![US Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who sits on the House financial services committee, said trading apps such as Robinhood should face a hearing over a decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock](https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/FN-AM511_AOC_29_M_20210129061357.jpg)
A number of major figures in the worlds of finance, technology and politics have spoken up in favour of retail investors flooding into heavily-shorted stocks, as hedge funds battle to stay afloat.
Retail traders, originating from a group called WallStreetBets on online forum Reddit, have been piling into shorted stocks such as GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry and Nokia in recent days.