading frenzy "tested the capacity and resiliency of our securities market in a way that few could have anticipated," as the agency released its much awaited report on the incident.

"GameStop was just one of many so-called meme stocks that exhibited significant price volatility, trading volume and attention in the markets," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a video announcing the release of the report Monday afternoon.

The controversial trades offered "an opportunity to study how we can further ensure that the markets are working for everyday investors," he said.

The 45-page report listed key areas that merit further investigation, including "events that may have caused brokerage firms to restrict trading" and "the use of predictive data analytics to market to each of us differently through digital engagement practices," otherwise known as gamification.

Benjamin Pimentel

Benjamin Pimentel ( @benpimentel) covers crypto and fintech from San Francisco. He has reported on many of the biggest tech stories over the past 20 years for the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch and Business Insider, from the dot-com crash, the rise of cloud computing, social networking and AI to the impact of the Great Recession and the COVID crisis on Silicon Valley and beyond. He can be reached at bpimentel@protocol.com or via Google Voice at (925) 307-9342.

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