Sherwood Robin Hood Society gets unexpected global interest following American stock market controversy

The Robin Hood Society believes its Twitter handle @robinhood was mistaken for that of the popular stock trading app.

A spokesperson wrote: “Lovely to have all these new followers. Can we just check that you know you are following the World Wide Robin Hood Society in Nottingham and not the Robin Hood App. If so, a big welcome from Sherwood.”

The tweet was met with positivity from many who had made the mistake, and brought the society an unprecedented level of publicity.

The society added: "On behalf of the Worldwide Robin Hood Society, I would just like to thank you all for your support, follows and kind words. This truly has been an extraordinary day.”

This week, the Robinhood stock trading app was used by amateur traders to buy up large amounts of stocks in companies where the price was expected to fall. The app has since curbed this activity, causing outcry.

This pushed the prices of the stock up. Many Wall Street firms had sold borrowed shares in the companies that had falling stock value.

They did this with a view to buying them back at a cheaper price, returning them to where they were loaned from, and profiting from the difference.

This is a process known as ‘shorting’.

However, the rising share prices due to the disruption from the amateurs meant these firms lost vast sums of money, and in one case a hedge fund went bankrupt.