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WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

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Re: WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

#101
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they're going to show Wall Street who's boss by gambling away their grocery money? (Some will make out but I suspect the vast majority will lose big--money at least some can't really afford to lose.) I have trouble conjuring up a lot of sympathy but that's almost certainly uncharitable as I'm sure there will be stories of serious individual loss.

Nobody is gambling money away. The sentiment is that they are knowingly _throwing_ it away to send a message.

So you're saying they're even dumber than they appear at first glance? Sorry, but pissing money away (or actually likely giving it to some Wall Street institution) to send some ill-defined "message" really can't be called anything but dumb.

Re: WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

#102

They are blocking buying, and only allowing selling GME, BB and others. How is this not evidence of a corrupted free market system? A CEO of one company can call up his connections in retail trading platform firms, CNBC, and Nasdaq and protect his profits? Why is Reddit the scandal and not that? Reddit is full of rocket emojis and YOLO jokes. But what we see here, especially with the moralizing about gambling, is an…

Robinhood is a free service. The customers don’t pay anything. If the order internalizers decide to stop paying them for their order flow, then they have to route to the exchanges. which charge fees. Trading is still ongoing at the exchanges. It’s just the free platforms, where it’s shut down. If someone wanted guaranteed access to the exchange, then they shouldn’t have used a free broker. Are you saying that Robinho…

Robinhood is not entirely free. Just sayin..

Re: WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

#103

Once again, this insistence on viewing 'Wall Street' as a monolothic entity. The largest asset management firm on Earth holds over 9 million Gamestop stock, none of the big banks that received bailouts in 08 are affected by this, 99.9% of hedge funds are not affected by this, high frequency traders are probably making a bundle. Institutional money was long Gamestop before this story entered the public consciousness.…

Exactly.

Just take a look at the shareholders and count how many shares those institutional have: https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?s...

It's Wall Street vs Wall Street - redditors were just the catalyst, and will be left holding the bag.

Re: WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

#104

Once again, this insistence on viewing 'Wall Street' as a monolothic entity. The largest asset management firm on Earth holds over 9 million Gamestop stock, none of the big banks that received bailouts in 08 are affected by this, 99.9% of hedge funds are not affected by this, high frequency traders are probably making a bundle. Institutional money was long Gamestop before this story entered the public consciousness.…

>the market has rightfully taught them a lesson

Has it? What leads you to believe that THIS is the time investment firms will stop being reckless?

Re: WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

#105
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just checked my TD Ameritrade account. I'm able to buy GME just fine (though I didn't hit the "confirm" button). I know RobinHood messed up here. But... they never had a good reputation to begin with. Its an open secret that RobinHood's entire setup is kind of crap.

I didn't see a failure on Schwab until I hit "confirm" yesterday. My understanding is TD Ameritrade is only blocking the purchase of stock on margin. If you have the cash, you're allowed to make the purchase.

And that's pretty normal for highly-volatile stocks, isn't it?

Re: WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

#106
post #81

Once again, this insistence on viewing 'Wall Street' as a monolothic entity. The largest asset management firm on Earth holds over 9 million Gamestop stock, none of the big banks that received bailouts in 08 are affected by this, 99.9% of hedge funds are not affected by this, high frequency traders are probably making a bundle. Institutional money was long Gamestop before this story entered the public consciousness.…

Ah the good old "it's just some bad apples", the system is great, trust it.

I'm not talking about good vs. bad, but winner vs. loser. This is Wall St vs Wall St with retail investors taking some off the top on one side. This is not retail investors vs Wall St.

Re: WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

#107

As someone who is not very educated in finance, I'm curious how to interpret today's events. Is nasdaq/robinhood/everyone else transparently manipulating the market on behalf of hedge funds? Or are these standard mechanisms in place for preventing the stock market from swinging wildly out of control? I don't know if it's standard to completely block trading on one or more stocks.

I would wait a few months and read the write-ups by people who have had time to ferret out the details and look at various angles.

There are a lot of "hot takes" and people thinking all this fits some "narrative". But I think there is just a lot going on and I'd be cautious about assigning too much meaning to any of it without a lot more information, which we won't have right away.

Re: WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

#108
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason nothing changed with OWS is because they couldn't voice a clear message. Everyone knows they're being defrauded but the fraud is complex and difficult to communicate so instead you have this disorganized protest that amounts to very little change.

Tax the rich. Distribute the wealth that was stolen from the backs of the workers. It wasn’t said clearly because we were living in a post 9/11 era where uttering words like “socialism” was still unpopular. Enough is enough. The only thing keeping the guillotines from coming out is a thriving middle class. Oh wait, that’s been stolen. It badly needs fixing and fast.

[deleted]

Re: WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Robinhood is a free service. The customers don’t pay anything. If the order internalizers decide to stop paying them for their order flow, then they have to route to the exchanges. which charge fees. Trading is still ongoing at the exchanges. It’s just the free platforms, where it’s shut down. If someone wanted guaranteed access to the exchange, then they shouldn’t have used a free broker. Are you saying that Robinho…

I'm saying they should be sued. So, yes, I am saying that. If you buy securities you can't sell, you're pinned and that's not right, is it. I'm not sure if Robinhood traders signed up to that. Free doesn't matter.

They still allow selling, just not buying.

Re: WallStreetBets vs WallStreet: It's not about the money anymore

#110

As someone who is not very educated in finance, I'm curious how to interpret today's events. Is nasdaq/robinhood/everyone else transparently manipulating the market on behalf of hedge funds? Or are these standard mechanisms in place for preventing the stock market from swinging wildly out of control? I don't know if it's standard to completely block trading on one or more stocks.

WSB has basically recreated a "boiler room", which is an ages old scam where a small group of insiders would encourage people to buy stock, drive them value up, and then the insiders dump the stock. The key insight here is that for every person selling the stock and making millions, somoene has to be buying. There's a narrative about short squeezes forcing a small number of hedge funds to buy stock, but in practice m…

It's not a pump and dump if there's a legitimate reason to think the stock will be worth more for reasons other than the pumping itself which there is due to the short squeeze.
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