[Closed] Anyone watching the Gamestop/Reddit fandango?

Casino thing is not really true either.

It's more like depositing a $100 bond with the house just in case you lose, then borrowing $10,000 worth of chips from the house to play with, then whilst mid bet, borrowing some more off of them. and a shed load of other people doing the same. eventually there aren't any more chips in the house (and hence $ equivalent lodged in the bank) to borrow until people cash out. You can hardly expect a class action against the house to succeed if they turn round and say "sorry, you can't borrow any more chips right now".

Plain buys and sells were still possible. What wasn't possible was opening a position using the house's assets.

At the end of the day, it's gonna be the flashmob operators that get a ticking off, and the companies that offer CFD's etc to regular punters are going to have to limit what they offer. So this flashmob might just have brought and end to the cheap trading for day traders and amateur investors.

Now they're going after silver.... 😁

Now they’re going after silver…. 😁

No, everyone is trying to get them to go after silver and they are having none of it.

Maybe people are making the mistake of thinking that because they call themselves retards they are retards.

Been watching it closely today. Some (big by normal standards) reductions but no collapse/take off yet. I can see why people get addicted to this. The last time I owned any shares was before I sold them all to buy a house, but the new platforms like etoro are streets ahead of what I could do 8 years ago. I had a play on their virtual portfolio and it's scary how quickly you can make or lose money. With 5k on GME I made £400 (virtual) in 5 mins (blind luck obvs!). Doubt I'll actually use etoro for real as I'm not keen on the whole converting it to dollars thing and lack of an ISA so waiting til T212 is accepting signups again.

I was too late to the party, lost just over £100 and have wimped out. I didn't put much in because I thought that might happen, but worth a punt
.
Looking at it though, it's still 120+% shorted. Are these the original shorts from way back when (Last week probably) or were some folks shorting it when it was at $400, which would probably have been very sensible?

Etoro are the next Robin hood.
They want to list on the stock market but they have shot themselves in the foot today.
Oh yeah diamonds 💎.
I'm still in gamestop sticking it to the dirty dicks of wallstreet.
We all know it's only a bad day at work for them in the long run but balls to them

Been watching it closely today. Some (big by normal standards) reductions but no collapse/take off yet.

Seems like a bit of a stand-off at the moment. Probably trying to bore the WSB crowd into looking around for the 'next big thing', which either doesn't damage them, or actually helps them offset their losses (silver).

It seems lots of the Hegde funds hold silver as safehouse citadel for one.
Then just paying bots and getting media coverage.

I was too late to the party, lost just over £100 and have wimped out. I didn’t put much in because I thought that might happen, but worth a punt

Paper hands! 😂

If you were prepared to risk it then why have you jumped.. get back on the ship 🤣

I’m riding this one out... was going to go in some more today if it dropped below $250 but xrp burned me and I decided to just hold. I had a very expensive phone call earlier, who knew you could lose that much money in 30 minutes!

This sort of stuff really isn't for the faint hearted.  Hasn't the stock dropped by half today?

💎💎💎💎

but not me.  I would want to know way more about what I'm doing before being in this game

I'm in, not for much and just for a laugh but it is an eye opener seeing what the mainstream press are reporting r/WSB are saying and what r/WSB are actually saying - it's hard not to see it as media manipulation.

The billboards and plane-towed ads are a nice touch.

it is an eye opener seeing what the mainstream press are reporting r/WSB are saying and what r/WSB are actually saying

Yeah, the whole ‘silver short’ thing is a total fabrication but if you read it on the news you would get the impression it was WSB’s next big thing. All that happened is that the people that jumped on GME (because they saw it in the news) sold their shares and effectively gave money to Citadel (who hold a long position on silver) by buying silver.

Kind of scary to watch. I’m guessing these shady tactics happen all the time but we’re never privy to the actual facts on the case so it goes unnoticed.

The longer I watch, the more I think these short guys must be really scared.

I bought some more GME on it's way down yesterday (at $230), it didn't bounce back this time though :p There's definitely still the possibility of a short squeeze happening but it seems more of a stand-off now, without knowing when the shorts expire/get called in it's whether the small investors can hold long enough to trigger it.

I'm getting less optimistic that's going to happen now and the stock price Fri/Mon was too stable most of the day so there's not even any fun to be had trying to ride the waves. Also, despite lots of "Hold, it's just another short ladder attack" posts on WSB yesterday, there was definitely a lot more volume being traded so I think quite a few have started to bail already.

without knowing when the shorts expire/get called in it’s whether the small investors can hold long enough to trigger it.

Seems to me that the hedge funds have a certain price target below which holding their shorts and just paying the interest for a longer period becomes the lesser of two evils. It's a waiting game to see if enough small investors and bandwagon jumpers have a low attention span and sell up to drive the price below 100 again.

Hence all the media friends hyping some other stock/commodity squirrel.

i saw a video that amongst other things, explained that RobinHood make their money, partly by interest on investors money that they hold in their accounts, but also (and possibly mainly) by collating the data from its users activities, and then selling that data to wall street traders, who then use it to try and inform their decision making.

ultimately robinhood don't work for the users providing access to the resource, they work for "the man", and the users are the resource.

They couldnt let their resources fight back against the customers.
If you're not paying for the product, you are the product.

Currently down 30% in pre-market trading, lets hope people don't lose their nerve!

I also see eToro have posted they accidentally set a 20% Stop Loss on some shares yesterday - I thought I was going mad and must have accidentally left a SL on a position that sold unexpectedly yesterday but I'm guessing it was this (they haven't confirmed the stocks affected yet, just they'll contact individuals affect by email). For me it was only a $52 loss on a $250 position so not the end of the world but am more annoyed it was my first loss transaction so far on GME 🙁 Then again I could see lots more of those in the near future :p

What's the rumour then? (Not on Reddit) another opening spike then a gradual slide? Or has the hype train finally stopped?

Wasn't the original goal to hold the GME value up until late Jan early Feb and push the stops longer? Have they achieved the goal yet?

Yeah the basic plan was to get the stock price up enough and hold it there long enough that it caused a short squeeze then a gamma squeeze. We've already seen some short squeezes but the gamma squeeze hasn't happened. That needs the hedge funds to loose their nerve, if too many Redditors etc. start dumping shares though it won't happen as they'll be able to buy enough without driving the price up and the liquidity will return so they can control the market further.

It's hard to tell what's going on right now though - it can't be the small investors dumping as we don't have access to the pre-market. So it's either bigger investors starting to dump or it's the hedge funds manipulating the price again to try and trigger panic selling when the market opens. There looks to be a fair amount of volume being traded though so not sure it's just a short ladder but I don't understand all the mechanics so I'm mostly wildly speculating :p

What’s the rumour then? (Not on Reddit) another opening spike then a gradual slide? Or has the hype train finally stopped?

My completely uneducated hot-take is that there are two groups of people 'in' on GME. There's the longstanding WSB hands that believe they can force a short squeeze by holding onto their stock for as long as it takes (days/ weeks/ maybe months). They're not selling and some of them seem more interested in 'sticking it to the man' than actually making money.

The other (substantial) group are the people who got random tip offs / follow Reddit (but not necessarily WSB), bought into the hype and bought stock when GME was super volatile. They bought in on the hype (when $GME was ~$90-100, bought some shares and made some money but if they're still holding are seeing their gains mostly evaporate. These people probably don't (didn't?) have the stomach for a drawn-out battle and will soon all cash out if they haven't already.

My guess is that the stock price will drift down as these latter people sell up, before settling. Then it'll be a question of nerve between the true 'diamond hands' as they call themselves and the HFs. If the drift (my term) gets the share price down to <$100 I will probably buy some for the first time.

Two more potential timepoints: the short % is accurately published monthly, I think due middle of the month. At the moment they're just estimating the short position %. Also I'm not sure when the next load of shorts need to be settled, think I read the 18th somewhere? So perhaps nothing major will happen until then so we may be waiting a while for the next installment!

i saw a video that amongst other things, explained that RobinHood make their money [snip] by collating the data from its users activities, and then selling that data

I posted that on page 4 and someone told me to "Engage brain before opening mouth." But yes in essence that's correct.

50% drop on market opening. Bought some in my etoro fantasy portfolio. This way too much of a work distraction 🙂

I've just had an app notification that Revolut, like a lot of other services, have gone to "sell only" on GameStop and AMC. So even if I wanted to buy more I couldn't without trying to sign up to another service elsewhere.

On the plus side my crypto gains are (currently) off-setting my GameStop losses so there's that...

This way too much of a work distraction

That's my main problem with continuing to hold - it's so distracting I'm not getting much work done in the afternoon now :p I need to sell at some point soon before someone notices my productivity nose-dive!

Thought I posted this yesterday but the whole dirty tricks/info war stuff that's happening now is fascinating and disturbing in equal measure. I mean, it is categorically rigging the stock market, and it's being done in full sight, with media and political support. I'm sure the people doing it and funding it and supporting it would say it's all due to WSB but it seems like the sort of thing that once you've started doing it, it's quite hard to stop.

Outside of RH app apparently blocking Buys again today I'm not sure the current slide is the same market manipulation we've seen in the days previously. Despite what a lot of Reddit posts are saying there is actually a decent volume of trades going on now so it surely has to be a lot of investors selling rather than just the hedge funds manipulating the price.

I had faith last week people would hold during the dips but I'm not so sure anymore (especially as the big end of month squeeze didn't really happen). I've lost my bottle a bit too (I'm currently in for $1000 with an average price of $280, so pretty exposed even though if I sold up now @ $110 I'd still make a slight profit overall). I'd love to play the current slide (hoping it's a dip) but I don't want to go further down the potential hole :p

In other news eToro just compensated me $50 for the sell they did (without me asking) yesterday which is actually fair (I lost $52 in total but as the shares have slid a lot since and I likely wouldn't have sold them by now I'd be down $100+ if they hadn't sold them

but it seems like the sort of thing that once you’ve started doing it, it’s quite hard to stop

I don't think it is something they have just started, it is just that it has been brought to light.

I said a few days ago in the Biden thread, that I thought this was the first test of the Biden administration, and whether they really were on the side of the majority or the 1%ers. It looks like the answer is starting to form, and isn't the one hoped for.

$76 to $137 in 45 minutes inc 2 halts

Thing is, there's multiple user groups involved but I think they're suffering to some extent from the avalanche of newbies, inevitably a lot of people who jumped on it will be quick to jump off it and that's going to make any sort of solidly held line impossible. Question is how much effect that will have, but it definitely rocks the boat.

MSP
Free Member

I don’t think it is something they have just started, it is just that it has been brought to light.

I think doing it this brazenly is new. Or put it another way, probably before you could find examples of it but it did have to be "brought to light" as you say, now it's just out in the light, working on its tan.

OK so, obviously WSB is very US-led, what would be a good app/service for having a play? (I've got some actual investments, which are well looked after but that service has a high per-transaction fee, I'm looking for something for basically pissing about with)

Revolut has 3 free transactions a month and you can do crypto etc through the same platform so possibly worth a play. All combined with the banking aspect as well so it's an ideal all-in-one money losing system really.

Revolut blocked buying of gme & amc today or thier brokerage blocker them.

Low cost platforms, social media and herd mentality isn't a good mix.
A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.
Hedge funds exist to exploit opportunity; some refer to that as manipulation.
Some thoughts:
- understand what you're doing, including the risks
- amateurs piling into a company with no real prospects is bubble behaviour
- investing is long term
- day trading is a good way to lose money
Those amateur traders who made money due to lucky timing will, no doubt, be convincing themselves they can beat the market.

dfv is still in, obvs his screenshots show a cash balance of $13m, but his share value is down $11m in a couple of days, either he's extremely well off to the tune of 00's of millions and he doesn't care, or the £13m cash balance is enough for anyone, or the spreadsheets are fabricated (I don't think its this), or its coming?

he only paid $14.89 for 50,000 shares, so he's still up 6x as of close today,

why wouldn't you sell at say $350 for a sweet $17 milli?

who blocked the short ladder the other day for $650m?

why all the restrictions on buying?

why does $gme and $amc track almost identically?

I got in at $95 and out at £285, IG won't let me get back in though,

dfv is still in, obvs his screenshots show a cash balance of $13m, but his share value is down $11m in a couple of days, either he’s extremely well off to the tune of 00’s of millions and he doesn’t care,

He’s cashed out enough for anyone to very comfortably live out the rest of their days. The rest is just riding this ridiculous wave and hoping to pull up the rest of WSB and change the investing dynamic. The latter seems further away now than it did on Friday...

That's interesting. Where are you getting that info?

I've put a fill or kill in on HL with a $100 limit. As I understand it it's now standoff territory as to who blinks first. If you watch how it played out with VW this is just the beginning and the price could be headed north of $1000.

*Could* be.

what would be a good app/service for having a play?

I signed up with etoro and have been messing around with the virtual portfolio. It's quite flaky, and not just on GME and other dodgy stocks, not sure if it was my internet connection but I was putting in trade orders and they'd hang so I thought they'd been cancelled or had failed but then they appeared a few minutes later. Not sure if that's just cos I was using the virtual portfolio but I'd be incredibly pissed off it was real money. Also etoro converts everything to dollars so introduces extra forex risk and doesn't have an ISA. I'm waiting for Trading212 to start accepting signups again.

He’s cashed out enough for anyone to very comfortably live out the rest of their days. The rest is just riding this ridiculous wave and hoping to pull up the rest of WSB and change the investing dynamic. The latter seems further away now than it did on Friday…

but what's a milli worth to you? unless he he many, id have sold at the high a couple of days ago

but what’s a milli worth to you? unless he he many, id have sold at the high a couple of days ago

I Reddit somewhere, can’t find a link now. But at the peak last Friday (when his portfolio was at ~$53M) he cashed out around $9M of the options IIRC. So the rest he can afford to be a bit more speculative with because let’s face it, $9M is enough to retire and watch your kids grow up. I’m a simple man and that’s what I’d do. He’s about the same age as me and I am so envious! But I suppose there’s always a bigger fish and some people might always want more. Philanthropy, ‘generational’ wealth etc.

Low cost platforms, social media and herd mentality isn’t a good mix.
A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.
Hedge funds exist to exploit opportunity; some refer to that as manipulation.
Some thoughts:
– understand what you’re doing, including the risks
– amateurs piling into a company with no real prospects is bubble behaviour
– investing is long term
– day trading is a good way to lose money
Those amateur traders who made money due to lucky timing will, no doubt, be convincing themselves they can beat the market.

I'd say this is all good general advice but I wonder if you have actually read the specifics of what they are trying to do in this case? As far as I'm aware this situation has never arisen before (a decentralised group getting together to manipulate share prices in order to induce a short squeeze).

Can it still be called market manipulation if you are telling everyone and anyone who will listen exactly what your strategy is?

I suspect if it's going to result in the big boys losing any money the answer will be 'Yes, of course, we have to make sure this never happens again!'

Watching TheStockGuy streaming yesterday going through the loss screenshots people posted was both funny and sad - I just hope they were all playing with money they can afford to lose. I'm probably incredibly immature but I can't help but laugh at a lot of the ape-themed comments on WSB either.

(a decentralised group getting together to manipulate share prices in order to induce a short squeeze)

I don't think anyone was trying to manufacture a short squeeze initially. Stocks with high degrees of shorting were identified despite recent investment in those companies and a few people exploited that. E.g. I'm sure DFV didn't anticipate a 'short squeeze' when he bought his calls back in 2019 - he just saw a business with potential. Then as the price began to rise, it became clear to WSB that the short position was untenable IF the stock rose (i.e. there was a small chance of a big return for shareholders). And then after the stock started increasing rapidly above the value of the shorts (~$20 IIRC) I.e. potential imminent short squeeze it snowballed as people could see the value. None of this was manufactured, at least not by the disparate group of weirdos on WSB.

Can it still be called market manipulation if you are telling everyone and anyone who will listen exactly what your strategy is?

I would imagine it could still be manipulation even if transparent. The question is whether there was any co-ordination here. An example would be a thread along the lines of "Shall we all buy GME so the price goes up? Post below and we commit to all buy once we reach x shares pledge." which didn't happen AFAIK. I think every member of WSB holding $GME will be able to argue that they acted individually according to their own self-interest. IANAL.

BruceWee
Free Member

Can it still be called market manipulation if you are telling everyone and anyone who will listen exactly what your strategy is?

That seems to me a bit like asking "is it still stealing if you tell the shop staff you're stealing and walk out of the shop holding a TV in the air". It's not being stealthy or overt that makes it wrong; it's just that usually it's stealthy because enforcement should make being obvious a really terrible idea.

A quick look at wallstreetbets suggests the party is over.

A quick look at wallstreetbets suggests the party is over.

As Mark Cuban is a multi-billionaire he can easily afford to carry losses if he's an investor and follows his own advice.
How many of the current small investors/day traders could afford to follow his advice and absorb any losses which may result?
His advice could be sound but...