ICYMI, popular subreddit r/WallStreetBets successfully pushed up the value of GameStop after learning that Wall Street was betting that the gaming retailer's stock would plunge.
Here's a very good and thorough explainer by my colleague Amber Jamieson.
Essentially, hedge funders were trying to short GameStop stock. When redditors got word of this, they launched a coordinated plan to surge GameStop's value in the stock market by urging investors to pour money in.
The company's stocks opened at $88 on Tuesday and jumped 90% by close. It then jumped another 50%, to over $230, during after-hours trading. Its stocks were priced at $4 a year ago.
The mass troll was designed to make hedge fund investors sweat and potentially lose out on a ton of money. And people online...reveled.
Wall Street right now
Everyone right now
The jokes are ripe and, like GameStop's stocks (GME), ever-growing.
Game stop? Seems more like the games have just started
hedge fund managers: haha we would be so screwed if this GameStop stock ever went up, good thing that will never happen Reddit:
People found it particularly hilarious that a company like GameStop could soon be as attractive to investors as big tech companies are today.
GameStop sitting amongst Tesla and Amazon after reddit users make it a Fortune 500 company
There’s this high tech firm called GameStop
I've made more money from GameStop today than I have in the last ten years of trading in games to them.
And of course they continued to dunk on Wall Street execs.
Your hedge fund collapsed? Sorry to hear that sir. I'm afraid I'm not authorized to give discounts- that'll be $18.95
If any hedgefund managers want to find new employment I can teach them some python 3 for $190 an hour.
There has been so much talk about finances and the economy online this week that people either couldn't care less or were eager to learn it all. Trying to figure it all out has become a meme of its own.
Idk what hedge fund means and I don’t care
out here trying to find someone to explain the gamestop thing to me
me trying to understand the GameStop stock news
DM me feet and/or (hairy only) armpit pics if you’d like me to explain the GameStop situation
But by far the funniest outcome is watching us media outlets wrestle with the seriousness of the situation and the trolliness of redditors.
Part of the GameStop absurdity and chaotic revelry is seeing news outlets publish Reddit usernames with a straight face