Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

531–540 of 1001 posts

Re: GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

#531

Post by meowkit »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #383
rabuse wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. The large order is placed on the market, and it would be gobbled up at this point in time.

I know nothing about trading: Presumably they'd want to split the sell offer into smaller portions to avoid indicating a turn in the market which might cause a fall in price before they realise [as big a] profit on their position? Like trying to get out of a place when you see things heading south (ie a calamity approaching). If you run for the door then everyone will see you and the people close to the door might bl…

Large positions are most likely sold off in smaller portions as you said. I don't know what the person you are responding to is implying.

Often large positions as a single order are used to create buy or sell walls that can influence sentiment and algorithms to move the price in a way that they desire.

Re: GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

#532

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

taigeair wrote: post #453
hnuser847 wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the lamest take I've seen yet. They identified a short squeeze opportunity and exploited it. No Freudian analysis needed.

if you check out the forums, most of them have wives

And if you double check, their wives have boyfriends

Re: GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

#533

Post by rodgerd »

admax88q wrote: post #315
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

> These points doubtless make me appear to be a complacent shill for the financial industry, talking down to the rubes. For the record, I’m still angry about the way workers were ripped off in Britain more than three decades ago, and about the way the little guy ended up bearing the brunt for the financial implosions of 2000 and 2008. But it looks horribly to me as though the same thing is going to happen again — and…

> The "little guy" refers to the Reddit traders that are making a killing right now, with the expectation that eventually the stock price will crash again. The reddit traders are only making a killing if they're selling these inflated positions. At some point somebody will be left holding the bag, odds are it will be a bunch of people from wallstreetbets and other retail investors that are late to the party. There's…

> At some point somebody will be left holding the bag, odds are it will be a bunch of people from wallstreetbets

A large part of the culture at WSB is to self-mock as "retards", "autists" and so on; fuckups and losses are celebrated alongside gains. Someone who loses thousands on a bad bet on this will be as celebrated (and mocked) as someone making thousands.

Re: GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

#534

Post by monadic3 »

JanSt wrote: post #415
supercanuck wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it started with this.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWdWCtLMoU0

For those downvoting: that‘s u/DeepFuckingValue. He got laughed off by WSB for a year and is now making millions every day. Turned 50k to 48 million as of today.

Another lucky gambler obsessed with money. Why do you bring this up?

Re: GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

#535

Post by shadowgovt »

nerfhammer wrote: post #504
ta1234567890 wrote: post #384

This is a great example of how the stock market is not about fundamentals, just like Bitcoin, it’s all about popularity and perception. In the end, people don’t care if the “stock is really worth” the price, they only care if themselves or someone else are willing to pay the price, nothing else really matters.

but a stock is partial ownership of a real business, which has revenue and owns other assets

What that means tangibly varies from business to business.

You might get a cut of the profits in the form of dividends... unless you don't. Plenty of stocks never pay dividends. A lot of companies pay more to charity than to dividends to investors.

Or, you get a vote on company policy at the stockholder's meeting... But if the founders own more than half the stock, that doesn't actually matter. And that's assuming the founders haven't just sold stock with no voting privileges.

If the company files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, stock owners are entitled to company assets... And almost never see any, because they're last in line behind every other creditor.

So it's unclear what, precisely, the practical weight of "partial ownership in a real business" has in general. In specific, sure; stock could be access to dividends or a meaningful voice in company policy. For a lot of stock, the only real value is "How much will someone else pay me for this piece of the action?"

Re: GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

#536

Post by imtringued »

onion2k wrote: post #412
blhack wrote: post #57

Okay a serious question: at what point does it make sense for these hedge fund guys to just purchase reddit and shut it down? To be clear: I don't think that would work, but I think we're at the point where stuff like that is going to be tried. These guys are losing BILLIONS of dollars. Billions. Can they spend $1B to prevent the loss of $2B? (Is reddit worth more than $1B?) Other stuff I won't be surprised if we see…

It would be much cheaper just to pay some kids to make nice looking but ultimately loss making bets on there. If WSB looks like a place where people go to lose money then it's popularity will drop.

As fumar said, losing money is the entire point.

Re: GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

#537

Post by donmcronald »

throwaway4good wrote: post #484
TuringNYC wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Reddit Post is very revealing: https://twitter.com/inactivist_/status/1354537152445521923/p...

As if a few hundreds worth of GME stock would matter to a billion dollar hedge fund. You can also go to 4chan where you can find selfproclaimed nazis who thinks they are fighting the jews on wall street. It is all very idiotic. As someone noticed elsewhere here on hn; regardless if it is a pump and dump manipulation or a short squeeze, GME will eventually come down. Maybe not in a week but surely in a year.

> As if a few hundreds worth of GME stock would matter to a billion dollar hedge fund.

In aggregate I’m sure the hedge funds will be happy to take that money. The thing to be concerned about is the sentiment of that Reddit poster. It’s not wrong and IMO it’s the reason you see such politicization in the West now.

The thing people are failing to understand is that throwing away your money or electing an incompetent leader isn’t “sticking it to the man”. It’s simply giving them more money or a broken system where it’s easier for the dishonest to thrive.

Re: GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

#538

Post by jodrellblank »

restingrobot wrote: post #440
Traster wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The second that the shorts have covered the price isn't going to drop to $90, it's going to drop back to $20 and most of the WSBers who were holding out for $2000 will lose their shirts. The shorts are going to lose, no doubt. But once they've lost, the stock price is probably $20. A lot of WSBers are going to be holding stock at that point, and possibly on margin. And that stock is going to be a crappy retail stock.…

You're forgetting the stock is 125% over shorted. There literally isn't enough stock for shorts to cover their current positions. That's why there is potential for infinite, (huge) gains as long as everyone holds.

What I've been wondering is, why do people think the 125% over-shorted has to expire all at the same time and imminently?

While there isn't 125% available to buy in one go, there is trading happening, HedgeFund2 can be buying and returning their loaned shares this week, HedgeFund3 can be buying and returning theirs next week, HedgeFund4 the week after, and at no point does any group need to buy 125% of available shares all in one go; where does the time limit that causes the squeeze come from?

Re: GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

#539

Post by JumpCrisscross »

DennisP wrote: post #369
maigret wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shorts are often (usually) a legit way to reduce risk - if the stock falls, you’re not losing everything. But that’s less entertaining to report about, so you rarely read about this in the non-technical news.

Yes but those aren't naked shorts. You don't get short interest in 140% of the total shares available from people hedging their holdings. That did happen with GME and it's what the r/WSB people picked up on.

> You don't get short interest in 140% of the total shares available from people hedging their holdings

Of course you do. I buy a share. I loan it to you. You sell it short. That buyer pledges it to a third person. Et cetera.

Re: GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

#540

Post by GrumpyNl »

slg wrote: post #529
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

> These points doubtless make me appear to be a complacent shill for the financial industry, talking down to the rubes. For the record, I’m still angry about the way workers were ripped off in Britain more than three decades ago, and about the way the little guy ended up bearing the brunt for the financial implosions of 2000 and 2008. But it looks horribly to me as though the same thing is going to happen again — and…

>b) The "little guy" refers to the Reddit traders that are making a killing right now, with the expectation that eventually the stock price will crash again. The stock price is completely disconnected from the value of the company. Either this is a bubble that will eventually pop and every small player still holding it will be badly hurt or the bubble doesn't pop, it continually exposes an inherit flaw in our financi…

"The stock price is completely disconnected from the value of the company", this goes for most of the stock prices.
Post reply on HN