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

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201–210 of 475 posts

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

#201
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Populist anger found a new weapon: money. Plus good old social media manipulation.

And perhaps money found a new weapon in populist anger.

I just hope it doesn't get co-opted by the "alt-right" or other political groups.

Also get ready for the 100+ opinion pieces on every media platform about this so everyone can get their ad dollars.

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

#202

The endgame here is fascinating to me. The people who got in early will suffer least when GSE finally crashes and burns. But the poor suckers who bought it at $150 are going to be in big trouble. They're all trying to stay strong and hold long because that's the way to make the hedge funds suffer, but the smarter ones will figure out that their only chance to not lose their shirts is to be in the earliest 5% of scabs…

> Meanwhile a couple of hedge funds go under

Which means that the money the hedge funds lost is redistributed among all who held the stock. It's not that the money vanishes. That's why people hold until the hedge funds go under.

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

#203

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…

its not really whats happening. Reddit has identified that there are more outstanding short shares than stocks. So in effect they are doing more of a blockade. Effectively, if buys continue, the hedge funds they will have to buy more shares than exist to get out of it, at a rediculous price.

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

#204

I don't know- there must be institutional players on the long side by now right? Either way, _eventually_ someone will be left holding the bag when the stock comes back down to earth.

I mean the market cap is only $25B.

GameStop just also got $100M-$1B in free advertising (maybe someone in the ad biz could weigh in with a better estimate on that).

If the GameStop management allocates their newfound wealth well, this stock is just as likely to perform as well as any other $25B company.

They could do something like sell $2B in fresh capital and invest it in a slew of gaming startups, who then suddenly have distribution figured out.

Lots of creative ways they can not squander their windfall.

I know nothing about their management, but have seen many many people get a double and then hit a grand slam.

All comes down to the management.

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

#205
post #137

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.…

Some retail investors made money. The rest that are still jumping in will lose a lot as the stock returns to it’s correct price over time.

So the smart money is to short it?

Hehe.

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

#206

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 has a free version and a paid version. Both account types are blocked from trading GME, NOK and other securities.

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

#207
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy stock with the purpose of pushing the price up so that other people will buy it, that’s market manipulation. What WSB crowd is doing is market manipulation. That's illegal. WSB is doing everything openly and even celebrating it. Getting mad when openly breaking the law is not rational response. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/78i Brokers like Robinhood are reacting because they want too keep SEC…

> What WSB crowd is doing is market manipulation. Shorting GME more than number stocks exist is not market manipulation? HFT isn't? Bailing out greed isn't? Why is this notion of market manipulation such a narrow one-way street?

> such a one way street?

It's not, though - rich people get in trouble for this all the time. Bernie Madoff is going to die in prison for running a finance scam. Enough people were convicted of insider trading in the 80's that they made a movie about it - and the movie was just called "Wall Street". None of this is new.

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

#208
post #146
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you know how this whole thing started? It seems you're just coming in and dismissing the whole thing, when the person who started it with $50k is now sitting on gains of $50m and even people who bought in yesterday are up almost 2x.

And some people who can't really afford to buy Powerball tickets every week. And a few of them hit it big. Doesn't make it a rational choice from a purely economic perspective.

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

#209
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s called being civil. Would you prefer they instead break the law to have their voices heard? Do you want wall street suits to fear for their life?

And now you see the necessity of violence to advance political goals.

I’ll see it only after a liberal party controls the executive and legislative branch in the absence of a filibuster failing to implement meaningful change.

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

#210
post #139

I would really appreciate it if somebody could explain to me how people who sell short a stock are somehow “suffocating it” or “killing jobs.” And I say this as someone who has about 18 years of investing experience. I continue to believe stock shorting is one of the most poorly understood parts of equity markets and the wrong parts are most commonly parroted by people with little to no experience with short selling…

The big difference is that hedge funds are gambling other people's money, while taking a huge cut (and not taking the losses).

I'm investing as well, but only with my money.

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