GameStop is a bricks-and-mortar retail store in the US that has been struggling during the pandemic. Picture: Chris Delmas / AFPIt’s a stock market strategy called “short selling”, which is basically when investors make a profit by selling stock they think is going to dive in value and then buy it back at a lower price.All eyes were on GameStop. Even the White House was monitoring GameStop’s activity, including newly sworn-in Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
“The commission is closely monitoring and evaluating the extreme price volatility of certain stocks’ trading prices over the past several days,” the SEC said in a statement, a day after some platforms restricted trading in GameStop, AMC Entertainment and other stocks caught up in the surge. Their tactics have caused massive spikes in share prices, and on Thursday Robinhood, decided to limit trades on the most volatile stocks.
One user, Omar, a son of immigrants who threw all his money into the investment, lost thousands of dollars in the frenzy. High-risk trades come with the tantalising possibility of high rewards. The site is an array of wild losses and gains, with many users taking risky bets by putting in all their savings into a single investment, often without much experience.
But by July 30, before he could let his wild dreams of being rich get away from him, the portfolio had bled US$220,000 practically overnight.
Reddit users consider themselves winners regardless of the outcome, for sticking it to hedge funds that have gone unchecked for so long. How good is it that we have retail regulating short selling?
stostheboss
Who wrote this article - the office janitor? It's the hedge funds who were looking to make quick money by shorting the stock. Redditors, hellbent on giving them a taste of their own medicine, bought up large in a bid to counter their sell position - which has clearly worked
After decades of facilitating price manipulations with slap on the wrist fines, amazingly the SEC suddenly realizes it has a pair of balls. The entire industry is a cesspit of quid pro quo criminality & this fightback against tyranny has exposed all the villains, incl govt