Tag: reddit

GameStop insurgency is just the latest rebellion against ‘the Big Guys’

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://nypost.com/2021/01/28/gamestop-insurgency-just-latest-rebellion-against-the-big-guys/

Excerpt:

Writing for The Post this week, Charles Gasparino explained why the little guys got together to buy GameStop: “Mostly, they’re out to hurt the big guys.”

The Big Guys’ problem is that nobody likes them much. From Silicon Valley to Wall Street, they’re deeply unpopular with ordinary Americans, on both the left and the right, resentment they’ve stoked with selfishness, arrogance and condescension. Their solution to this unpopularity has been to use their control over online platforms, and their influence over the government, to silence their critics.

But they can’t stop the signal. No sooner did the tech giants collude to shut down Twitter alternative Parler than a new revolt sprang up somewhere else entirely among stock traders on Reddit. What will it be next? Truck drivers refusing to deliver food to Silicon Valley? Plumbers boycotting “woke” executives? It’ll probably be something cleverer and less foreseeable than that, but it’ll be something. The more the techno-elite tightens its grip, the more Americans will slip through its fingers.

Author(s): Glenn H. Reynolds

Publication Date: 28 January 2021

Publication Site: NY Post

GameStop Mania Drives Scrutiny of Payments to Online Brokers

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/gamestop-mania-drives-scrutiny-of-payments-to-online-brokers-11612434601

Excerpt:

The Reddit-fueled frenzy in stocks such as GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. is prompting calls for regulators to reconsider a decades-old practice in the U.S. stock market: payment for order flow.

The practice, in which high-speed trading firms pay brokerages for the right to execute orders submitted by individual investors, has long been controversial. Some have said it warps the incentives of brokers and encourages them to maximize their revenue at the expense of customers. Supporters, including many brokers and trading firms, said it helps ensure investors get seamless executions and good prices on trades.

Last year, brokerages such as Charles Schwab Corp., TD Ameritrade, Robinhood Markets Inc. and E*Trade collected nearly $2.6 billion in payments for stock and option orders, according to JMP Securities. The biggest sources of the payments were electronic-trading firms such as Citadel Securities, Susquehanna International Group LLP and Virtu Financial Inc.

Payment for order flow helped set the stage for the manic trading in GameStop, whose shares began the year around $18, surged to a record close of $347.51 on Jan. 27 and ended Thursday’s session at $53.50. Other once-hot stocks such as AMC and Koss Corp. fell more than 20% on Thursday as the Reddit rally lost steam.

Author(s): Alexander Osipovich

Publication Date: 4 February 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

GameStop Day Traders Are Moving Into SPACs

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/gamestop-day-traders-are-moving-into-spacs-11612175401?mod=djemwhatsnews

Excerpt:

Day traders fueling enormous gains in popular stocks such as GameStop Corp. are also powering big swings for another suddenly hot investment: so-called blank-check companies.

Special-purpose acquisition companies—shell companies planning to merge with private firms to take them public—are rising more than 6% on average on their first day of trading in 2021, up from last year’s figure of 1.6%, according to University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter. Before 2020, trading in SPACs was muted when they made their debut on public markets.

Now, shares of blank-check companies almost always go up. The last 140 SPACs to go public have either logged gains or ended flat on their opening day of trading, per a Dow Jones Market Data analysis of trading in blank-check companies through Thursday. One hundred and seventeen in a row have risen in their first week. The gains tend to continue, on average generating bigger returns going out to a few months.

Author: Amrith Ramkumar

Publication Date: 1 December 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

GameStop’s Reddit-fueled rally, explained

Mary Pat Campbell
GameStop’s Reddit-fueled rally, explained

Excerpt:

Bloomberg has a fantastic rundown:

  1. $GME was first pitched as an investment on r/WallStreetBets about 2 years ago, but the current craze built up over the past 12 months.
  2. Members on the subreddit r/WallStreetBets believed that GameStop, with 5k+ brick ‘n’ mortar locations, could turn around its fortunes by going digital.
  3. On Aug. 31, 2020, Ryan Cohen — the billionaire founder of pet company Chewy — bought up a big position in $GME (he now owns 10%+ of it) with plans to modernize the company.
  4. In the months since, a number of prominent hedge funds (Citron, Melvin Capital) revealed they were betting against (AKA short selling) $GME.
  5. Typically in short selling, you: 1) borrow a stock; 2) sell it to a buyer; and 3) if the price of the stock falls, you can buy it for a cheaper price you sold it at and return the stock to the person who lent it to you.
  6. One risk of short selling is called a “short squeeze.” Since you have to eventually return the stock you borrowed, problems can arise if there is a limited supply of the stock.
  7. In a “short squeeze,” the underlying stock will get bid up as short sellers try to get their hands on stock that they have to return.
  8. Options trading — the right, but not obligation, to buy a stock at a certain price — is also driving $GME up as institutions that sell these options are buying $GME stock to hedge their position.
  9. $GME stock is on an upward tear as these market mechanics play out and r/WallStreetBets traders coordinate their efforts.

Author: Trung T. Phan

Publication Date: 26 January 2021

Publication Site: The Hustle

Hedge fund Melvin sustains 53% loss after Reddit onslaught

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/01/hedge-fund-melvin-sustains-53-loss-after-reddit-onslaught/

Excerpt:

Melvin Capital, the hedge fund that was wrongfooted by retail traders who drove up shares in GameStop and other companies it had bet against, lost 53 percent in January, according to people familiar with the firm’s results.

The New York-based hedge fund sustained a $4.5 billion fall in its assets from the end of last year to $8 billion, even after a $2.75 billion cash injection from Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel.

Authors: ORTENCA ALIAJ AND ERIC PLATT

Publication Date: 31 January 2021

Publication Site: Ars Technica

How GameStop’s Robinhood Boosters Are Clobbering Hedge Funds

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/gamestops-robinhood-boosters-clobbering-hedge-funds/?apos=2_art&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CIOAlert

Excerpt:

Investors who sold GameStop short have lost $23.6 billion so far in 2021 through Wednesday, by the count of financial analytics firm S3 Partners. That includes $14.3 billion yesterday, as the retailer’s stock price shot up 135%.

In response to the controversy, Robinhood and Interactive Brokers Group curbed trading on GameStop, AMC, and several others Thursday morning. GameStop shares began to reverse direction. How long the restrictions would last was unclear. Frustrated amateur traders, of course, might just take their business to platforms that don’t limit them.

The pain is intense for these hedge funds. Citron Capital’s Andrew Left, often disparaged on Reddit, just said his firm folded a GameStop short bet, after losing 100% of its money spent on the transaction. Melvin Capital Management has slumped about 30% as the result of GameStop short sales, according to published reports. New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s Point72 fund and Ken Griffin’s Citadel have stakes in Melvin.

Author: Larry Light

Publication Date: 28 January 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

GameStop and AMC gyrate wildly overnight after explosive rally

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/27/gamestop-and-amc-are-dropping-in-overnight-trading-after-explosive-rally.html?mc_cid=ea45e1fced&mc_eid=983bcf5922

Excerpt:

GameStop and AMC Entertainment tumbled in overnight trading, then rebounded sharply in the premarket Thursday following a meteoric rally amid a retail buying frenzy.

Shares of the brick-and-mortar video game retailer dropped 15.97% in extended trading, following a more-than 130% gain during regular hours. In premarket trading early Thursday, its shares bounced 30% higher.

The movie theater chain sank 26.58% in overnight trading, after shares soared 300% in extremely heavy trading. Its shares were little changed in premarket trading.

The pair have been popular targets in the “Wallstreetbets” Reddit chat room where a wave of at-home traders focus on heavily shorted stocks, pushing share higher and squeezing out short-selling hedge funds.

Author: Yun Li

Publication Date: 27 January 2021

Publication Site: CNBC