![]() ![]() While r/wallstreetbets and like-minded individuals initiated this investment revolution, the response to the short squeeze indicates that there is much further to go in the democratisation of investment. The outcome of GameStop was arguably less significant than how it was carried out the pooling of knowledge by individual investors, who put this to use on free trading platforms, signified a change that the investment world was only just beginning to undergo. ![]() Value can now be driven, or even artificially created, by social media, as emerging cryptocurrencies have since shown.Īlthough the insight provided was not market-beating, r/wallstreetbets produced a collective of investors whose influence was greater than the sum of their parts. This Reddit-driven stock rise shows that it is not just information and insight that dictates investment decisions, but also availability. Although it’s unlikely Sherman was ever able to cash in on this windfall, the whirlwind of the company’s rapid growth underscores the power of individual traders when they can share information and act as a collective unit. It even made GameStop’s then CEO George Sherman a very brief billionaire, when his company stocks that were worth $44million a month earlier hit $1.1billion on the 27th January 2021. ![]() A movement that inflated GameStop’s stock and lost hedge funds like Melvin Capital over half their investments, was dictated almost entirely by social media communities. The undeniable discovery of the saga is the impact retail investors can have on the market. But in the matter of a few weeks, it seemed to have altered the very face of investment for good. Like most popular topics and trends generated online, preoccupation with GameStop has long moved on. Just two years earlier GameStop had announced record-breaking losses, but in January 2021, riding a wave of social media fervour the likes of which had never been seen before, its stock hit a record high of $483. This decision by retail investors on Reddit and Twitter to short squeeze GameStop, as well as its outdated companion Blackberry, created a peculiar irony, with new technologies breathing life into declining ones. The GameStop short squeeze that led to massive losses for short-sellers and hedge funds was seen by some as a full-frontal assault on Wall Street by a new kind of investor. ![]() A year on, can we assess the movement with fresh eyes? A community of Reddit users from the forum r/wallstreetbets shook the New York Stock Exchange, hedge funds, and the very perception of investment by inflating the stock price of the video game store. Just over a year ago, the markets underwent perhaps their greatest upheaval since 2008, with a dramatic thirtyfold surge in the stock of GameStop, a floundering American gaming retailer previously thought to be on the path to bankruptcy. Speaking to The Fintech Times, Osman explains how there was a dynamic power shift in the investment world following GameStop, as for the first time individual investors dictated the stock market: At just 25, Osman has grown Quartr to 34 people, with the goal of levelling the playing field and ensuring that every investor has access to the relevant company information. Osman met his four co-founders in the Swedish financial Twitter community and decided to set up a company transforming investor relations. Sami Osman is co-founder and CEO of Quartr, the free-to-use investment app that gives users easy on-the-go access to company information such as earnings calls, helping them make better investment decisions. However, a year ago a community of Reddit users from the forum r/wallstreetbets completely changed the status quo as they skyrocketed the stock of game retailer, GameStop. Traditionally, the individual investor had no power in the stock market, as it was dominated by larger institutions. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |