That's not the sense I'm getting at all. Oh im sure there are those involved who fit the description. But for most, it isn't about making money at all. Its about financial warfare with "the man".
The overwhelming majority of examples I have seen so far are only concerned with causing hedges funds to collapse and to put brokers out of business, personal losses be damned.
And I see little reason to doubt this. Everyone knows Gamestop is a company with an obsolete business model, a bad reputation and little chance of turning things around. Everyone knows that there is little to no chance of making any money on holding. But $500 isn't a lot of money. 3 million people each putting $500 in to GME is. Obviously there are some who are putting in far more. Current market cap is $24 billion. Its coming from somewhere. I suspect once this is all over we will find that some major players got involved as well and put a lot of money into GME to topple their rivals. But that isn't the main narrative and most of the people buying in are doing so to make a statement.
This has started a discussion. A lot of people are getting a 101 education on how the stock market really works and they are learning just how little it actually has to do with real value and the economy. I predict there will be serious public pressure for regulatory reform. People are going to want to make shorting and high speed trading illegal.
> A lot of people are getting a 101 education on how the stock market really works and they are learning just how little it actually has to do with real value and the economy.
I don’t see how you can draw this conclusion from these events. If this level of price volatility was commonly caused by market participants, then it would be such big news when it happens. They’re not common at all, they represent a small number of events where a small number of shares were traded overvalue for very short periods of time. Nobody is concerned that stocks are overvalued because short squeezes are just happening all the time. Squeezes are also short sellers getting punished for trying to profit off somebody else’s losses, which as far as I can tell most people think is very morally righteous. The only time they’re controversial is when intervention occurs to rescue the short seller.
The overwhelming majority of examples I have seen so far are only concerned with causing hedges funds to collapse and to put brokers out of business, personal losses be damned.
And I see little reason to doubt this. Everyone knows Gamestop is a company with an obsolete business model, a bad reputation and little chance of turning things around. Everyone knows that there is little to no chance of making any money on holding. But $500 isn't a lot of money. 3 million people each putting $500 in to GME is. Obviously there are some who are putting in far more. Current market cap is $24 billion. Its coming from somewhere. I suspect once this is all over we will find that some major players got involved as well and put a lot of money into GME to topple their rivals. But that isn't the main narrative and most of the people buying in are doing so to make a statement.
This has started a discussion. A lot of people are getting a 101 education on how the stock market really works and they are learning just how little it actually has to do with real value and the economy. I predict there will be serious public pressure for regulatory reform. People are going to want to make shorting and high speed trading illegal.