Provided by Dow Jones
Jan 27, 2021 10:48 PM UTC Shares of banks and other financial institutions fell as Wall Street was gripped by a titanic struggle between Robinhood day traders and hedge funds on the stock market. Day traders have seized the upper hand. Melvin Capital, a hedge-fund firm founded by high-profile trader Gabe Plotkin closed out its short positions on videogame chain GameStop after a host of speculators organized on messaging service Reddit to orchestrate a short squeeze. A squeeze is when short-sellers like Melvin are forced to buy back stock they ve borrowed in hopes of a decline by an upward spiral in the price of the stock.