GameStop, the world's biggest retail video game chain has had a wild and turbulent 12 months to say the least. As the video game market continues on its inevitable trek to becoming more and more of an entirely digital industry, GameStop has clearly been struggling to adjust to the changes. GameStop drama has been covered here on GBAtemp in the past, from its switch to focusing on merchandise and legacy games, to its decision to remain open following the COVID-19 pandemic, to its reversal of that decision. However, perhaps GameStop's craziest story has very little to do with the financial success of the company itself.

Prior to this month, GME (GameStop's stock ticker)'s 5 year high was approximately $33 in April of 2016. However, that figure drastically plunged down to under $4 in 2020. This month however, that figure has absolutely skyrocketed above anybody's expectations--closing out today (January 27th) at $347.23 a share. Many factors went into this large stock price; primarily a battle waging between investors of the /r/wallstreetbets subreddit and the short seller Melvin Capital. In essence, Melvin is betting that the stock price will fall below $60 by Friday, while hundreds of thousands of investors on /r/wallstreetbets have been rallying together to keep the price above $60 in hopes that it will skyrocket even further. Allegedly, "$1,000 GME by EoW is not a meme!"

Always remember to invest at your own risk, and know that nothing posted on GBAtemp or /r/wallstreetbets regarding this situation should be construed as financial advice.

Source

 

[GhostLatte]

To the moon

 

[Silent_Gunner]

...well, that was a pleasant surprise. If only I had invested when it was that low...

 

[Chary]

So, back in March, I asked how to best get into the stock market. @Ericzander sent me an invite link to Robinhood. As part of inviting me, I got a free penny stock. GameStop, valued at $2.90.

I held onto it this whole time. Just for laughs. Look at me now.

I said this back in March. TO THE MOON, GUYS!

 

[gamecaptor]

So, sure is coincidental that Reggie gets appointed to GameStop's Board of Directors last March and now this happens. He might be an evil genius!

 

[Ericzander]

So, back in March, I asked how to best get into the stock market. @Ericzander sent me an invite link to Robinhood. As part of inviting me, I got a free penny stock. GameStop, valued at $2.90.

I held onto it this whole time. Just for laughs. Look at me now.

I said this back in March. TO THE MOON, GUYS!

This is true. It is also true that I sold my two free GME stocks that I got for inviting you and a friend for less than $4.50 each and was too scared to get back in when it rose to $60. AMA.

Edit for proof:

 

[slaphappygamer]

Yep, essential business. Lol
Wonder if they have any old NES games to sell now. Oh, wait.

 

[Foxi4]

Alone monke weak, together monke strong. Hold banana! It sure has been a wild day today. Good - in all honesty, Wall Street has no reasons to complain, they're the ones who created this ripe opportunity by betting more than they could possibly cover. Poor risk management on their part, big gains for the little guys. Make sure to keep arms and legs inside the cockpit during blast-off.

 

[Beerus]

we going to the moon, no paper hands, only diamond hands, alll hail DFV

 

[guisadop]

lmao... one of those 1-in-a-lifetime shots. could have seen your money go to 0 in an instant, but instead this happens.

 

[SecureBoot]

Gosh dang. I don't play stocks but even if I did, I would have never invested in gamestop

 

[raxadian]

Ehem.

https://wolfstreet.com/2021/01/25/a...s-collapse-54-in-hours-the-zoo-has-gone-nuts/

Manipulation, manipulation, manipulation.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Yeah but it's still a garbage store

 

[raxadian]

Yeah but it's still a garbage store

This is purely stock manipulation and nothing else.

 

[Foxi4]

This is purely stock manipulation and nothing else.

No, trying to short *138%* of available stock is manipulation, this is a correction. Retail buyers are in the right, hedge funds failed at risk management and deserve to lose. Nobody should be too big to lose, and they made a bad bet. Time to pay up.

 

[raxadian]

No, trying to short *138%* of available stock is manipulation, this is a correction. Retail buyers are in the right, hedge funds failed at risk management and deserve to lose. Nobody should be too big to lose, and they made a bad bet. Time to pay up.

Call it George if you want but is still manipulation:

https://wolfstreet.com/2021/01/25/a...s-collapse-54-in-hours-the-zoo-has-gone-nuts/

[When shares surge despite plunging revenues and a doomed brick-and-mortar business model, the stock becomes an all too obvious fodder for short sellers, including Andrew Left of short-selling firm Citron Research. GameStop has become one of the most shorted stocks out there. To close out their positions, short sellers have to buy those shares.

And then folks on the social media, particularly on Reddit, started encouraging each other to buy the shares, drive up the share price, and generate a short squeeze that would send the shares skyrocketing while panicked short sellers would have to chase those shares higher to buy them back in order to cover their positions.

And this is what happened beautifully, amplified by hedge funds trading with this crowd. It’s not the first time this happened. Tesla shares, for example, have gone through this for years. But there is at least a fantastical story for Tesla: it’s not a niche automaker with a global market share of 0.7% but some kind of information company or whatever run by a CEO who walks on water. GameStop has no story other than being a brick-and-mortar retailer caught up in the brick-and-mortar meltdown that has been going on for years.

What is hilarious about this show is how these smallish traders that were ganging together on Reddit have succeeded in doing the same thing that a few big short-sellers have done successfully for years in the opposite direction.

Short sellers, after they take their short position in a target company, come out with devastating reports – some true, some not – about that company and announce their short position. The financial media then multiplies this gleefully across the globe, and the selling of the shares sets in, by other short sellers that want to tag along and by longs dumping their holdings. And shares plunge.

Some of those cases have been called “short and distort,” sometimes laced with dubious allegations of “fraud” that then never materialized.

In other cases, short sellers turned out to be the only sheriff on Wall Street, exposing the shenanigans that should have been exposed years earlier by our cutesy watchpuppies.

The Reddit traders have now proven that both short and long traders have access to the same tools and power to manipulate share prices, and that they can make tons of money if they got in and out at the right time, or lose tons of money if they didn’t.]

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

So, back in March, I asked how to best get into the stock market. @Ericzander sent me an invite link to Robinhood. As part of inviting me, I got a free penny stock. GameStop, valued at $2.90.

I held onto it this whole time. Just for laughs. Look at me now.

I said this back in March. TO THE MOON, GUYS!

You have amazing luck

 

[Foxi4]

Call it George if you want but is still manipulation:

https://wolfstreet.com/2021/01/25/a...s-collapse-54-in-hours-the-zoo-has-gone-nuts/

[When shares surge despite plunging revenues and a doomed brick-and-mortar business model, the stock becomes an all too obvious fodder for short sellers, including Andrew Left of short-selling firm Citron Research. GameStop has become one of the most shorted stocks out there. To close out their positions, short sellers have to buy those shares.

And then folks on the social media, particularly on Reddit, started encouraging each other to buy the shares, drive up the share price, and generate a short squeeze that would send the shares skyrocketing while panicked short sellers would have to chase those shares higher to buy them back in order to cover their positions.

And this is what happened beautifully, amplified by hedge funds trading with this crowd. It’s not the first time this happened. Tesla shares, for example, have gone through this for years. But there is at least a fantastical story for Tesla: it’s not a niche automaker with a global market share of 0.7% but some kind of information company or whatever run by a CEO who walks on water. GameStop has no story other than being a brick-and-mortar retailer caught up in the brick-and-mortar meltdown that has been going on for years.

What is hilarious about this show is how these smallish traders that were ganging together on Reddit have succeeded in doing the same thing that a few big short-sellers have done successfully for years in the opposite direction.

Short sellers, after they take their short position in a target company, come out with devastating reports – some true, some not – about that company and announce their short position. The financial media then multiplies this gleefully across the globe, and the selling of the shares sets in, by other short sellers that want to tag along and by longs dumping their holdings. And shares plunge.

Some of those cases have been called “short and distort,” sometimes laced with dubious allegations of “fraud” that then never materialized.

In other cases, short sellers turned out to be the only sheriff on Wall Street, exposing the shenanigans that should have been exposed years earlier by our cutesy watchpuppies.

The Reddit traders have now proven that both short and long traders have access to the same tools and power to manipulate share prices, and that they can make tons of money if they got in and out at the right time, or lose tons of money if they didn’t.]

Putting up a public low-ball call with the intention of dumping the stock and artificially deflating its value is an invitation for retail buyers to buy in. If you throw down the gauntlet, don't be shocked when someone accepts the challenge, especially if your challenge was dumb. Convincing anyone that hundreds of thousands of independent retail traders jumped on because they "colluded" is going to be a hard sell - they did their due diligence, shared their findings on a subreddit and made independent financial decisions using their own funds. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with shorts, but at this volume it was clearly malicious - they deserve to be slapped.

 

[Maq47]

So, back in March, I asked how to best get into the stock market. @Ericzander sent me an invite link to Robinhood. As part of inviting me, I got a free penny stock. GameStop, valued at $2.90.

I held onto it this whole time. Just for laughs. Look at me now.

I said this back in March. TO THE MOON, GUYS!

@Chary rolling in the dough now.

 

[Pacheko17]

Wonder if they have Battletoads in stock now.