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The Complete Moron’s Guide to GameStop’s Stock Roller Coaster
The Complete Moron’s Guide to GameStop’s Stock Roller Coaster:
Last week, an epic short squeeze had driven GameStop stock up to $40 a share, a roughly 1,500 percent increase from its low point nine months ago. Little did anyone know at the time that this would only be the beginning of the story.
As I write this, GameStop's stock price is hovering around $350, up another 775 percent or so since I wrote about this situation eight days ago. By the time you read this, that number may be horribly outdated, as the stock continues to bounce up and down with extreme volatility hour by hour (it dipped down as low as $61 and peaked as high as $159 on Friday).
The current stock price now gives the company a market cap of about $26 billion.
On the surface, that means the market currently thinks GameStop is worth more than twice as much now (during a potentially existential threat to brick and mortar game sales) as it was during the height of the Wii boom in late 2007, when console game downloads were barely a thing.
Also at: Business Insider.
Melvin Capital, Hedge Fund Targeted by Reddit Board, Closes out of GameStop Short Position
Melvin Capital, hedge fund targeted by Reddit board, closes out of GameStop short position:
Melvin Capital closed out its short position in GameStop on Tuesday afternoon after taking a huge loss, the hedge fund's manager told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin.
GameStop, hedge funds' most-hated stock, was targeted by an army of retail investors who marshaled forces against short sellers in online chat rooms. In the Reddit forum "wallstreetbets" with more than 2 million subscribers, rookie investors encouraged each other to pile into GameStop's shares and call options, creating massive short squeezes in the stock.
CNBC could not confirm the amount of losses Melvin Capital took on the short position. Citadel and Point72 have infused close to $3 billion into Gabe Plotkin's hedge fund to shore up its finances. On Wednesday's "Squawk Box," Sorkin said Plotkin told him that speculation about a bankruptcy filing is false.
GameStop shares have soared more than 400% this week alone to $347.51 apiece, driving its January gains to 685%. The stock was worth just $6 four months ago.
Reddit's WallStreetBets is locked as AMC, GameStop stocks fall after-hours
For the past week, Reddit's WallStreetBets community has been the center of an epic war between large Wall Street investors and small scale social media betters. Now, it's been locked, and spooked investors appear to be dumping their shares.
Shares of GameStop and AMC dropped dramatically in after-hours trading shortly after Reddit's community was made only viewable through an invite.
See also: Reddit traders cause Wall Street havoc by buying GameStop
GameStop and Elon Musk send Reddit and Robinhood to the top of the App Store charts
'Dumb Money' Is on GameStop, and It's Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game (archive)
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @07:53AM (8 children)
It's a good point. How did we fall so far as a nation that billionaires in yachts can no longer short companies into bankruptcy? Disgusting.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by FatPhil on Thursday January 28 2021, @08:56AM (4 children)
GameStop was already slated as being moribund long before Melvin moved in: https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/02/22/is-gamestop-headed-for-bankruptcy.aspx
The bears moved in *because* of its downward trajectory, not causing its downward trajectory. (However, it does become a self-fulfilling prophecy eventually.)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @09:05AM (1 child)
> The bears moved in *because* of its downward trajectory, not causing its downward trajectory. (However, it does become a self-fulfilling prophecy eventually.)
In the reddit/GME instance, it appears that most of the short sellers moved in when they smelled blood after the first spike in price caused by reddit folks.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday January 29 2021, @08:14AM
Stimmy stimmy stimme a check after midnight
Won't somebody fund me chase the shorters away?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Friday January 29 2021, @03:08AM (1 child)
If you go spelunking in the ancient DD in /r/wallstreetbets about $GME you'll find an old and compelling argument by /u/deepfuckingvalue that the new CEO was maneuvering to arm-twist or oust some of the recalcitrant board members to change the company's stores into experience centers and drive significant value from the brand. My experiences with the stores led me to ignore it at the time. I'm curious to see if he'll manage to do it. The PR from this squeeze certainly couldn't hurt.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday January 29 2021, @08:03AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @08:59AM (2 children)
Shorting stock doesn't cause a company to go into bankruptcy.
Furthermore, market capitalization doesn't really reflect a company's financial condition.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @03:41PM (1 child)
If its share price goes to zero it does.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @04:10PM
No. Only being unable to meet corporate liabilities, or the expectation of such, will trigger bankruptcy.