Gamestop - Reddit vs Wall Street

Where goats go to escape
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tc27
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Incredible and hilarious developing story.

And yes I joined in (in a very small way)

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Hal Jordan
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Wrong type of people manipulating the markets!
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Ymx
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That’s quite amusing.

I was going to say what kind of fund manager exposes his/her portfolio so much to a single position.

I appreciate however it is a short. With an un leveraged long the most you can lose is 100%, but with a short it’s not limited I guess.
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Apparently they 150% of the shares in GameStop were shorted. Someone who knows what's going on will have to explain how you can short 150% of something?
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Ymx
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I think that means that 1.5 times leveraged.

So if you invest £50 million at share price at £1. With

If the share rises to £2. If it was unleveraged you’d lose the lot. Whole £50m position.

But at 150% leveraged you lose £75million. Owe £25m more than you invested.

If share price is £3 it’s lose £150 million

£4 lose £225 million
...
£11 £750 million


Could be wrong but that’s my understanding of a 150% short position
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Ymx
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GameStop’s shares have risen unaccountably by around 1,000% in the past month - hitting a high of $350  today on the back of an endorsement (“Gamestonk!!”) from Elon Musk.
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JPNZ
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Its actually up around 13,000% from 6 months ago :crazy:

Image
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Paddington Bear
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Got in on Friday. Never taken cocaine but suspect it feels a lot like my week has so far.
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages, What feats he did that day
tc27
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Paddington Bear wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 9:47 am Got in on Friday. Never taken cocaine but suspect it feels a lot like my week has so far.
Nice - what price was that at?

I only got two and have sold one to cover my costs and a bit on the other one (im a pussy).

Apparently lots of the short calls will be due by tomorrow :mrgreen:
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JM2K6
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Paddington Bear wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 9:47 am Got in on Friday. Never taken cocaine but suspect it feels a lot like my week has so far.
Have you spent the entire week talking shit?!
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Ymx
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JPNZ wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 3:24 am Its actually up around 13,000% from 6 months ago :crazy:

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Ouch !

That would mean $50 million short at 1.5 x turned to in to -$9.7 billion
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Paddington Bear
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JM2K6 wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 10:08 am
Paddington Bear wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 9:47 am Got in on Friday. Never taken cocaine but suspect it feels a lot like my week has so far.
Have you spent the entire week talking shit?!
You have known me for long enough to already know the answer to that one
tc27 wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 10:04 am

Nice - what price was that at?

I only got two and have sold one to cover my costs and a bit on the other one (im a pussy).

Apparently lots of the short calls will be due by tomorrow :mrgreen:
Varied as I bought at different times but the upper end sadly. Became aware of it last Monday and dismissed it as a stupid meme, a decision that's currently looking like it has cost me around £10,000.

Likewise have sold enough to cover, but still very jumpy.
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages, What feats he did that day
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JM2K6
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Some of my friends have been babbling about it on IRC for the last week but I also ignored it. Ho bloody hum.
tc27
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$454 :crazy:
robmatic
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Like the guy said, markets can remain retarded longer than you can remain solvent.
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Insane_Homer
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“Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true.”
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Uncle fester
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Hal Jordan wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 8:08 pm Wrong type of people manipulating the markets!
Yes and no.
Shorting is a valuable mechanism for finding a stock's correct valuation but at the scale carried out by the big players, it's a financial WMD.
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Ymx
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This could get interesting. I imagine this will happen again.

I wonder if the SEC or FSA will intervene.

Does it break any trading laws by encouraging a crowd pile in?
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Robinhood now not letting people buy certain stocks including GameStop. I wonder who kiboshed it.

Another banner day for the "free" market.
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Ymx
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It’s probably suspended
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Ymx
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Now would probably be a good time to short it
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JM2K6
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Ymx wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 6:03 pm It’s probably suspended
Nope - just the retail investors not allowed on major apps, the hedge funds are doing what they like. Mostly driving the price down amongst themselves.
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Ymx
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Yep. Can see it on my spread betting account.

But can’t short it.
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JM2K6 wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 6:16 pm
Ymx wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 6:03 pm It’s probably suspended
Nope - just the retail investors not allowed on major apps, the hedge funds are doing what they like. Mostly driving the price down amongst themselves.
Who will have made the decision to stop retail platforms being allowed to trade it?
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JM2K6
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I like neeps wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:34 pm
JM2K6 wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 6:16 pm
Ymx wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 6:03 pm It’s probably suspended
Nope - just the retail investors not allowed on major apps, the hedge funds are doing what they like. Mostly driving the price down amongst themselves.
Who will have made the decision to stop retail platforms being allowed to trade it?
Citadel and others, it would seem.
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JM2K6 wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:43 pm
I like neeps wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:34 pm
JM2K6 wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 6:16 pm

Nope - just the retail investors not allowed on major apps, the hedge funds are doing what they like. Mostly driving the price down amongst themselves.
Who will have made the decision to stop retail platforms being allowed to trade it?
Citadel and others, it would seem.
I heard Citadel front run Robinhood trades? Does that come into play?
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JM2K6
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I like neeps wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:47 pm
JM2K6 wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:43 pm
I like neeps wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:34 pm

Who will have made the decision to stop retail platforms being allowed to trade it?
Citadel and others, it would seem.
I heard Citadel front run Robinhood trades? Does that come into play?
Heard the same. I don't think anyone knows for certain right now what's happened, but, y'know... the hedge funds are being protected and allowed to artificially tank the price while their "opponents" are locked out.
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JM2K6 wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:50 pm
I like neeps wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:47 pm
JM2K6 wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:43 pm

Citadel and others, it would seem.
I heard Citadel front run Robinhood trades? Does that come into play?
Heard the same. I don't think anyone knows for certain right now what's happened, but, y'know... the hedge funds are being protected and allowed to artificially tank the price while their "opponents" are locked out.
Free markets, baby!

I see Steve Cohen is involved. The Dark Edge is a great book for people interested in how hedge funds manipulate priced and how they manage insider trading. How someone can be fined 1.8bn and continue to trade is interesting.
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Uncle fester
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I like neeps wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 5:59 pm Robinhood now not letting people buy certain stocks including GameStop. I wonder who kiboshed it.

Another banner day for the "free" market.
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Paddington Bear
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Taking on the hedge funds is essentially playing both halves uphill with their Chairman reffing, having brought the kick off forward an hour without telling you. Bloody hell.

Shamefully I sold a bunch of my shares in the dip yesterday, turns out 'this is an amount of money I'm willing to lose' was lying to myself in a manner up there with 'sure he hasn't been the best distributor in the tournament but I'm sure Youngs will come good in the final'. 10 shares left in to YOLO.

Fascinated by the longer term repercussions of this, anger against the big boys isn't exactly new, but this seems more overt and unified than ever before.
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages, What feats he did that day
sockwithaticket
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Paddington Bear wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:05 am Taking on the hedge funds is essentially playing both halves uphill with their Chairman reffing, having brought the kick off forward an hour without telling you. Bloody hell.

Shamefully I sold a bunch of my shares in the dip yesterday, turns out 'this is an amount of money I'm willing to lose' was lying to myself in a manner up there with 'sure he hasn't been the best distributor in the tournament but I'm sure Youngs will come good in the final'. 10 shares left in to YOLO.

Fascinated by the longer term repercussions of this, anger against the big boys isn't exactly new, but this seems more overt and unified than ever before.
What's been really fascinating is watching WSB go from their jokey "if 4Chan found a Bloomberg terminal" approach to what seems like genuine anger and hostility at the nakedly protectionist actions of the establishment.

I really hope this is a shot across the bows for Wall Street cowboys and leads to some changes. With my limited understanding of the financial markets has always viewed them as predatory scumbags who contribute little of real value to the economy - they just push around their spreadsheet numbers, play games with themselves and occasionally sacrifice a company, who would probably have been fine if Wall Streeter's didn't tag them for destruction, to the gaping maw of Mammon.

It's fucking risible that the SEC are poised to investigate r/WallStreetBets (christ knows how they'd go about it) for market manipulation while various financial talking heads have been all over the media basically admitting to it. I saw a clip of some guy on Fox (of all places) called Charles Payne going off on one because nobody was saying boo about shorting 140% of a company's stock, but as soon as some regular retail investors notice and start to play the game (by the rules!) with a chance of the traditional players losing suddenly there's a problem.

Congress people starting to ask for probes into Robinhood and a class action lawsuit being brought against them are interesting little sub plots.

After watching billionaire's add 3.9 trillion of worth during this pandemic, it's been genuinely uplifting to see a symbolic blow being struck against a malicious source of wealth generation. It may amount to nothing, but the coalescence of class consciousness and finding a tool to cut through the insulation socio-economic elites have put in place warms these socialist leaning cockles.

I'm tempted to start belting out The Internationale now...
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Paddington Bear
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I think this sums it up pretty well

Image

Trying to claim saying 'I like this stock and it should rise in value' is illegal is laughable.

To SWT's point about r/WSB - there's sort of two elements;
1) long time posters (and lurkers like myself) who aren't socialists, just want to make money and realise the chances of doing so saving and getting 3-7% in a tracker probably won't do it
2) people (largely socialists) who have got involved realising that there is a one off chance for ordinary investors to take down a hedge fund, maybe precipitating their larger 'revolution' etc.
What certainly unites the two is that I think everyone's blood is boiling at these people and the tactics of this week, and there's almost no one who thinks Wall Street as it is is either a force for good or at least a neutral economic indicator. We played by their rules, were winning so they came out, switched the umpires and rolled the wicket.

Those trying to destroy a financial system are probably a minority. I saw this as an opportunity to get closer to buying a house. Have made some money, may make more, but had they not switched the rules I'd have made a lot more. What may affect Wall Street in the longer term is that there are seemingly millions in a similar position, I'd say this has certainly hardened my attitude to the funds and changed my political priorities in this area.

I guess this is all heightened by the fact that an app called Robinhood has turned out to be in the pay of the Sheriff of Nottingham, the irony is almost too much to bear.
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages, What feats he did that day
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JM2K6
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Robinhood started selling people's stock in GME "for their own protection" (during the dip, of course). Fucking unbelievable.
tc27
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JM2K6 wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:22 am Robinhood started selling people's stock in GME "for their own protection" (during the dip, of course). Fucking unbelievable.
Should bear in mind they did this for users who had bought on margin so something they are allowed to do under T&Cs but of course the timing utterly stinks and there was no reason to stop cash buyers placing orders for GME.
I like neeps
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sockwithaticket wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 10:32 am
Paddington Bear wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:05 am Taking on the hedge funds is essentially playing both halves uphill with their Chairman reffing, having brought the kick off forward an hour without telling you. Bloody hell.

Shamefully I sold a bunch of my shares in the dip yesterday, turns out 'this is an amount of money I'm willing to lose' was lying to myself in a manner up there with 'sure he hasn't been the best distributor in the tournament but I'm sure Youngs will come good in the final'. 10 shares left in to YOLO.

Fascinated by the longer term repercussions of this, anger against the big boys isn't exactly new, but this seems more overt and unified than ever before.
What's been really fascinating is watching WSB go from their jokey "if 4Chan found a Bloomberg terminal" approach to what seems like genuine anger and hostility at the nakedly protectionist actions of the establishment.

I really hope this is a shot across the bows for Wall Street cowboys and leads to some changes. With my limited understanding of the financial markets has always viewed them as predatory scumbags who contribute little of real value to the economy - they just push around their spreadsheet numbers, play games with themselves and occasionally sacrifice a company, who would probably have been fine if Wall Streeter's didn't tag them for destruction, to the gaping maw of Mammon.

It's fucking risible that the SEC are poised to investigate r/WallStreetBets (christ knows how they'd go about it) for market manipulation while various financial talking heads have been all over the media basically admitting to it. I saw a clip of some guy on Fox (of all places) called Charles Payne going off on one because nobody was saying boo about shorting 140% of a company's stock, but as soon as some regular retail investors notice and start to play the game (by the rules!) with a chance of the traditional players losing suddenly there's a problem.

Congress people starting to ask for probes into Robinhood and a class action lawsuit being brought against them are interesting little sub plots.

After watching billionaire's add 3.9 trillion of worth during this pandemic, it's been genuinely uplifting to see a symbolic blow being struck against a malicious source of wealth generation. It may amount to nothing, but the coalescence of class consciousness and finding a tool to cut through the insulation socio-economic elites have put in place warms these socialist leaning cockles.

I'm tempted to start belting out The Internationale now...
What r/wallstreetbets did should be illegal. If you believe that the stock market is a fair reflection of value and a key economic tool, where companies can access capital to benefit their businessess and therefore society through innovation and increased competition. And those investors are looking for productive companies to back and grow their investments and returns gradually. Then it's bad that investors teamed up together to inflate a stock price.

However clearly that is not the function of the stockmarket nor investors. The stock market is a casino where losses are guaranteed by the government and investors are leeches who have created a myriad of unproductive and nonsensical financial products to exploit people.

I will never understand shorting. How can you legally sell something you've borrowed? I guess it's in the contracts but makes no sense to me!
tc27
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Current mood (with my one share!)

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JM2K6
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tc27 wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:35 am
JM2K6 wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:22 am Robinhood started selling people's stock in GME "for their own protection" (during the dip, of course). Fucking unbelievable.
Should bear in mind they did this for users who had bought on margin so something they are allowed to do under T&Cs but of course the timing utterly stinks and there was no reason to stop cash buyers placing orders for GME.
Noooooooooope.

tc27
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JM2K6 wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 12:45 pm
tc27 wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:35 am
JM2K6 wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:22 am Robinhood started selling people's stock in GME "for their own protection" (during the dip, of course). Fucking unbelievable.
Should bear in mind they did this for users who had bought on margin so something they are allowed to do under T&Cs but of course the timing utterly stinks and there was no reason to stop cash buyers placing orders for GME.
Noooooooooope.

Im lost for words.

Surely the mother of all lawsuits is coming.
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Hal Jordan
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Of all the law forums to do this in they decided America was the best place. Expect an initial class action damages claim for a bajillion dollars...
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Niegs
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