GameStop is an American shop that sells games, consoles and other electronics that was suffering due to the pandemic.
Because of this, major hedge funds had bet billions of dollars that GameStop's shares would fall due to their heavy losses over the last year.
But, swapping tips on social media like Reddit, amateur investors swooped in buying the company's stock, and driving up the share price by more than 700% in a week.
For many, the aim was to make stockbrokers and hedge funds lose money and play them at their own game- something they didn’t seem too happy about.
Suddenly hedge funders are pivoting, demanding trading restrictions- this betrayal of their capitalist values of the ‘free market’ without regulation, can be boiled down to the fact they wish to trade stock as THEY wish but are opposed to amateurs manipulating the game they call the stock market.
Dave Portnoy, emerging as one of the most high-profile amateur traders during the pandemic is quoted "Democratising finance for all, except when we manipulate the market, cause too many ordinary people are getting rich."
There’s some food for thought and an insight into how capitalists truly do just want to keep the rich rich and the poor poor.
Comments