However, this hope is a far cry from being worth $20+ billion. That’s what Chewy founder, Ryan Cohen, and his crew seem to think, and they’re taking on board roles. Sure, maybe there’s a small turnaround story at play I previously underestimated if GameStop can grow its online business faster than its retail stores close down (plus benefit from revenue share partnerships with console providers), maybe it can stay alive as a niche retailer. Second, as you may have picked up on, I (Aaron here) haven’t even mentioned the business yet. We’ve seen this time and time again (crypto 3 years ago, internet stocks 20 years ago, etc.).
Many of the same everyday people who are pushing the stock price up will be the same people who lose a ton of money as reality inevitably sets back in. Sorry, but GameStop isn’t worth $24 billion, and it doesn’t deserve to be the most traded stock in the market. One, it’s all fun and games for now, but the good times won’t last. (It’s also why I’m not inclined to short!) It’s a fascinating example of how the internet enables communities to effectively voice their opinions at scale and influence financial markets. Excessive buying triggered a massive short squeeze, which caused prices to skyrocket further - roughly up 10x in the past week - driving hedge funds (and others) who are short GameStop lose boatloads of money. Obviously there’s more nuance to the subreddit’s mission and how markets function, but the mob’s tactic is working in the short-term. You can come up with your own opinions on this - especially now that censorship policies have now forced the community private on Reddit and kicked off of Discord - but it’s essentially a more effective, internet-driven version of Occupy Wall Street. So what happened? Well, the subreddit r/WallStreetBets came together with a simple mission: retail investors (aka everyday people) are tired of hedge funds manipulating the market, are tired of billionaires getting bailed out, and are tired of big media companies taking the side of Wall Street, so the community is rallying together to push up the price of one of the most shorted stocks in the market (GameStop).