Washington DC – Representatives of financial services company Robinhood and the online discussion platform Reddit are testifying before the House financial services committee about recent wild trades in GameStop, which captured the public's attention in January.

The Thursday hearing will include testimony from Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev, Reddit chief executive and co-founder Steve Huffman, and Keith Gill, a trading star known on Reddit by the moniker Roaring Kitty.

Gabriel Plotkin, the chief executive of the investment management company Melvin Capital, and the chief executive of the hedge fund Citadel, Kenneth Griffin, will also testify.

Gyrations in GameStop stock rocked Wall Street and grabbed the attention of US lawmakers after a group of small investors organized on Reddit to drive up the stock price of the video game retailer, issuing a blow to hedge funds that had heavily shorted the stock.

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The moves caused wild market volatility. Some experts warned that these small scale investors could get burned in the long run.

Others framed it as a David-Goliath scenario, in which small scale investors successfully coordinated against established funds that made big bets against specific stocks.

Robinhood, which touts itself as a company that promotes investing for the common man, later banned the buying of shares in GameStop and other companies affected by the Reddit investors.

The unprecedented situation led to calls from US lawmakers for congressional testimony and potential regulation.