Wall Street's bets against GameStop went horribly wrong when users from a Reddit forum decided to bet on its success instead. Now billions of dollars are at stake.
Wall Street investors have bet struggling video game retailer GameStop would fail for a long time. At points, it's been one of the most heavily bet-against stocks on the market. But over the past few months, a bunch of Reddit users have been pushing up the value of GameStop shares instead. At first, it was because they believed the company was better off than the Wall Street doubters believed. As GameStop value has soared, Wall Street's bad bets cost investors billions of dollars.
Now the Reddit users want the price to rise even more, as they wage an epic battle against Wall Street.
At one point, the Reddit users from the forum r/WallStreetBets sent the stock up more than 14,300% (you read that right), though it's gone through wild fluctuations. They've spread their strategy to struggling movie chain AMC, too. In their wake, these online market players have upended Wall Street, creating a drama filled with memes, app trading disasters and weird internet lingo as big-time investors have lost billions of dollars.
It's a crazy story, complete with cameos by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and CNBC financial commentator and former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer. There's even Michael Burry, one of the subjects of the book and movie The Big Short, who happens to be a prominent investor in GameStop.
Even Silicon Valley found a way to get in the middle of this mess. It's wild.
Source.
Wall Street investors have bet struggling video game retailer GameStop would fail for a long time. At points, it's been one of the most heavily bet-against stocks on the market. But over the past few months, a bunch of Reddit users have been pushing up the value of GameStop shares instead. At first, it was because they believed the company was better off than the Wall Street doubters believed. As GameStop value has soared, Wall Street's bad bets cost investors billions of dollars.
Now the Reddit users want the price to rise even more, as they wage an epic battle against Wall Street.
At one point, the Reddit users from the forum r/WallStreetBets sent the stock up more than 14,300% (you read that right), though it's gone through wild fluctuations. They've spread their strategy to struggling movie chain AMC, too. In their wake, these online market players have upended Wall Street, creating a drama filled with memes, app trading disasters and weird internet lingo as big-time investors have lost billions of dollars.
It's a crazy story, complete with cameos by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and CNBC financial commentator and former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer. There's even Michael Burry, one of the subjects of the book and movie The Big Short, who happens to be a prominent investor in GameStop.
Even Silicon Valley found a way to get in the middle of this mess. It's wild.
Source.