321–330 of 583 posts
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The first rule of Fight Club...
Except everyone knows about that sub and it does little but get the hopes of the working poor up, who then lose what little savings they have on some yolo being pushed by a more well off individual whose just having fun.
Such an epic pump and dump. Winners and losers. Prob no better time to short GME.
They're not winning. They're just minting a different set of losers and pushing the drawing out by a couple weeks. And Reddit being Reddit you can never really be sure whether organic interest is pumping the stock or if they are being manipulated by an astroturfing campaign. If day trading weren't a conflict of interest for me I'd be looking into doing something like that (and consequently not blabbing about it on HN…
Melvin capital has been forced to take multiple capital injections and bail outs, to avoid being margin called. Short sellers have mark to market losses of over $6 billion, and should the momentum continue, they will be forced to sell at the worst times (infinity short squeeze). Wall St are looking like they will be the losers.
Citadel must be loving their Robinhood order flow right now.
The jury is still deliberating whether WSB is an effective cartel or not. At the end of the day, the members total investment is so small that it doubtfully makes any difference. It is probably more analogous to Ed Thorp's Beat the Dealer. He devised an algorithm to count cards. Ran a simulation on a computer at MIT, got bankrolled, and went to Reno to test it in person. Why didn't he continue counting cards in Nevad…
Given that some of WSB's most famous posts are 'loss porn', you don't seem very familiar with it.
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> The reality is that, 50 years ago, when only the smartest people attented colleges, a college degree used to be a proxy for aptitude (a combination of intelligence and willingness to work hard). I don't believe that's true at all. Historically, in the US anyway, a university education was a wealth signal more than an intelligence or work ethic signal.
Perhaps that's true in the US. Here in Eastern Europe, University education was pretty elite (in terms of intellectual requirements) before the "democratization" of higher ed. Heck, high school before the war was most likely mentally harder than many higher degrees are today.
literally everyone defending wsb has a green username
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OK but this is not exactly risk-free. You are on the hook for the downside risk of whatever you own behind those calls. Selling covered calls comes with a lot of exposure.
it’s safer than just holding stock which is what 99% of people do...so how is that more exposure than your average long retirement account?
I’ve made millions on WSB options plays. I can finally quit my job and stop being a cubicle slave. The visceral reaction from the media on this is disgusting. Major hedge funds got caught on the wrong side of this, and have been making a huge stink about it. CNBC to the rescue, demonizing young middle class Reddit investors. This whole thing has opened my eyes to how even my FAANG compensation is peasant money, it’s…
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>It's a never-ending shit-show. At least some of us are getting rich in /r/wallstreetbets. This is sad because most of what you've said can be applied to lotteries as well, which historically has been criticized as being a "tax" on the poor. The end result is the same: people putting themselves in a worse place financially (on average), just so they can cope with their bleak existence.
/r/wsb is kind of insanity, but I’ve come to think that maybe young person can YOLO a bit against the odds somewhere in life. If something returns poorly on average, but has high payouts at the top it might just work out. Your life won’t be the average case but single sample. Lottery is too improbable but some other things ”no rational person would do” can be ok. Main thing is to get over with it soon and protect the…
In any case, I have mixed feelings about in which direction society is heading.
On the one hand, I think this game of social ascension is the same as before, only the dream changed: we have no illusions of having a well paid job that affords us house, cars and a big family, at least not without acquiring a huge debt.
On the other hand, on average, we have much more access to information. The average joe is much more educated and have higher buying power than 100 years ago.
I think we can't really look at the present comparing with what once was, because we live in a time of its own. We have to reassess the current configuration, fight to keep what we acquired in terms of freedom and equality, but try to fix the perceived feeling of separation, loneliness and helplessness together.