Reddit and GameStop

We were talking about whether or not Robinhood was in fact a by old school definition bucket shop and if that is why they shut things down.

 

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Monday that the recent trading frenzy in GameStop and other Reddit-touted stocks does not merit a monetary policy response, Boomberg reported.

Addressing the attention on the explosive rally in GameStop shares, the central banker said if two groups of speculators want to battle it out over an individual stock, "God bless them."

"That's for them to do, and if they make money, fine. And if they lose money, that's on them," Bloomberg reported Kashkari saying at a virtual town hall event. "I'm not at all thinking about modifying my views on monetary policy because of speculators in these individual stocks."

 

AMC still in play

 

Well GME just traded under $75/share. Guess those who liked it at 200 must love it here. The players may change but the game always ends the same way.It has been fun t watch. I wish I had the stomach for it but old age set in long ago.

 

LOL I called the bottom for now as GME just went to 105.

 

They are so worried about regular people breaking their rigged system that they are inventing psychological horrors... yea, guys are cutting themselves and yet billionaire market guys are crying on live tv..

 

Pretty good take, here. Can't speak to the details, but wouldn't be surprised if it's accurate at least in the broad strokes -- especially the last 4 paragraphs.

 

Yep, this is pretty much the way I see it.

Lots of folks asking what is different when a hedge fund does it. Well, in that case all of the hedge fund investors share equally in the average price paid to manipulate the value up, and all share equally in the average price received on the way out.

In the reddit case you have leader-follower behavior where the leaders may make huge profits at the expense of both the squeezed and the followers. And plenty of misleading information being posted that makes it similar to a pump and dump.

What I found interesting though was this chart that implies that elon musk had more to do with the huge run up than reddit:

 

I agree that there were plenty of big guys, momentum types and algos involved, but as the stock began to move, the option premiums became extremely expensive and that was one of the reasons the stock began to turn. Both out of the money puts and calls became ridiculously expensive that they became almost as risky as the stock.

 

It still looks pretty ripe for some short vertical call spreads

 

That's because it's what CNBC wants you to see. "Fun with axes." Why not start the chart on January 12th, when the stock was $19.95/share. Had you bought in then, like most wsb members (not the millions that piled in the day your chart starts), and bought just one share, you'd have had a 5x return on the day your chart starts, a 7x-8x return when Elon tweeted... over 100x return the next day...

 

MARKETS
Reddit user who helped inspire GameStop mania says he lost $13 million on Tuesday, but is still holding on

• Keith Gill, AKA Reddit’s DeepF------Value, apparently lost more than $13 million on Tuesday alone from his GameStop bet as the shares dropped 60%.
• Despite the losses, the investor is holding onto 50,000 shares of GameStop as well as 500 call options in the brick-and-mortar video game retailer.
• At GameStop’s record high last week, Gill’s total return in the name ballooned more than 2,000% to as much as $33 million, according to his Reddit posts.
  
  

Keith Gill — who goes by DeepF------Value on Reddit and Roaring Kitty on YouTube — says he suffered a loss north of $13 million on Tuesday alone from his GameStop bet, but he’s still not selling.

He’s the man who helped inspire the epic short squeeze in GameStop last week that sent shockwaves through Wall Street. Through YouTube videos and Reddit posts, Gill attracted an army of day traders who cheered each other on and piled into the brick-and-mortar video game stock and call options, creating a massive short squeeze as the shares jumped 400% last week alone.

Gill says he has been holding 50,000 shares of GameStop as well as 500 call options in the brick-and-mortar video game retailer since the start of 2021. At GameStop’s record high last week, Gill’s total return in the name ballooned more than 2,000% to as much as $33 million, according to his Reddit posts.

However, the short squeeze in GameStop started to fade this week, taking a big bite out of Gill’s massive gains. The trader apparently lost $13.6 million on his positions in GameStop shares and calls, following a more than $5 million loss on Monday.

The gaming retailer stock dropped 60% on Tuesday and it has lost more than 70% of its value since Friday.

Gill started touting GameStop six months ago on YouTube, explaining to his subscribers how the 100%-plus short interest in the name could work to their advantage. While on Reddit’s infamous WallStreetBets forum, he’s been posting screenshots of his GameStop returns for more than a year, in what he calls his “GME YOLO update (You Only Live Once).”

The investor owned 10,000 shares of GameStop at the end of 2020 and increased his holding in the new year, according to his posts on Reddit.

Gill’s latest seven-hour YouTube live stream on Jan. 22 detailing his GameStop trades garnered more than 650,000 views.

“Cheers everybody,” Gill said in the video to his more than 300,000 subscribers, holding a champagne class. “A historic day today, no doubt a gigantic day.”

The Wall Street Journal interviewed the 34-year-old investor last week in a profile, which revealed his background as a college track star as well as a a former marketer for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance.

Gill didn’t respond to CNBC’s request for comments via Twitter and Reddit.

 

I think you are reading a little too much into this. CNBC doesn't care whether it's Musk or Reddit.

And of course the people that got in early made more money.

 

This is absolutely baffling to me.

I don't see how the stock ever clears $200 again. Most of the shorts have closed.

He did put $13 million in cash so he has life changing money no matter what happens, but he could have had $50 million.

Maybe he really believes it hasn't seen its peak. Maybe there is some kind of psychological thing going on where he can't cut his losses after seeing it so high. Maybe the SEC came and talked to him and he is trying to create proof that this wasn't a pump and dump. These all seem unlikely to me, but I can't think of any other reasons.

 

Maybe he has another account where he's trading the ups and downs, knowing that his posts consistently move the price up a few dollars, and his absence results in a downtrend by a few dollars. Just another possibility.

 

I said after the second or 3rd day of this thread that there's more than one player in this game that is on both sides...they are laughing all the way to the bank