In case you haven't seen what's happened with GameStop and Redditors.
These are the people who drive companies like Blockbuster out of business and put people out of work.
But maybe the people have more power after all ...
GameStop - Great Seeing Short-Selling Hedge Funds Get Beaten Up
by Simon 28 Replies latest social current
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resolute Bandicoot
How long until reddit is blamed for being a terroist harbour and de platformed?
RB
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Simon
The media are already using the cliche labels to justify bans: white supremacists, nazis, russian collusion etc...
That's all they have.
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Sigfrid Mallozzi
Yes, Reddit's Wall Street Bets. I requested to join the group. It is the classic pump and dump that has been written about the mega large investment companies. The super large investment companies can throw hundreds of millions at stocks in the morning and if they don't get the reaction they want of driving the price higher they will throw more money at it until the price rises and to their satisfaction, at the end of the day, they have cashed out/sold their position, and are enjoying their drinks at the bar with their buddies telling their trading stories. Social media is getting a little payback for the individual investor united.
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ShotWhileTryingToEscape
I love this.
My son sent me a similar link. Both report the same thing— ordinary people on Reddit turned the tables on Wallstreet.
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shepherdless
Brilliant!
I doubt it is legal, but probably no less legal than what the major players (ie Wall Street elites) are doing.
Many years ago, I did an elective subject at uni called Securities and Investment Law. It was an eye-opener. I never realised that there were so many different ways and schemes by which small investors were ripped off, how markets were manipulated, how there are numerous laws to try to prevent that, how those laws were not enforced very well, how hard it was to get evidence of a crime, and various case studies where the crooks are rarely taken to court and were almost never convicted.
The sort of market manipulation described in the video (both by the elites and the redditors) has been going on in one form or other since stock markets were created. It is illegal in most jurisdictions, but is hard to prove, unless the perpetrators are unsophisticated, and make silly admissions about their intentions.
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Brock Talon
I have mixed feelings about this issue. On the one hand, it is a bit humorous to see the traditional market manipulators get their comeuppance. Sure. I agree with you all. I smiled too.
But this has now emboldened and taught the "retail" traders to start their own manipulation games and I'm not sure that is so good for the market in the long term. What stock will they play with next, by whom and for what purpose? What is the end game?
Yesterday was a horrible day for the NASDAQ and the S&P500. TD Ameritrade shut down trading on GameStop completely (not a good precedent) and at one point I couldn't even get into my trading platform at all. Some analysts say the bad day was due to the delay to the stimulus, but I don't think so. There is usually a delay to stimulus most of the time anyway and that doesn't freeze out my trading platform. No, something more ominous is afoot and it concerns me greatly. Especially since I have so much invested in my 401K, my IRA accounts, my brokerage accounts, etc... much of my net worth is tied to those assets. Now we can have just any yahoo out there "crowd source a movement" that plays with the market. At least with the professional market manipulators they had a sense of restraint and rules around what they did because they were playing the long game. That certainly can't be the case with this new era of market manipulation. And what about GameStop? It is clearly overvalued now, so what will happen to it when it eventually corrects? Will it overcorrect and go bust as many "pump and dumps" do? These guys are doing this with with others companies as well, like AMC, so this is not a one time thing. There are real people working for these companies who will be affected in one way or another. Some execs will make a lot of money if they time the stock options correctly, but the rest may end up losing their jobs if the company goes bust.
Maybe it will work itself out in the long run... I don't know. But at this time of companies trying to overcome the pandemic related economic factors and the changing of the guard from extreme right-ism Trumpian economics to extreme left-ism Biden/whoever-really-is-in-charge economics, this is not a good time for this. -
pistolpete
Yesterday was a horrible day for the NASDAQ and the S&P500. TD Ameritrade shut down trading on GameStop completely (not a good precedent) and at one point I couldn't even get into my trading platform at all.
For me it was one of the best days EVER! I’ve been swing trading for about 10 years. Some College kids introduced me into swing trading stocks.
I actually had 500 shares of (GME) that I bought on the 12th for $20 plus a share. Today my 500 shares are worth $400 plus per share. I’m very lucky that I can sell them at this price but there are people out there that are buying them. I didn’t think I would be able to sell them at this price.
So me personally as a swing trader and not as an investor, these markets are the way to make money.
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Simon
When platforms only allow people to sell certain stocks, not to buy them, and at the same time allow the fund managers to go on TV and talk up or talk down stocks that they have positions in, the game is rigged.
Don't expect government to step in though, Pelosi just bought Tesla options the day before Biden announced a government policy change mandating electric cars (and solar power, LOL, no one will be going anywhere!)
Part of the cause of this is government itself - when you blindly send out thousands of dollars to people, some of them are going to gamble and especially in the current climate, some are going to get together to improve their odds and "stick it to the man".
What has changed is that it was the individual retail investors who got ahead for once at the expense of the elites, so they have pulled every trick to rig things back in their favor.
There is a risk to the larger market stability - things like this have a way of cascading and taking down systems and governments. So on the one hand, part of me wants it stopped, but we need a fair system and right now it isn't.
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Brock Talon
Sorry Pistolpete, but I personally resent swing traders, day traders, short sellers and the like. The entire purpose of a company selling their stock is so that anyone can buy into that company and own a piece of it. In theory, every stock one purchases should be in a company they believe in and want to own for the long haul. It is a financially supportive transaction that shores up that company so it can do its business and keep their employees employed and their shareholders sharing in the profits via dividends. It should be for the regular person to get some sense of security for retirement, especially now that companies no longer give pensions to their employees and the Social Security system itself is being stretched and threatened. Fast buck traders like you threaten that security for everyone else.
I resent these quick buck people in the same way as I resent house flippers who do not buy houses to live in, but rather to make fast money at the expense of other, many of them doing the minimum to get a house livable in doing so. Houses exist be to bought to actually live in, or at least to rent out for people to live in. Not to be gamed for a quick buck. House flipping is what led to the 2008 market crash, which hurt the little people the most. The subprime house loans were ginned up by the ever escalating home prices created by fake turnover in the market due to home purchase/flip speculation. Eventually it all collapsed (like all ponzi schemes) and I and people like me were left holding the bag for many, many years. House flippers made their money and walked away and the banks were bailed out and walked away. All at our expense. Shameful.If you do win in the long run and are able to exit your positions with a nice profit, you do so off the backs of others. Instead of investing in a company to financially support them to continue to do business in the long run so that EVERYONE wins, you want to make a quick buck at the expense of others? Your comment "there are people out there buying them... at this price" shows you know that eventually there are people who lose in this "game" and those are the one you are hurting.
In my opinion, it is not a nice way to make a living.