GameStop Stock surges due to meme traders

[Agema]

I still buy from mine pretty regularly; but then I’ve had superlative fortune that the ones I buy from aren’t staffed by monosyllabic holograms. They’re staffed by nice and passionate people. Not a lot of PC gaming nous in them but that scene went digital long ago.

One of the last things I remembered from a physical store was some mother asking a store clerk about games that her son might enjoy, and she described a few games he played. And as far as I can tell, the clerk looked at the shelves and picked out three random big hype games, none of which were like the games she'd mentioned. After the clerk left, I gently butted in and gave her my opinions about what she'd better off buying.

If a store doesn't have passionate, well-informed staff to give their customers something extra when there are so many options and alternatives, they don't have anything and may as well go bust.

 

[Agema]

You're not that far from the glorious communist utopia of North Korea ya know, surely it can't be too hard to move there.

He's not wrong, though. An awful lot of "pro market" posturing conceals nakedly pro-business sentiment: constraining free practices to the benefit of business owners and established big interests.

In general terms, a lot of capitalism is in practice the government choosing winners and losers, or perhaps more strictly twisting the odds. Not necessarily full on crony capitalism, but certainly competitions between economic sectors and businesses for favourable policy - hence the vast sums of lobbying money flowing into politics. No-one wants to admit they are nakedly favouring their biggest lobbyists, and "capitalism" and "free market" works as a very convenient cover.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Go for BB for the trifecta.

Sure, why not.
And a fraction of GameStop, as a treat.

(Dunno how I feel about fractional shares as a concept, but you play the game as it exists, not as you want it to exist)

Side note: getting the same vibe from this as I got from watching Goonswarm in EVE Online back in the day. Not necessarily a force for good, but...they showed how the game could be played instead of how the game should be played. And they took on the devs and won.

 

[Seanchaidh]

edit:

Friedrich Engels had a take on this in 1880:

 

[warmachine]

It wasn't really hedge funds behind the 2008 crash, it was the investment banks creating the investment vehicles. And the mortgage brokers throwing risk standards out the window and the rating agencies throwing their own reputation out the window.

 

[09philj]

Has the spiffingbrit released a 'the stockmarket is a perfectly balanced game' video yet?.

Are stock markets crucial to capitalism? Can we have one without the other?
Does it actually do anything good for society?

The essence of capitalism is that companies and other property are owned privately and the owner reserves the right to all profits associated with that property. Being able to sell shares if that ownership on an open market isn't strictly necessary, since businesses are held in the same ownership their whole existence and bought and sold in private arrangements all the time, but getting rid of the market would radically change how the economy works. Also, stocks are not the only things traded on Wall Street. You've also got:
- Commodities (Basically any raw material that can be bought and sold in bulk.)
- Financial products (EG buying the rights to some debt)
- Foreign currency exchange (AKA Forex, buying other country's currencies)
- Derivatives (Products whose value depends on the value of another product, such as forwards, options, swaps, and futures)

 

[stroopwafel]

Reddit really brought some of those short sellers on their knees. Hedge fund Melvin capital might even run into financial problems lmao.

I hope they can maintain a front though. When users start selling it the stock will probably plummet just as hard. The share price for that outdated company is completely inflated

 

[Seanchaidh]

screwing short-sellers is all fine and well, but it seems limited in its impact. they can just not short-sell. some places even have banned the practice of short-selling for awhile now. there is absolutely nothing about short-selling that is necessary to the smooth functioning of a stock market.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

there is absolutely nothing about short-selling that is necessary to the smooth functioning of a stock market.

Exactly. It's just another scheme some very rich people invented to get even richer at the expense of companies that employ actual workers and make actual things. A deliberate effort to extract wealth upwards that can only harm those of us who aren't big stock-market players.

 

[tstorm823]

screwing short-sellers is all fine and well, but it seems limited in its impact. they can just not short-sell. some places even have banned the practice of short-selling for awhile now. there is absolutely nothing about short-selling that is necessary to the smooth functioning of a stock market.

Fair and free trade is something that depends on transparency, and short selling, much like insider trading and other practices, is a way to screw people over with hidden or misleading information.

 

[tippy2k2]

Robinhood (an incredibly popular app for your Average Joe trader) has stopped people from being able to purchase Gamestop Stonk (plus a handful of other "meme stock") for the time being at least...

Robinhood blocks purchases of GameStop, AMC, and others after days of Reddit-fueled rallies

The move comes after traders organizing on Reddit furiously bid up the shares in an unprecedented short squeeze.

markets.businessinsider.com

Fun Fact (at least according to buddy in Discord); Citadel (the group getting pounded to hell by Reddit) is a business partner of Robinhood. I can see people also saying that but I can't find anything "official" saying that so take that part with a grain of salt but it looks legit based on what I can find.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

It is cathartic to see the upper class grifter addicts panic and shitfit over other people playing their dirty games against them, and to see way less people buying their flimsy excuses for once.

 

[Generals]

Fair and free trade is something that depends on transparency, and short selling, much like insider trading and other practices, is a way to screw people over with hidden or misleading information.

Why is that? Short selling isn't a way to screw over anyone. It's a bet on a company going down instead of up, a very very risky bet at that. Nobody is forced to sell their shares and make the prices plummet just because some hedge fund managers are shorting a stock. Case in point: this topic's subject.

 

[Baffle]

Please. My free market. She is very sick.

 

[09philj]

The retail traders are about to be very upset to discover that Capitalism ultimately means that the people with capital can do more or less whatever they want with the economy and not face any repercussions.

Fair and free trade is something that depends on transparency, and short selling, much like insider trading and other practices, is a way to screw people over with hidden or misleading information.

There's no hidden information involved in short selling. It's a sequence of very simple, clear actions.
1. The Shorter enters a contract with shareholders where the shareholders receives compensation for the shorter temporarily using their stock as they see fit.
2. The Shorter sells the stock to other shareholders, who can then do whatever they want with it (Except short it)
3. Time passes.
4. The Shorter purchases an amount of stock equivalent to the amount originally borrowed.

The only unknown information is the intent behind the buy and sell decisions of the involved parties, which is a truth that applies to any given stock market trade. Whenever you buy or sell a stock, you don't know why the other party is engaging in the other side of the deal.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

It probably says something about Capitalism that the Capitalists are blocking me from becoming a Capitalist.

I don't want to hear *shit* about the free market

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Funny where are the ever lovely "Private companies can do what they like" crowd?

Because you'd think they'd really want to come out to support private companies all blocking private citizens being able to do things.

I mean I think it's bullshit to do that but what do I know?

 

[tstorm823]

Case in point: this topic's subject.

Well, exactly. The short sellers here expected to make money based on other people being ignorant of or indifferent to what they were doing. This is what short selling becomes in a transparent market. The practice isn't hiding information, but it is dependent on ignorance to work.

 

[Generals]

Well, exactly. The short sellers here expected to make money based on other people being ignorant of or indifferent to what they were doing. This is what short selling becomes in a transparent market. The practice isn't hiding information, but it is dependent on ignorance to work.

Not really because usually it is exactly the transparency which can make short selling so devastating. When the market notices a stock is being shorted a lot it usually follows by selling. A fund shorting a stock is a fund telling the market: we believe this will go down. And we all know how the market loves some herd mentality. What this event has shown is that the herd mentality can be broken.

 

[Dreiko]

I don't see why they won't get sued to hell by gamestop and those other businesses for blocking people from buying their stocks. They didn't do that with stock buybacks but they do it now? Please.