Reddit, u/wallstreetbets & GameStop: market manipulation is OK if you’re rich

[Richard Pryor]

You have been following CNN or main steeam media on this havnt you.

It has been impressive the level of corruption and media influence to try and bury this insurrection by the little guy.

First the media lied about reddit and silver.
Then gamestop shares were unable to be bought, crashing the price.
The media are now labelling reddit users as alt right to try and poison the water even more.
And whether true or not, it has been massively reported everytime Gamestop shares fall, which panics shareholders more into selling.
Headlines everyday about gamestop crashing.

I just saw another story where the media are now labelling the reddit shareholders as lonely single guys.

Gamestop would still be booming right now if the media didnt side with the hedgefunds.

Nope, have been following r/wallstreetbets which seems like a Jim Jones cult at this point.

Think it started as a decent laugh, a bit of corruption got involved, and you have nutjobs who poured their life savings into a meme and now have to fuel their confirmation bias to get over the fact they got screwed.

The issue is that a retail store whose primary business model was securing pre-orders from grandparents and screwing over people on returned games policy was never going to be a Fortune 500 company. It is simply not a business which is worth that much money in 2021. In this respect it is basically the dot-com bubble all over again.

You have the parallel narrative of the shorts which in my mind is 100% unrelated to the above. Considering the narrative of evil Wall Street being the only thing holding physical game sales back from being the biggest business in the world uses the share price crashing as evidence it means people will stay deluded forever (since the evidence that Gamestop is inherently only worth 5 to 15 dollars a share and will stabilize around that point is also the share price crashing).

 

[Richard Pryor]

Early days yet innit? Still 10 dollars higher than a few weeks back

Depends on what people are aiming to get out of it. As I see it you have a people with very different perspectives.

Mine is that Gamestop price was artificially lowered with short shenanigans to below $1 or whatever it was. The true value was probably about 10 times that. Because this caught the publics attention the share price exploded to over $400 which was unprecedented and caused a new narrative to take over of bankrupting Wall Street and destroying the economic system, or, that Gamestop was secretly the best company ever and would actually justify that share price.

This is where people became detached from reality, and actually thought they could get Gamestop over $1000 a share. You then also had people convincing themselves Gamestop was actually worth that much and therefore buying shares at $450 thinking it was a sound investment. As the share price started declining back to a reasonable level the previous narrative took over again as people wanted to convince themselves they didn't get greedy and misread the situation, it was all a big conspiracy (it was a conspiracy at the start, but the conspiracy was driving share price down from $10 to $1, not from $1 million to $1).

 

[Marcel Proust]

Nope, have been following r/wallstreetbets which seems like a Jim Jones cult at this point.

Think it started as a decent laugh, a bit of corruption got involved, and you have nutjobs who poured their life savings into a meme and now have to fuel their confirmation bias to get over the fact they got screwed.

The issue is that a retail store whose primary business model was securing pre-orders from grandparents and screwing over people on returned games policy was never going to be a Fortune 500 company. It is simply not a business which is worth that much money in 2021. In this respect it is basically the dot-com bubble all over again.

You have the parallel narrative of the shorts which in my mind is 100% unrelated to the above. Considering the narrative of evil Wall Street being the only thing holding physical game sales back from being the biggest business in the world uses the share price crashing as evidence it means people will stay deluded forever (since the evidence that Gamestop is inherently only worth 5 to 15 dollars a share and will stabilize around that point is also the share price crashing).

Last I heard u/DeepFValue was sitting on $14million so it's more than a laugh for that basement dweller

 

[Richard Pryor]

Last I heard u/DeepFValue was sitting on $14million so it's more than a laugh for that basement dweller

Yeah, at that stage (before media hype) it was actually a sound investment, since the share price will probably never drop as low as it was before. Once it was exploding the only guaranteed value was triggering anxiety in billionaires which was probably worth it so long as people understood they probably were not going to actually make any money out of it by just sitting on the shares. I think a lot of people don't see it that way and are waiting on another boom which is not coming.

 

[The Passenger]

What's the latest word on whether shorters and hedge funds having covered their positions or still over exposed?

Obviously as the price has dropped their exposure has dropped too.

Short interest was calculated at 120% in one article I read, which is what started this whole thing.

The business itself was irrelevant. I don't think anyone genuinely thought the market share according to the stock market was indicative of its actual business value. If anyone was posting this, I'd say more likely lying through their teeth (digitally) trying to get more people to buy.

I haven't even touched on the buying restrictions which is all levels of dodginess.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

What's the latest word on whether shorters and hedge funds having covered their positions or still over exposed?

Obviously as the price has dropped their exposure has dropped too.

Short interest was calculated at 120% in one article I read, which is what started this whole thing.

The business itself was irrelevant. I don't think anyone genuinely thought the market share according to the stock market was indicative of its actual business value. If anyone was posting this, I'd say more likely lying through their teeth (digitally) trying to get more people to buy.

I haven't even touched on the buying restrictions which is all levels of dodginess.

there are three types of buyers out there:

1) the suicide bombers
they want to destroy the hedge funds. wont be selling, and they are deathriding this thing to the end

2) the profit seekers
they read stories of 13 year olds making $500k paper profits, and think they are missing something. These guys bought too late, and will lose chase (if past behaviour is an indicator)

3) The "remember whens"
A bunch of millennials who used to shop at GameStop as kids, and blame the hedge funds for destroying a part of their childhood. apparently its a fair number of the buyers (baffles me, but people are idiots). These guys will be burnt because GameStop is dead man walking, thanks to people like them who buy games on steam but like the idea of GameStop existing still

 

[FireKrakouer]

there are three types of buyers out there:

1) the suicide bombers
they want to destroy the hedge funds. wont be selling, and they are deathriding this thing to the end

2) the profit seekers
they read stories of 13 year olds making $500k paper profits, and think they are missing something. These guys bought too late, and will lose chase (if past behaviour is an indicator)

3) The "remember whens"
A bunch of millennials who used to shop at GameStop as kids, and blame the hedge funds for destroying a part of their childhood. apparently its a fair number of the buyers (baffles me, but people are idiots). These guys will be burnt because GameStop is dead man walking, thanks to people like them who buy games on steam but like the idea of GameStop existing still

I don't think number 3 really exist. Millennials grew up with the internet and understand that many brick and mortar stores have been hoovered up by it. There may be sentimental value for some to "support" the business, but I think the vast majority understand the eventual reality.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

I don't think number 3 really exist. Millennials grew up with the internet and understand that many brick and mortar stores have been hoovered up by it. There may be sentimental value for some to "support" the business, but I think the vast majority understand the eventual reality.

i was surprised too. but like with EB Games here, millenials grew up trading in their old games at GameStop, ordering their new consoles from GameStop.

its where they got their stuff as a kid, not today or even recently

 

[Chameleon75]

What's the latest word on whether shorters and hedge funds having covered their positions or still over exposed?

Obviously as the price has dropped their exposure has dropped too.

Short interest was calculated at 120% in one article I read, which is what started this whole thing.

The business itself was irrelevant. I don't think anyone genuinely thought the market share according to the stock market was indicative of its actual business value. If anyone was posting this, I'd say more likely lying through their teeth (digitally) trying to get more people to buy.

I haven't even touched on the buying restrictions which is all levels of dodginess.

the short interest is much the same, but they would’ve closed out earlier positions and re shorted at the high, the price spike was triggered by hedge funds closing out earlier short positions, then Elon musk tweets about it and a pile on drove it higher.

The original redditers weren’t onto it for a squeeze that was a bonus and those guys have sold out. The ones left holding are the newcomers that came in at the end. They’re looking at the short interest and thinking it will squeeze again, but the equation has changed. The squeeze was possible because the funds shorted but the price recovered and sat above their short position for several months bleeding them. I can’t see the same happening now given they shorted around the high which is unlikely to be tested again let alone exceed for several months like last time.

 

[Chameleon75]

there are three types of buyers out there:

1) the suicide bombers
they want to destroy the hedge funds. wont be selling, and they are deathriding this thing to the end

2) the profit seekers
they read stories of 13 year olds making $500k paper profits, and think they are missing something. These guys bought too late, and will lose chase (if past behaviour is an indicator)

3) The "remember whens"
A bunch of millennials who used to shop at GameStop as kids, and blame the hedge funds for destroying a part of their childhood. apparently its a fair number of the buyers (baffles me, but people are idiots). These guys will be burnt because GameStop is dead man walking, thanks to people like them who buy games on steam but like the idea of GameStop existing still

You missed a 4th, guys that bought 12-18mths ago because they saw a company trading at $3 and with a change of management thought there might be some long term value, took a punt, got lucky with the later pile on, and have since cashed out.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

You missed a 4th, guys that bought 12-18mths ago because they saw a company trading at $3 and with a change of management thought there might be some long term value, took a punt, got lucky with the later pile on, and have since cashed out.

there werent many of them, there is a reason it was worth $3

 

[Chameleon75]

there werent many of them, there is a reason it was worth $3

it’s a crap stock no doubt, but it was trading at $25 before it was shorted, and the nature of that forum is that they take risky bets, and they bet on the price rising and got lucky, that’s the original guys that bought in a while ago not the recent ones

 

[Ned_Flanders]

it’s a crap stock no doubt, but it was trading at $25 before it was shorted, and the nature of that forum is that they take risky bets, and they bet on the price rising and got lucky, that’s the original guys that bought in a while ago not the recent ones

dont disagree with that, the originals will do well

everyone they suckered in for the ride will get fried

 

[Evolved1]

GME still overvalued.

 

[Marcel Proust]

GME still overvalued.

+15%

 

[Chameleon75]

+15%

borrowing rates dropped to 8.9%, it’s not squeezing again, it’s over, throwing good money after bad now.

 

[Deaneus!]

What's the latest word on whether shorters and hedge funds having covered their positions or still over exposed?

short positions are published Tuesday

 

[Eagle Wrath]

Be a good time to buy a few Gamestop shares.
It amuses me that Melvin Capital sold out when the price was around 350 a share (Wed 27th Jan), losing billions.

 

[Chief]

It will be interesting to see what their next one is.

With a couple of million more followers they could do some real damage.

 

[Marcel Proust]

It will be interesting to see what their next one is.

With a couple of million more followers they could do some real damage.

One bloke made just under a million from about 1000$ on gme

Which is pretty handy

 

[Mofra]

It will be interesting to see what their next one is.

With a couple of million more followers they could do some real damage.

Beancoin, clearly

 

[Eagle Wrath]

It will be interesting to see what their next one is.

With a couple of million more followers they could do some real damage.

You should get bigfooty on the stock market. Get bigfooty and reddit readers buying up.

 

[The Sultan]

It was just one of the blips in the financial market the some people got in on early and made a s**t ton of money: ie tulip bulbs from a long time ago (if iirc my year 11 economics), dot com, POGS, shorting housing bonds, bit coin etc. People will now try and replicate it over the coming years with minimal success.

 

[Marcel Proust]

 

[Marcel Proust]

Up 20 odd percent