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GameStop's Crazy Week - Five Things Special Edition
GameStop's Crazy Week - Five Things Special Edition
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Some traders on online forums saw that GameStop was one of the most
'shorted' in America. What this means is that investors had borrowed
shares from brokers and sold them in the market with the expectation
that price would fall so they could buy the shares back, return them to the
broker and then pocket the difference. The problem for investors that are
short a company is that they will eventually have to buy the shares back no
matter what the price is.
The very large short interest in GameStop meant that retail investors could,
if enough of them moved together, push the share price of the company
higher. This would cause the investors who were short to buy stock to limit
their loses, with that buying pushing the price even higher. This can lead to
very violent share price moves -- called a short squeeze.
If they can get a short squeeze and a gamma squeeze in place, both can
become self-sustaining, leading to a big surge in the share price, lots of
gains for the traders, and a proliferation of rocket emojis.
But this isn't just a story about GameStop. There are short squeezes
happening all over the world at the moment.
But markets have also changed dramatically in the past few years. The
emergence of no-commission trading through platforms like Robinhood
Markets Inc. and the popularity of online forums and social networks
mean that trading is more accessible than ever before. So a squeeze could
go on for longer than a lot of people on Wall Street might expect.
Options in particular have exploded in popularity.
Markets always change. New technology emerges. New products become
available. New trends become hot. Old ones are discarded. Prices reach an
equilibrium. Things that may be cheap or free now -- like buying lots of call
options on stocks -- can get repriced. Regulators might choose to take
action, though it's unlikely there would be much public support for any
moves that could be seen as protecting big investors at the expense of
small retail ones.
In the meantime, we're already starting to see Wall Street and markets
adapt to the wild week that was. There are signs that hedge funds are
bailing out of their short positions even before the retail army turns up,
taking a small loss now for fear of a larger one later. Meanwhile, the chat
forums are already looking for the next stock to send to da moon.
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