TragicMonkey
Poisoned Waffles
Somebody claimed that only the 1% could be investing in this. They are very, very wrong. But since then they've been joined by more people who do not believe in the existence of a middle class.
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Merged Wall Street Bets subreddit / Too late to buy Gamestop stock?
- Thread starter TurkeysGhost
- Start date
Somebody claimed that only the 1% could be investing in this. They are very, very wrong. But since then they've been joined by more people who do not believe in the existence of a middle class.
Checkmite
Skepticifimisticalationist
Right. So, what, 3% then? Someone pulling $200k a year isn't some outsider bucking the system.
And none of this by the way has rebutted the fact that Gamestop IS a national corporation owned by 1%ers, so I'm still left wondering why I'm supposed to thinking of the hedge-funders making money from their inevitable decline as "bad guys".
TragicMonkey
Poisoned Waffles
Gamestop is a corporation owned by its stockholders. Who are now, as is the point of this thread, not the 1%.
Edited by zooterkin:
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Edited for rule 12.
Edited for rule 12.
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This reminds me of when Enron was going down in flames and a friend bought $1000 of their stock. His thought was that as a single guy making around $100k a year it wouldn't kill him if he lost it, but if it somehow recovered to anything close to its old value he would never have to work again. He is still working.
I don't think it is uncommon for investors t set up a large percentage of their investments to be safe and then reserve a small percentage to to go in on long shots or riskier investments. It adds some excitement to the process without risking anything of real substance.
But this seems more like an act of activism rather than investment. There is a very good chance that current buyers know they won't get their money back out, but they are buying stock or options just to screw the shorts. I know many people put $500 or more into political campaigns last year and I can see that sort of person putting a similarly amount into this as a way to voice their dissatisfaction with the powers that be.
It is more of a form of speech than a form of investment at this point.
I don't think it is uncommon for investors t set up a large percentage of their investments to be safe and then reserve a small percentage to to go in on long shots or riskier investments. It adds some excitement to the process without risking anything of real substance.
But this seems more like an act of activism rather than investment. There is a very good chance that current buyers know they won't get their money back out, but they are buying stock or options just to screw the shorts. I know many people put $500 or more into political campaigns last year and I can see that sort of person putting a similarly amount into this as a way to voice their dissatisfaction with the powers that be.
It is more of a form of speech than a form of investment at this point.
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xjx388
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2010
- Messages
- 11,392
My son is not a 1%er. He bought 10 shares on Monday at around $89/share with savings he had to build a computer. He makes $14/hr, lives at home.
My wife is not a 1%er, she bought 10 shares on a lark at the same time my son did.
Read the Reddit threads, there are scores of people who are dumping savings, retirement accounts, etc. I don’t think a lot of them are doing the right thing at all, don’t get me wrong. But this rally is largely driven by people firmly in the 99%. I’d even wager by people in the bottom 50% or lower.
I think people are largely doing this as a middle finger at the 1% -as an attempt to profit off their folly for once.
I think if you have some money you don’t need to live on and you wanna gamble, go for it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with seeing an opportunity and jumping on it. GME is over-shorted. Just be prepared to take profit at a moment’s notice or jump out before you lose it all. I told my wife and son they should have sold today when it hit around $350 but they want to ride it out a little more. Roll them bones!
My wife is not a 1%er, she bought 10 shares on a lark at the same time my son did.
Read the Reddit threads, there are scores of people who are dumping savings, retirement accounts, etc. I don’t think a lot of them are doing the right thing at all, don’t get me wrong. But this rally is largely driven by people firmly in the 99%. I’d even wager by people in the bottom 50% or lower.
I think people are largely doing this as a middle finger at the 1% -as an attempt to profit off their folly for once.
I think if you have some money you don’t need to live on and you wanna gamble, go for it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with seeing an opportunity and jumping on it. GME is over-shorted. Just be prepared to take profit at a moment’s notice or jump out before you lose it all. I told my wife and son they should have sold today when it hit around $350 but they want to ride it out a little more. Roll them bones!
Cavemonster
Philosopher
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2008
- Messages
- 6,701
I think the question of who are the good or bad guys in this particular instance is a distant second to how clear this makes it that the system our retirement savings ride on is a wacky game with very little relationship to the economy that so many politicians seem to think it tracks.
Checkmite
Skepticifimisticalationist
You are right; not every thread was made for the purpose of eliciting a judgment from readers.
But, this thread was. There's a whole bunch of people offering judgments in this thread that you don't seem to have a problem with. They are mostly positive judgments and that's okay apparently.
TragicMonkey
Poisoned Waffles
Oh, dear. It's one thing if they can really afford to lose it, but I worry about people jumping into a known bubble using their savings and retirement accounts. This sort of thing is for "I just got a pandemic check I don't really need" not "perhaps if we gamble our savings we can afford Tiny Tim's surgery after all". There's gambling, then there's gambling.
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TragicMonkey
Poisoned Waffles
Okey-dokey, whatever. Anyone with money is evil, got it. If Joe Sixpack wins once against C. Montgomery Burns it's awful because they both equally deserve ruin for the sin of having had any amount of money.
lobosrul5
Philosopher
Thinking about it, this is the culmination of the end of the stock market having anything to do with the fundamentals of the underlying investment, ie things like earnings per share, cash on hand, etc. Its all just investor sentiment. Add that hardly anyone in the USA outside of some government workers having a pension, but rather a self-directed 401k, and it is, yes, a recipe for disaster.
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eeyore1954
Philosopher
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- Jun 9, 2006
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- 6,811
My son bought 1 share a day or two ago. I told him GameStop is a worthless stock. He is up about 200%. Says he will sell tomorrow or the next day.
Checkmite
Skepticifimisticalationist
If you say so?
eeyore1954
Philosopher
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2006
- Messages
- 6,811
Tiny Tim doesn’t need surgery. Let him eat turkey.
Distracted1
Philosopher
From the OP linked article:
"It’s not clear how the story ends. Some professional analysts think the stock is due for a crash. Citron Research managing partner Andrew Left has argued the stock will fall to $20 per share. He tried to explain his reasoning in a livestream last week but couldn’t because his Twitter account got locked after too many people tried to guess his password. He posted the video on YouTube and said GameStop backers were sending pizzas to his house and signing him up for dating profiles. Left decided to stop bashing GameStop, citing harassment by the “angry mob."
Vaguely unsettling intersection of the Economy and Cancel Culture??
"It’s not clear how the story ends. Some professional analysts think the stock is due for a crash. Citron Research managing partner Andrew Left has argued the stock will fall to $20 per share. He tried to explain his reasoning in a livestream last week but couldn’t because his Twitter account got locked after too many people tried to guess his password. He posted the video on YouTube and said GameStop backers were sending pizzas to his house and signing him up for dating profiles. Left decided to stop bashing GameStop, citing harassment by the “angry mob."
Vaguely unsettling intersection of the Economy and Cancel Culture??
Checkmite
Skepticifimisticalationist
Honestly how could the stock not crash eventually? GameStop is failing because it's business model is no longer sustainable. This pump-and-dump scheme doesn't change that; as soon as speculators stop buying, the price will begin to fall almost immediately. And when that happens, all of the jokesters are going to have to sell if they don't want to lose money. And that sell-off is going to crash the stock.
Is Andrew Left the guy whose firm took a huge short position and then went on to release his analysis of why it would be dropping?
The name sounds familiar, like maybe he has done this to other firms, like Tesla. Is that why Elon has tweeted about this?
Man, what a weird way to become notorious. I'm not sure what is unsettling about it so long as no one is actually being hurt. Some people are prepared for a public platform and some just think they are.
If you can clarify some of the timing on this prediction we can translate that into an investment position and get you in on the action.
marting
Illuminator
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2003
- Messages
- 4,315
Shorting a stock is both borrowing the stock AND selling it. So you have to buy it back to close and return the borrowed stock.
When you short a stock you have to have extra reserves beyond the cost to buy the stock back. The amount of reserves required is set and subject to change at any time. Should the price of the shorted stock rise such that you no longer have sufficient reserves you get a "margin call" at which point you must either add more money to your reserves or your position will be closed and your reserves used to buy the stock. Very rarely a stock will rise so quickly that closing your position will leave you with a negative balance since you won't have sufficient reserves. But this is rare. When it happens you have to pay the negative balance.
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xjx388
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2010
- Messages
- 11,392
Wall Street Bets subreddit leading charge to bankrupt shortseller of Gamestop stock.
Of course it will crash eventually. The sell-off is going to be brutal for a lot of the late-comers who bought in at the highs. There’s no question about that.
The real question is how long can the average retail investor hold on with all their money on this one stock hoping for a moon shot? Can they hold out long enough to really put the real squeeze on all the shorts? I don’t think so. The Big Boys in all this have the resources to out-wait them. Once the Little Guys start panicking, that’s when the real short-sell opportunities will arise and the Big Boys who are still standing will end up making a killing. If this thing gets to $500...$1000? It won’t be long before the evil temptation to take profit overcomes the Little Guys, principles be damned, and the Big Boys will clean up.
If I had the money, I might think about shorting GME soon...
Of course it will crash eventually. The sell-off is going to be brutal for a lot of the late-comers who bought in at the highs. There’s no question about that.
The real question is how long can the average retail investor hold on with all their money on this one stock hoping for a moon shot? Can they hold out long enough to really put the real squeeze on all the shorts? I don’t think so. The Big Boys in all this have the resources to out-wait them. Once the Little Guys start panicking, that’s when the real short-sell opportunities will arise and the Big Boys who are still standing will end up making a killing. If this thing gets to $500...$1000? It won’t be long before the evil temptation to take profit overcomes the Little Guys, principles be damned, and the Big Boys will clean up.
If I had the money, I might think about shorting GME soon...