Life News/Trending Tweets

The Gamestonks Controversy Explained in Tweets

Written by

Like many of us “not-in-the-know” types, you may have been curious as to why GameStop Stock news has been trending for a few days. Even if you don’t typically follow stock market-type news, the “Gamestonks” controversy will have likely seeped into your regular feed, as the financial world is having a bit of a WTF moment and lesson in what can happen when regular folks band together.

So what happened? Basically, some Redditors in the sub r/Wallstreetbets caught wind of hedge fund attempts to “short” the GameStop stock. A short is basically betting on a stock to fail, resulting in a profit. Stocks are borrowed, sold immediately, and then if the stock drops, brokers buy back the shares at a lower price to give back what was borrowed, keeping the difference in profit. This was the basis of the crash in 2008, as hedge funds were shorting the housing market, and guess what – got away with the whole fucking thing scot-free.

Back to GameStop. Basically, day trading types on Reddit LOATHE short-sellers, and when they noticed that short-sellers were targeting GameStop, they started buying up the stocks, which led to the cost inflating. Short-sellers then bought more to cover their own bids. The stock just kept increasing, despite the fact that GameStop itself isn’t really doing anything that would indicate the stock should be inflating in this manner.

Even Elon Musk chimed in, and we know his influence on the market.

The implications are incredible – basically that “the little guys” are capable of influencing the market in such a powerful way. Fighting back at the rich kids who are now righteously pissed to have the small folk at the table, making a scene. Boohoo!

It’s almost like a Robin Hood story, except that to make matters even weirder, the Robinhood trading app ended up putting a halt on trading GameStop, which is a great example of money and power talking in ways that are determined to keep the rich rich, while feeling no qualms about fucking over the poor. It’s almost as if you can only game the system when you’re already rich and make the rules. Hmmm.

Even Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez chimed in.

This whole thing has caught the internet by storm. I mean, look, we all know that the system is corrupt. But hearing hedge fund managers whining and crying about the market being fucked with by regular people is a little bit too satisfying. Fuck y’all.

https://twitter.com/JUSTINtime4aLAF/status/1354805805296480263

So although this is destined to be a meme for the next while, just don’t lose sight of what we’re seeing. This is historical, and a reminder of the power that people actually have in numbers.

https://twitter.com/SunriseMvmtLA/status/1354470648962158596

And of course, never underestimate the power of watching people getting fucked over by their own gross game.