OF REDDIT, ROBIN HOOD, GAMESTOP, AND TEXAS
The news this past week has been, in part, all about the Gamestop story. Or rather, it's been about the fairy tale that a bunch of small scale investors, using their internet discussion capabilities, suddenly and spontaneously had the bright idea of coordinating all their efforts, and squeezing what appeared to them to be a massive short on Gamestop and a few other stocks. Take that, Wall Street crony crapitalism! Admit it: it's a fairy tale that almost all of us have entertained at one time or another as Mr. Broker-Banskster gets hoist on his own over-speculating petard, the more so because shorting is a wonderful way to drive companies that Mr. Bankster doesn't like out of business . The little guy struck back, and Mr. Bankster got caught well and royally screwed.
This narrative caught on so quickly and deeply that last week, when I did my News and Views from the Nefarium, I talked about another subject, and one "listener" promptly attacked me (in some pretty foul language I might add; Americans are now so stupid that they cannot emphasize any point without dropping f-bombs); how dare I (ran his "argument") that I talk about what I was talking about, rather than talking about those ordinary "patriots" who had just done battle with The Big Guys, and won!
My reason for not talking about it until now was that the story had that peculiar "bearer bonds scandal odor" or "2008 banker bailout odor" to it that one learns to recognize hanging around stories like this; it hovers over them like a malodorous green cloud. For example: one thing I thought as the story first broke was that as the price of Gamestop stock started to soar and to put the squeeze on the shorters, that the amounts of money needed to put on that squeeze were probably way beyond a bunch of "financial populists" being able to raise. "Best to wait," I thought, "to see what crawls out of the woodwork."
Consider, for example, the "adjustments to the narrative" that one reader here, M.D., shared:
Ignore The Populist GameStop Hype. Short Sellers Are Heroes
Opinion: The good guys in the GameStop story? It’s the hedge funds and short sellers.
The second article (from the Washington (Com)Post, argues the case for shorters being heroes as follows:
What about short sellers? These are specialists who research stocks that might go down, sometimes because bosses are illegally covering up bad news about their companies. When short sellers identify a case of fraud or similar, they borrow and sell the stock, hoping to buy it back at a lower price later. Again, there is nothing evil about this. To the contrary, it’s a way of keeping prices honest. A market without short sellers is like a political system without investigative journalists.
This, however, is not how GameStoppers see things. They have gone after a short seller named Andrew Left, hacking into his social media accounts, sharing his personal information online, ordering dozens of pizzas to be delivered to his home in the middle of the night, and texting his children with threatening and profane language, according to the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps not surprisingly, Left has announced he will stop playing the game. Irrational stock prices will be that much likelier.
The brazenness of these people is breathtaking. Consider that line from the first paragraph cited above: "A market without short sellers is like a political system without investigative journalists." I don't know about you, but for my part, I've not seen too many investigative journalists out in force in recent months. And then there's this pithy aphorism: "Irrational stock prices will be that much likelier."
Really? Give me a break.
(And, on a personal note, I actually like going into Gamestop and actually like being able to see products, handle them, turn them over in my hand, just as I like going into used movie vendors' stores looking for movies, an activity abruptly halted by lockdowns and nosebag mandates.)
But as I said, my initial reaction was suspicion of, and skepticism about, the "financial populist" portion of the narrative, and voila, the website of Pam and Russ Martens, Wall Street on Parade, has a much more intriguing and balanced presentation of the story, almost as if they were real investigative journalists, because they're not buying either the "financial populist" narrative nor the "short sellers and hedge funds are heroes" narrative either:
It's well worth pondering those first three paragraphs:
Dark Pools owned by the biggest names on Wall Street – such as Goldman Sachs’ Sigma X2, JPMorgan Chase’s JPM-X, UBS’ UBSA, Morgan Stanley’s MSPL, and Credit Suisse’s Crossfinder — have been making tens of thousands of trades in the shares of GameStop on an ongoing weekly basis. FINRA, Wall Street’s highly compromised self-regulator, reports the Dark Pool data on a stale basis, two to three weeks after the trading has occurred. It is then lumped together for the whole week, rendering it useless in terms of monitoring price manipulation. The chart above is taken from the latest available information from FINRA. (See our previous reporting on Dark Pools in Related Articles below.)
It’s a fair guess that you haven’t heard a peep about Dark Pools on the evening news. The fact that you haven’t is a perfect commentary on why mainstream media is failing the American people when it comes to exposing Wall Street’s serial looting of the little guy.
But when a bunch of quixotic posters on a Reddit message board can be parlayed into the exciting narrative of a Robinhood band taking on the evil hedge funds, it goes viral on the evening news – sucking in hundreds of thousands more unsophisticated retail investors.
And lest we forget, "research" is needed to create the bubbling opportunity:
Wall Street On Parade previously described how the retail investor was sucked into the dot.com bubble as follows:
“First, Wall Street brokerage firms issued knowingly false research reports to the public to trumpet the growth prospects for a specific company; second, the firms lined up big institutional clients who were instructed how and when to buy at escalating prices to make the stock price skyrocket. This had an official name inside the walls of the manipulators: ‘laddering.’ Next, managers of the fleets of stockbrokers at the various brokerage firms instructed their flock to stand pat as the stock prices soared. If the stockbroker tried to get his small client out with a profit, he was hit with a so-called ‘penalty bid,’ effectively taking away his commissions on the trade. This sent the clear warning to other stockbrokers to leave their clients in the dubious deals. Only the wealthy and elite were allowed to capture the bulk of profits on these deals.
...
“Jack Grubman, a stock analyst at Salomon Smith Barney, was at the center of this era of collusion. He was charged by the SEC for ‘fraudulent research.’ He never went to trial or was criminally charged. He paid a $15 million fine, was barred from the industry, and walked away. His haul while at Salomon Smith Barney according to the SEC, ‘exceeded $67.5 million, including his multi-million dollar severance package.’ ”
The Martens end their article with the following warning:
Before you buy into the David versus Goliath saga of GameStop, it would be wise to step back and do some homework on what’s really going on.
To that I can only add my own "hear hear!" but with this caveat: we've not yet seen everything come out about this story. But what has come out thus far is perhaps enough to learn some important lessons about what might be possible to do, and how narratives are created and driven. And at the very least, it is perhaps also a warning about not doing any business with those large banking and brokerage houses... whatsoever.
See you on the...woops, I almost forgot today's high octane speculation, which as it turns out for today, is really high octane speculation.
As all this is going on, enter Texas once again, and this little gem of an article shared by G.B.:
There you have it. The Attorney General of Texas is wanting some answers, and notably, the answers he wants concern the appearance of coordination among all involved players:
“Wall Street corporations cannot limit public access to the free market, nor should they censor discussion surrounding it, particularly for their own benefit. This apparent coordination between hedge funds, trading platforms, and web servers to shut down threats to their market dominance is shockingly unprecedented and wrong. It stinks of corruption,” said Attorney General Paxton.
“I’m hopeful that these companies will step up and cooperate with these CIDs in order to clear any confusion over why stock purchases were forcibly closed and why even conversation around these stocks was silenced.”
Overlooking for the moment theFASAB-56-like effort to remove all public scrutiny and conversation about what has just happened, and concentrating on just the "apparent coordination between hedge funds, trading platforms, and web servers," (which is a polite lawyerly way of saying that both sides - the shorters and the "financial populists" - were coordinating partners in the event) I have to wonder if G.B.'s speculation which accompanied the email sharing the article might be true (and herewith is G.B.'s high octane speculation): does the presence of the heavy algorithmic trading in Gamestop and other shorted stocks involved in this story, plus the apparent coordination suggested by Texas Attorney General Paxton, perhaps point to another actor, one which, perhaps, neither side of the human actors anticipated? Are we looking at, perhaps, something caused by AI run amok? Well, maybe. That, in any case, was G.B.'s speculation. Here's mine: why is it that, again and again, we keep coming back to Texas? Is that state's attorney general's involvement indicative of yet other agendas, agendas perhaps connecting with Governor Abbot's attempts to woo the NASDAQ data center to Texas? While there's nothing concrete to suggest such a connection right now, I would not be a bit surprised.
See you on the flip side...
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Maybe A.I. has not run “amok” maybe just like in 9/11 there was an op ? in an op ?? & an “actor” that “they” didn’t foresee (A.I.) took over its op?¿? & all this noise……… lil guy stuck it ta the man … is look over here …just like in 9/11 & the REAL people behind the START of the op ….are scrambling behind the scenes going WTF ? Something IS going ON folks with A.I. & it’s not NEW …it’s old very very very very old , ANCIENT ?¿? & “somebody/somebody’s very very very Very DEEP behind the scenes knows !
but what does Texas …know ?¿? ?
Here is my take. Full disclosure, I own one single GME share and will frame it and hang it on my wall if it goes to zero which it could do. I am not a financial adviser nor do I play one on TV. If you listen to me you are an idiot (my wife says so and she is always right). USAGE VOIDS WARRANTY.
1) The original Due Diligence by DFV was quite decent. He started buying 16 months ago.
2) Michael Burry (of “The Big Short” fame) bought into the stock a couple of times over the last 2+ years.
3) The hedge funds were doing a MASSIVE naked short to 140% of the stocks float.
4) It has become a game of “poke the bear with a stick” to a lot of people including me.
This is a simple buy and hold short squeeze. Look up the chart for the 2008 “Volkswagen Short Squeeze” to see what “can happen”. Who can hold longer is the game but the expense of holding a short position is huge the longer it goes.
The people on WallStreetBets who’ve bought in to punish the idiotic, irresponsible and illegal hedge funds have succeeded. They have cost the hedge funds $70 billion already. The co-founder of TradeZero was in an AMA session and he said 10 hedge funds are toast already and that the hedges shorting GME have lost $20 billion. The other $50 billion was all the other short plays scared they would be next and closing their positions at a loss. He also said he was on the phone for almost 4 hours with the clearing house trying to get him to restrict buying of GME shares. He refused.
Some simple guestimates if the market closed and everyone was locked in where they are:
WSB: 7 million members at 1 stock each at $200 is $14 billion loss.
HF: $70 billion loss.
They (and I in my own minuscule way) have inflicted a 5:1 damage on the hedge funds and it might be much worse. Robinhood discount broker is toast. No IPO for you! And your company will lose 75% of its customers in a week. Stick a fork in them, they are done.
Now Michael Burry is an investing legend and if he took a position opposite you then you may want to rethink yours. He isn’t perfect but the odds of him being wrong vs you being wrong lean heavily towards you missing something, not him. The hubris of the hedge fund managers was on full display as they shorted MORE.
Regardless of how this started or exploded into a protest it is working. Against all odds and blatant fixing the WSB crowd have held the line (think Braveheart with the horses charging). The battle is far from over but the WSB crowd have clearly won the first part.
Now the piling on has commenced. An Asian billionaire threw in a million then later in the day said it wasn’t enough and put in 10. Many others rich and poor are piling on. How many will hold vs how many will get cold feet and sell is unknown but we will find out shortly. It is not a game of who has the deepest pockets anymore. It is a game of chicken and the “autist retards” at WSB are way more stubborn than the hedge fund managers imagined.
The volume is now so low it is obvious very few are selling and it is just the hedge funds selling back and forth in a ladder attack on the price (illegal but they do it all the time).
I think the attitude was summed up beautifully by a lady named Brigitte who said something along these lines: “You lock us down, trash the economy, ruin our lives and give us $1200. What do Americans do? They find their new favourite video game is Fscking with hedge funds. I’ve never been more proud”.
To give you an idea of what the WSB crowd has already survived:
1) Repeated low volume ladder attacks to drive the price down.
2) Repeated shorting of MORE and MORE shares.
3) Stopping people from buying at multiple brokers.
4) Distractions of “Lets short silver” promoted by a bot army.
5) Media lying blatantly saying “it’s over” (Cramer & ilk).
So what could go wrong for the WSB crowd and kill the price? Lots.
1) The company could issue more shares.
2) Large shareholders like Cohen (13%) and Burry (10%) could sell.
3) The whole market could crash and the exchange close so no place to sell (It happened in 2008).
4) The newb investors could get cold feet and sell.
What could go wrong for the hedge funds? EVERYTHING. First think of the chain here:
HF -> Brokerage -> Clearing House -> Exchange
Now try and figure out who has leveraged this and how many side bets there are and how many bets on the bets of the bets for the bets. The damage could be greater than 2008.
Politicians need to be told in no uncertain terms “Glass-Steagall or hang”.
Good take. Here’s a point that hasn’t been covered by the MSM– any “sophisticated” investor who makes a naked short is breaking rule #1 of financial prudence. If you don’t have access to the underlying shares you are shorting (like having a “call” option to buy shares at X price) you leave yourself open to (hypothetically) near infinite risk if the price goes up like crazy. Line of defense #2 is having a stop loss in place if the market suddenly runs away from you, i.e. a pre-programmed sell (or in this case, buy) that will trigger so you know you’re only going to lose x amount. Ideally, a stop shouldn’t have you losing more than 8% of the total invested amount. So these idiot hedge funds had neither in place and now need to float billions waiting for this blow over, which will take even longer since they’ve been whinging on about it non-stop. Any execs and risk officers for these funds should not only be fired but sued by their fund owners for gross incompetence.
It’s like watching a bully finally get punched in the face. I don’t feel even a bit sorry about the crying. And, of course, this morning I saw yet a new spin that the darn Ruskies may be behind some of the short squeeze buying. Honestly, I’m surprised they didn’t try and say that Trump caused it. We’re at some next level Banana Republic style mgmt and propaganda. What next, aliens blamed for buying and holding shares to take over Earth?!
Yea who knows what else goes on. Always put yourself in the opponents shoes. If I knew that Robinhood was not going to allow buys of GME I’d short it AGAIN. Stupid cubed but … I know for certain that this time it’s going down because I’ve got insider info. 450-200 in one day, like last Thursday, could cover a lot of naked shorts.
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.”
If 100 million Americans and Canadians went out and got, or even just ordered, one or two ounces of silver each, the current bullion rigging through paper instruments would collapse, with a domino effect on derivatives, and thus the entire fraudulent financial system. In terms of pre-1965 US coinage, three Franklin half dollars contain about 1 oz. fine silver….
And then Biden would/will do a Roosevelt and declare ownership illegal and seditious. Nay buy US Bonds instead. Maybe $33B bearer bonds?
Well played TRM. Thank you. Frame that share.
Elon Musk has a point about selling things that are NOT yours and worse NOT even there, as those fictitious overstocks are proving to be – ad infinitum. An example of how repetitive a fractal can become with fractional shares of fiction, but with real cash flows. Wonder how big that bag of cash is going to get.
Ah las, there were those with the clout to take big money to the cleaners. An infinite progression on those extra fake shares already worth billions. All in the effort to force a failure of the small guy by the gluttonous big guy thought to-big-to-fail. Those once thought of themselves invulnerable were simple unmasked for what they’ve engaged in all along but got caught short at. Vane arrogance and over confidence did not carry the weight. There’s no wonder why there’s a concerted effort to suppress freedom of expression by you know who.
My, have the losers excuses of distraction been fruitful or what, as they multiply. The Feds might get in on it, too, having found out that favorite friends of the Fed are in losing territory – big. Where will those next shields of profit spill. Apparently, a few lessons yet to play out. To think, this progression was on the horizon back in September. Not seen for what it might turn into by those wealthy experienced players but by a younger resourceful group, agile and smart in every way, in business matters. Credits to their teaching faculty.
The younger have stumbled upon new financial territory the masters of Wharton would be proud to graduate, if only by the numbers. Some of them with their student loans paid off now, too. They might even learn a level of verbal etiquette the masters thought them incompetent of learning given their posted commentary uncensored elsewhere.
The volatile ride does not seem to be over, either. Careful, the Bull’s been let loose.
The most dangerous criminals are the ones who can pass themselves off as pillars of society. The more organized criminals know they can be awash in money but they know they don’t have the important power to protect themselves, families and associates. The only revenge comes from a Cree saying that ends you can’t eat money.
I neglected to add: I really appreciated Dr. Farrell’s making a point of not commenting on this story immediately after it came out. I think that’s an example to emulate. Sometimes it’s wise to wait till there’s more information before forming an opinion, and that habit is becoming rarer all the time. I also agree there’s no point (beyond distraction or entertainment) in being hyper-focused on, and hyper-reactive to, every news story or “revelation” that comes out.
Now, if only I could practice it.
My apologies for the A.I. typo; There may be many unseen circumstances behind why a person becomes offended and curses(spiritual warfare). It is good policy to be cordial under all or most circumstances lest we be misunderstood. Especially now that so many are facing a Topsy turvy reality in the social/political arenas.
Joseph, Here is a wonderful Quote I often refer back to when analyzing myself as the conduct of others ” In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle.” Sri Yukteswar Giri
Again, if only I could practice it.
Like the song goes: Easier said, than done.
Well, it is abundantly clear that a cover story has now been established for yet another financial event that appears to be an operation. There are elements of this that remind me of the work Black 9/11 by Mark Gaffney.
Read many books on it; including Dr. Farrell’s.
And I thought that was bad.
But, apparently; “they” were just warming up.
A malodorous miasma of fishiness hangs over the whole thing–no question about it. Whenever any story is suddenly all over the media, I presume it’s propaganda/psyop until proof of the contrary. Other telltale signs of fish: a story seems too good to be true (the little guy stuck it to Mr. Bankster, white-hat insiders are coming to the rescue); robber barons are cast in a benevolent light (Baal G. wants to save the world, institutional short sellers exist to keep the market honest); there’s been an amazing coincidence (we just happened to be running a simulation, the cell network just happened to go down).
This story had so many headlines making such a fuss that I decided not to bother reading, lest I get sucked into the latest propatainment media hope/fear/hysteria porn, social-engineering psyop, or investment PR campaign. (There’s probably a lot to be learned from studying this particular propaganda/psyop; it just wasn’t in my personal areas of interest.)
Where I said “all over the media,” I should have said “all over the media or popular internet sites.”
Sheriff of Nottingham wants to be Robin of Locksley. The former is obsessed.
Corporate personhood is moneylender playing theater, while pickpocketing audiences.
In Satanic Mill’s casino, virus stock is traded, for vaccine profit.
WUHAN FANTASY 2
Prince Philip made up a sneeze,
to ensnare plebs with ease,
and, as viral cold,
it was sold,
to needle plebs in fleece.
Papal proconsuls & Jesuit apron moles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/wn7deus7wpcsmuu/looney-tunes2.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/utw7krt7hrsqegs/looney-tunes.jpg
Did you say ABE LINCOLN??? No N**** I said hey blinken, hand me the damned rope…
Loved it!
“A market w/o short sellers is like a political system w/o investigative journalists.”[USSR/USSA, my P.S. ad-on].
Amazing that “they” would use reverse projection in such a way.
For me; it’s obvious.
But others will assume the USSA, in writing that, has investigative journalists[yes, but not swimming in any any mainstream distribution waters of the USSA].
In fact, they’re scrubbed daily from any public exposure. Why the Bill Clinton’s of the USSA; scream all the time when they read an investigative journalist piece, “How Dare You Speak Truth To POWER!”
just as the Game is afoot
My watch says I’m late
White Rabbit
I guess that makes everyone’s favorite Hungarian philanthropist an investigative journalist… Who knew?!
Some here know me and “fairy tales” which I revere like biblical text; in that they speak to an event/culture in the past that has had to survive through several translations: from oral, to written to whatever the winning side deeds myth appropriate. So in this analyses, I prefer the latest translation: a new myth being generated. AKA, a couple of weeks ago the Wall Street Journal was doing the leg work in prepping the ground w/gems like this:
Social-media platforms Tik Tok and Twitter have become “the new Wall Street trading desks.” The concept/seed has thus been planted…
What a comic line[I LOL! when I read it/”Irrational stock prices will be that much likelier”[or, did he mean like liar]. Because; in today’s USSA, there is no price discovery! In fact, that was well before FASB 56!
I hate too say it Wall Street; but Looney Tunes is much, much more believable, than your Harvard breed of economics being propagated from fake economic expertly certified gibberish.
The mainstream is failing their Amerika, USSA. The mainstream is a parent stock herself; breeding other fakes by the score. And the covid1984 score is heavily lopesided in favor of the fake economy’s billionaires!
But the fake billionaires have nothing on the ongoing trillions being stole in plain sight. Well, technically this hidden economy is way underground. In fact, literally underground; and out of this world[well, at least, off this world.
So it’s trillions of dollars’ massive hole is visible, if seeing a whole hole counts. But I digress.
Now Robin Hood and his merry band of hoaxsters; or, is that banksters?
At any rate…
White Rabbit
Ah! Now were stepping into Texas.
[How do you get to Texas? Well you go south and when you smell it?
That’s Texas? No, that’s Oklahoma. Keep going south;
and when you step in it? That’s Texas? Yep, sure as ____!
Yep! Now it’s gets down, and real dirty.
Unprecedented?
Wall Street making an honest buck would be unprecedented!
Capone was called a crook; he replied that he was small fry,
compared to Wall Street. Capone was jailed. That’s small fry.
And now the Texas Attorney General
get’s again into that High Finance frame;
a fame, in where his Texas Rangers speak,
“Play Ball!”
“Oh the games people play now
Every day and every night now…”
I can’t see 3 million small to medium investors putting up enough money to give the hedge funds a major challenge either unless there are a lot of major players hidden in their ranks. No doubt there are, they would be foolish not to. Big tech private intelligence influencers are flexing and displaying their power to manipulate social media and looking for new and bigger contracts. Wall Street and Hedge Funds may be being courted, contracts from them should be numerous and big now. But I feel there is much more going on than meets the eye and this was a test run for bigger things. Lack of response from Government and timing just after DAVOS is a bit fishy as well. This is a have to wait and see how it plays out. Could be an attempt to suck in many of the disgruntled Trumpers into Reddit groups like this as well to later set them up.
Speaking of Davos, here is an interesting speculation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2y08Vbgbsg
Seen this before. It was good the;
and better now, as it is continually updated.
Spectre just ain’t what it used to be.
But then, so is just about everything else.
nice find Roger. Thank you.
My sentiment exactly Roger. Only difference is that I don’t think this is just about Trump supporters. Banksters know, that jig is up and they are looking for so somebody to blame. How about general public, that becomes perfect scapegoat. Narrative will be created, look what happens when people play stocks, instead leaving it to ” professionals”
That is just as likely a scenario Barbara. A little voice whispers now and then that all of this global exposure on fraud is on purpose because they have a whole new system in mind. But want the change to roll out as a grass roots appearing effort of the good little people finally winning out over all the goliath corruption of the present system. The Great Reset revelation of a worst case scenario dystopian future may have been intentional so that we are happier with the real one they actually plan to roll out. One in which they manipulate us into fighting for. That’s my hope anyways as long as it really is better than what we actually have now and not worse.
But I prefer to allow humanities future to roll out organically without manipulation. I think actual free markets which have not existed in a lot of years actually might produce the best possible future. Because whenever something is designed by a few it is innately designed to favor that few over the rest. Monopoly of wealth and power destroys creativity and progression.
Feels like this same game was played (albeit with lower tech) in the early 1900’s to bring on and profit from a couple world wars.
The perennial fall guy: the victim.
The public[trough].
I had the same thought- can even a large group of small players wind up running the price up that much, that fast, by buying stock? On the following link Pat Cresna? (about 5m30s in) makes a case they (or somebody) used the option market to do it. But I again wonder how many people in Reddit groups are going to jump in on a complicated options market play like he describes. Get it wrong, and your position drops to near zero; get it right and the BIG run ups in price make it hard for a bunch of small players not to cash out quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew_sn-yOKsw&t=936s
Exactly, willing to loose a few grand to make a statement for a small investor is ludicrous. They would cash out as soon as a too good a not to profit was realized. Unless they are truely clueless about trading which sadly is a big possibility as well if they are anything like the majority of people I meet day to day in society. I know a Truck driver who bought penny stocks on flavoured water when it first came out. His small investment went up to few hundred thousand dollars and I told him I’d cash out and look for the next big thing now that it’s momentum was gone. But he didn’t, the bubble busted and he was a near penniless truck driver again. Got to take those profits when they are there and run. Keep a little in to play maybe but make sure you take your investment and good return out so you stay a winner no matter what the rest does.
Social media has demonstrated another one of its strengths through connectivity. One question goes begging, “How reliable is that connectivity?”
Not sure on the narrative – counter narrative – narrative – counter narrative situation.
But I can guarantee you that this nonsense has driven several generations of young people into the decentralized crypto currency world and it will happen faster than anybody can imagine.
Think about that as a result for the legacy banking system.
I have a feeling the powers that be will figure out a way to keep this sort of thing of from happening again. Maybe it will be worked into the great reset.
In one’s humble opinion, the powers that be would be engaging on wishful thinking of interfering with the markets just because one of their cash cows broke a leg short selling fictitious shares they had no business asserting in the first place. That’s not even remotely legal or good for business.
This would be a perfect time to have a chat with Catherine, and share it with us! You are both probably crazy busy with all that is going on, but we so need the combined insight right now.
Nothing against Dr F but I would love CAF’s take on it more than my own or Dr F’s (or most anyone else).
I was waiting for giza comminity to tear apart this fairytale, little guy beating the big guy, narrative. Im not buying it either. The more informed social media investors are even buying into this reddit story. Even after they say retail traders makes up only %20 of market. Perfect example of cognitive dissonance. Maybe its possible for retail traders to push it up, since there was %140 short float plus billionaire Cohen seeing this and purchashing millions of shares for the squeeze. But for the price of GME to be holding over $300 should be sending alarm bells to everyone. That reddit story doesnt add up.
The “fog of (financial) war” is getting thicker, and there are multiple players not necessarily limited to those enjoying almost unlimited Fed funds. While geographical distance is no object, just think of the resources available to parties unknown in tax havens located mere miles from (as well as within) US territorial waters in the Caribbean.
Like most my initial thought was “good on ’em” but the more I pondered it the more cynical I became. Can thousands of young gamers really get the better of a billion dollar hedge fund? Maybe, but I can’t help but think there’s more to it. Then I started thinking of the bigger picture… First and foremost the global economy never solved it’s problems and simply kicked the can don the road year after year since 2008 whereupon it’s a near certainty that the coming collapse will be bigger and harder felt by many multiples. Many analysts think we’re nearing that time which makes me wonder particularly when a Great Re$et is being publicly pushed… are the insiders looking to point the finger of blame at the little guys for the fallout of any major economic collapse and divert public anger away from themselves? I think we could see more of these instances so as to plant the seed in the wider publics consciousness that these gamers/chancers are playing fire and causing unforeseen outcomes / volatility with the markets so as to set them up as the fall guys. It’s certainly interesting to watch.
“Are the insiders looking to point the finger of blame at the little guys for the fallout of any major economic collapse and divert public anger away from themselves?” Bingo. Among other possible objectives.
I’m reading your posts out of order 😀 The quants are let loose on the world. A bunch of redditor schmucks could never accomplish this kind of ‘market manipulation’.