Stock markets: Robinhood’s rescue is a rallying call for the rising army of retail traders

When the zero-commission trading app recently went public, it endured a bad first and second day of trading, until an investment by one of Wall Street’s rock stars pushed its capitalisation to almost $57bn – a potential sign of things to come for the stock markets

Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, founders of Robinhood, on Wall Street after the company went public last month. Picture: Getty

In the social media forums where retail investors swap tickers and trading ideas, Cathie Wood, one of Wall Street's most high-profile investors, has cult status.

To Redditors, who refer to her by her first name, she is known for her big swings on high-growth tech stocks. Through her fund Ark Invest, she has backed Tesla and Square and is bullish on Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange platform.

Her decision to invest in certain companies is seen ...