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GameStop's stock has continued to make big moves, briefly crossing $450 a share on Thursday, fueled by Reddit users collectively taking on the Wall Street establishment. But individual investors looking to make trades have faced multiple issues on trading sites and apps over recent days, with many experiencing service disruptions, according to Bloomberg.

Robinhood explained the move in a blog post Thursday morning, just before the stock exchanges opened: "In light of recent volatility, we are restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only, including $AMC, $BB, $BBBY, $EXPR, $GME, $KOSS, $NAKD and $NOK."

GameStop's stock price had hovered between $4 and $20 for the past year -- until Jan. 13 when it began skyrocketing. It closed Wednesday at $346.37. 

All of this frenetic investment activity might be a cause for optimism if it seemed connected to a healthier economy. But the stock market and asset prices have been inflating and enriching the world’s wealthiest even as most people have faced greater job instability and slow wage growth.

So far the sudden enthusiasm for GameStop’s stock hasn’t done much for the company itself, much less for the employees behind the counters.

As Henwood, the writer in Jacobin, has pointed out, surprisingly little of what happens in the stock market is about raising money for companies to make real-world productive investments. Prior to the pandemic, corporations seemed short of ideas for what to do with their cash and often forked it over to their shareholders (and their stock-option-paid executives) by buying back their own stock

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The clash between retail traders and Wall Street professionals that sparked roller coaster rides in the shares of GameStop Corp may pose a risk to dozens of other stocks and potentially create a headache for the broader market, analysts said.

GameStop shares were recently down 25% on Thursday as retail brokerages Robinhood Markets Inc and Interactive Brokers Inc, restricted purchases of the stock, along with several others that have catapulted in recent days, including AMC Entertainment Group Inc and BlackBerry Ltd.. Even so, the video game retailer’s shares have gained more than 500% since last Thursday.

J.P. Morgan earlier this week named 45 stocks that may be susceptible to short squeezes and similar “fragility events,” including real estate company Macerich Co, restaurant chain Cheesecake Factory Inc and clothing subscription service Stitch Fix Inc