Reddit Investors Challenge Wall Street Hedge Funds
GameStop’s stock prices have been experiencing significant surges and fluctuations recently as a battle unfolds between Wall Street hedge fund managers and investors from the wallstreetbets subreddit. Hedge fund managers had reportedly bet on GameStop’s stock value dropping, leading them to buy shares and short sell them for profit. The investors on Reddit caught wind of this strategy and started buying large volumes of stock to drive up the price and pressure the managers into heavy losses.
As a result of this intense volatility, popular consumer trading platforms like Robinhood and TD Ameritrade have started restricting trading of GameStop’s stock. Some users of these platforms suspect unfair practices, accusing the apps of trying to limit their trading activities. This restriction initially caused a drop in the stock price at the start of trading today, but the prices are already bouncing back as users explore alternative avenues to buy and hold stocks. At the time of writing, GameStop shares are valued at $411.50 USD.
THIS. IS. THE. TYPE. OF. ENERGY. I. NEED. IN. MY. LIFE.
DO. NOT. SELL. pic.twitter.com/mfjQqzuak2
— Genel Jumalon | ? BLM ? (@GenelJumalon) January 28, 2021
The phrase “DO NOT SELL” is currently trending on Twitter as wallstreetbets investors encourage each other to hold onto their shares and drive the prices up further. The subreddit experienced a brief downtime yesterday due to high traffic but was quickly restored. During that outage, a new subreddit, wallstreetbetsnew, was created to coordinate the investors temporarily.
Various prominent figures, including US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have voiced their support for the Reddit investors. AOC commented on Twitter, saying, “Gotta admit it’s really something to see Wall Streeters with a long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a casino.”
