(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators are combing social media and message board posts for signs that fraud played a role in dizzying stock swings for GameStop Corp., AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and other companies, according to people familiar with the matter.The scrutiny is being done in tandem with a review of trading data to assess whether such posts were part of a manipulative effort to drive up share prices, said the people, who requested anonymity because the review isn’t public. The regulator is specifically on the hunt for misinformation meant to improperly tilt the market, the people said.

(彭博社)——据知情人士透露，美国证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission)的调查人员正在对社交媒体和留言板上的帖子进行调查，寻找欺诈在GameStop Corp.、AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.和其他公司令人眼花缭乱的股价波动中扮演了重要角色的迹象。这些知情人士说，在进行审查的同时，还对交易数据进行审查，以评估这些帖子是否属于操纵行为，以推高股价。由于审查尚未公开，这些人士要求匿名。上述知情人士说，监管机构正在特别追查旨在不正当地扭曲市场的虚假信息。

The prevailing narrative is that Wall Street short-sellers were caught flatfooted over the past two weeks as retail traders banded together via Reddit message boards and bought up stocks that hedge funds were betting against. But some market participants, including famed short-seller Carson Block, have started to speculate that the short squeezes that drove GameStop, AMC and other stocks to exorbitant heights might have also involved professional investors who either took advantage of the Reddit-fueled frenzy or helped hype it.

普遍的说法是，过去两周，散户交易员通过Reddit留言板联合起来，买进对冲基金做空的股票，让华尔街的卖空者措手不及。但包括著名卖空者卡森•布洛克(Carson Block)在内的一些市场参与者已经开始猜测，推动GameStop、AMC和其他股票飙升至过高水平的卖空压力，可能也涉及到专业投资者，他们要么利用了reddit引发的狂热，要么帮助炒作。

The SEC hasn’t said whether there’s anything to Block’s theory, but acting chair Allison Herren Lee said in a statement earlier this week that the agency was looking at “compliance with regulatory obligations, adequate and consistent risk disclosure, and determining if any fraudulent or manipulative behavior has occurred.”

SEC尚未说明Block的理论是否成立，但其代理主席Allison Herren Lee在本周早些时候的一份声明中表示，该机构正在考虑“是否遵守监管义务，充分和一致的风险披露，并确定是否存在任何欺诈或操纵行为。”

There is also mounting concern about the possibility of bot activity in Reddit’s WallStreetBets chat after a spokesperson for the forum told CBS News that there was a “large amount” of it and that some posts were being blocked by an automated moderation system.

此外，Reddit的WallStreetBets聊天平台的一位发言人告诉哥伦比亚广播公司(CBS)，聊天平台上存在“大量”bot活动，一些帖子被自动审核系统屏蔽，这也引发了人们对bot活动可能性的越来越多的担忧。

Brad Bennett, a former enforcement chief for brokerage regulator the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, said cases involving talking up stocks aren’t easy because they often require evidence that someone made a material misstatement of fact.

经纪监管机构美国金融业监管局(Financial Industry Regulatory Authority)前执行主管布拉德•贝内特(Brad Bennett)说，涉及炒作股票的案件并不容易，因为它们往往需要有人做出重大错误陈述的证据。

“It’s no crime to go on a website and say, ‘I think the stock’s going to go up,”’ Bennett said. “If people choose to follow you, none of that’s a violation or a crime either.”

贝内特说:“在一个网站上说，‘我认为股价会上涨，’这并不是犯罪。”“如果人们选择追随你，这也不是违法或犯罪。”

While shares of GameStop have sharply retreated this week, pressure is growing on the SEC to figure out what happened. Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of Wall Street’s leading critics in Washington, has demanded that the SEC investigate the “casino-like swings.” Both the House and Senate are planning to hold hearings on the market mania, which triggered big losses for some retail investors and prompted Robinhood Markets, whose app was used by many of the traders, to raise $3.4 billion to cover collateral demands.

尽管GameStop的股价本周大幅下跌，但美国证交会(SEC)面临越来越大的压力，要求其弄清到底发生了什么。华盛顿批评华尔街的主要人士之一、参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦(Elizabeth Warren)要求证交会调查这种“赌场般的波动”。参众两院都计划就市场狂热举行听证会。市场狂热导致一些散户投资者损失惨重，并促使罗宾汉市场(Robinhood Markets)筹集了34亿美元，以满足抵押品需求。许多交易员使用了罗宾汉市场的应用程序。

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has also called for a meeting of U.S. financial regulators including the SEC, taking her first public step to address the tumult.

美国财政部长耶伦(Janet Yellen)也要求与包括SEC在内的美国金融监管机构召开会议，这是她为应对市场动荡采取的首次公开举措。

“Secretary Yellen believes the integrity of markets is important and has asked for a discussion of recent volatility in financial markets and whether recent activities are consistent with investor protection and fair and efficient markets,” the Treasury Department said in a late Tuesday statement.

“耶伦部长认为市场的完整性很重要，并要求讨论金融市场近期的波动，以及近期的活动是否符合投资者保护和公平有效的市场，”美国财政部在周二晚间的一份声明中说。

While the SEC doesn’t regulate social media or message boards, the agency has brought cases against people accused of making false claims about stocks online. In one case in 2000, the agency went after a 15-year-old for buying microcap stocks and then hyping the shares before quickly selling them for a profit. The teenager agreed to repay more than $270,000 in profit to resolve the allegations. In December, the SEC sued a day trader for planting false rumors about companies.

虽然证券交易委员会不监管社交媒体或留言板，但该机构已对那些被控在网上对股票进行虚假陈述的人提起诉讼。在2000年的一个案例中，该机构盯上了一名15岁的少年，原因是他购买了微型股，然后大肆炒作，然后迅速卖出，获利。这名少年同意偿还27万美元的利润以解决指控。去年12月，SEC起诉一名当日交易员散布有关公司的虚假谣言。

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Regulators typically start their investigations by using algorithms to hunt through tons of data to try to spot suspiciously well-timed trades, including signs that such bets were coordinated, Bennett said. Then they would try to match up those trades with posts on social media, while sorting out who wrote the posts and what their intent was, he said.

Bennett称，监管机构在开始调查时，通常会使用算法搜索大量数据，试图发现可疑的时机恰当的交易，包括此类押注有协调的迹象。他说，然后他们会试图将这些交易与社交媒体上的帖子联系起来，同时弄清楚是谁发的帖子，以及他们的意图是什么。

“It’s not something that’s ever resolved in hours, or even days,” Bennett said. “It’s hard gumshoe work.”

“这不是几个小时，甚至几天就能解决的问题，”贝内特说。“这是一项很难的侦查工作。”

For the reasons Bennett outlines, SEC investigations often take months or even years to complete so it’s likely that the GameStop tumult will be long over by the time the probes wrap up. Still, the agency’s findings could have implications for the broader retail market and lead to policy changes for short-selling, trade settlement, online apps and disclosure rules.

由于Bennett所述的原因，SEC的调查通常需要数月甚至数年的时间才能完成，所以在调查结束时，GameStop风波可能已经过去很久了。尽管如此，该机构的调查结果可能会对更广泛的零售市场产生影响，并导致卖空、贸易结算、在线应用和披露规则方面的政策变化。

The SEC is also looking at how brokerages handled increased volumes and decided to restrict trading during the surge, according to the people. The agency is looking into whether the firms complied with rules and were consistent in how they made disclosures to their clients across the board when limiting transactions.

知情人士说，SEC还在调查券商如何处理交易量增加的问题，并决定在交易量激增期间限制交易。sec正在调查这些公司在限制交易时是否遵守了规定，是否在向客户全面披露信息方面保持一致。

(Updates with comment from lawyer in seventh paragraph.)

(第七段更新律师的评论。)