How WallStreetBets took GameStop \u201cto the moon\u201d \u2013 the $GME stock saga, as it happened ShutterstockThis time last year, GameStop shares \u2014 \u201c$GME\u201d on the stock market \u2014 were worth $4.13USD a piece. Almost exactly a year later, just one of the dying game store\u2019s shares spiked at an incredible $492.02 each. Here\u2019s how WallStreetBets looked to \u2018beat\u2019 their Wall Street counterparts, and in the process, sent their investments \u201cto the moon.\u201d The entire internet has been awash with one thing this week: video game retailer GameStop, or rather \u201c$GME,\u201d and how a group of meme-powered internet investors in the \/r\/WallStreetBets subreddit guided its shares to an incredible 11,913.3% spike. The \u201c$GME\u201d saga didn\u2019t happen overnight though. Sure, it was helped on through recent twists in the tale (Elon Musk jumping on board, the mainstream media picking it up, and Wall Street finally taking notice), but this has been a story months and months in the making. Here\u2019s how more than two million self-described \u201cmorons\u201d on a Reddit trading page largely dedicated to memes sparked GameStop\u2019s wild ride \u2014 as it happened. Contents: What is a \u201cshort-squeeze\u201d? – Meet the \u2018heroes\u2019: \/r\/WallStreetBets – GameStop stock explodes \u2014 how it happened Sep, 2019: Burry\u2019s Scion presser – Apr, 2020: \u201cBiggest short squeeze of your life\u201d – Aug, 2020: Ryan Cohen reveals $5.8m stake – Sep, 2020: 70% of shorts \u201cunderwater\u201d – Dec, 2020: $GME climbs to $19.26 – Jan 14, 2021: We have liftoff – Jan 25-27, 2021: The $GME investment goes viral – 8am, Jan 27, 2021: \u201cGamestonk!!\u201d – 5pm, Jan 27, 2021: \/r\/WallStreetBets goes dark – Jan 28, 2021: $GME hits $469 high – Jan 29, 2021: Trending down? – – So what happens next? – What is a \u201cshort-squeeze\u201d? This won\u2019t take long, but to understand the story, you must have an idea of \u201cshorting\u201d stocks, a \u201cshort-squeeze,\u201d and why it played such a big role in the still-unfolding GameStop saga. First, \u201cshorting\u201d a stock basically means betting on them going down. A short-seller will borrow shares from one party, and sell to another. When the price falls, they buy back those shares \u2014 at a cheaper price \u2014 and return them to the original owner. Then, a \u201cshort-squeeze\u201d is when the gamble doesn\u2019t pay off. If the stock begins spiking again, short-sellers have to buy back in to avoid owing more on what they borrowed. That, in turn, causes the price to climb even higher than it may have originally without the push. Read more: TheStockGuy explains $GME in simplest way – Note: GameStop was the most shorted stock on Wall Street this year. Meet the \u2018heroes\u2019: WallStreetBets Enter \/r\/WallStreetBets. At this stage, the popular Reddit forum is just a touch under two million strong, and regularly chasing easy money on penny stocks and punts. The phrase \u201cgoing to the moon\u201d is a big one in WallStreetBets. There\u2019s also rocket ships, \u201cdiamond hands,\u201d and a number of less than publishable slurs that are thrown around on the subreddit that worships the \u2018Wolf of Wall Street\u2019. Users will post their long-term punts \u2014 and short term losses \u2014 for the masses to critique, laugh at, or even join in on. Obsessions like \u201cSPY\u201d, \u201cYY\u201d, and \u201cTSLA\u201d regularly pop up for weeks at a time, with the whole forum pushing the shares. 18 months ago, a new contender emerged: \u201c$GME.\u201d There were plenty of doubters over the stock, and fair enough. The brick-and-mortar video game store was being choked out by online purchases, and struggling to stay afloat. Read more: AOC addresses GameStop stock drama on Twitch – On Sep. 8, 2019, however, the first turn of the wheel happened. \u2018DeepF**kingValue,\u2019 a user on the forum, revealed he had invested $53,566 in GME. He was called a few less than savory things, but he stuck to his beliefs. And, he delivered what turned out to be a very prophetic message. \u201cThis is just the beginning.\u201d GameStop stock explodes \u2014 as it happened September, 2019 ($GME at $4.41) Fast-forward to mid-2020, and \/u\/DeepF**kingValue has already seen a spike in his $GME stocks. He came back talking (not really boasting) about his \u201ctendies\u201d \u2014 WallStreetBet\u2019s word for profits, referencing chicken tenders \u2014 and more eager, interested Reddit investors took notice. The reason? Burry\u2019s Scion released a presser urging GameStop to buy back $23m in shares. Equally, Seeking Alpha suggested shorting the shares was a mistake. WallStreetBets wasn\u2019t quite sold yet, even with GME\u2019s first spike. April, 2020 ($GME at $4.74) Half a year later, there had been very little movement for GameStop. It hadn\u2019t dipped, even as the world went into lockdown, but wasn\u2019t growing either. Until another post appeared on \/r\/WallStreetBets. The self-proclaimed shill from Senior_Hedgehog sold a simple gamble: \u201cThe biggest short squeeze of your entire life.\u201d According to the Redditor, 84% of GameStop\u2019s stocks had been held short by Wall Street investors. It was a chance to take the \u201cwar\u201d to short-sellers. The April 13 post began a slow roll. The shares lifted 22% that day, and another 26% the next. It was an 18-year record for GME. August, 2020 ($GME at $5.39) And now we come to the turning point. DeepF**kingValue had been around for some time, mainly posting GIFs and warding off doubters. Hedgehog had done his part too, but it was just a rustle. On Aug. 31, however, Chewy Inc co-founder Ryan Cohen disclosed a 5.8m share stake in GameStop through his RC Ventures. A 24% surge followed soon after. September, 2020 ($GME at $8.75) One final push came in the final months of 2020. A post, \u201cBankrupting Institutional Investors for Dummies, ft GameStop,\u201d laid out the new plan: it wasn\u2019t just about making \u201ctendies\u201d for \/r\/WallStreetBets anymore. It wasn\u2019t (totally) about going \u201cto the moon.\u201d Redditors had seen a chance to stick to short-sellers and big-time investors. 70% of shorts were already \u201cunderwater\u201d (not making a profit anymore). The \u201cbiggest short squeeze\u201d was on its way. December, 2020 ($GME at $19.26) By the end of the year, the explosion was in full effect. $GME has rocketed to $19.26. And it wasn\u2019t done; January was right around the corner. January 14, 2021 ($GME at $39.91) The climb really began in mid-January. GameStop shares had already begun rising, with $4 up to $20 a fantastic surge, but \/r\/WallStreetBets, and DeepF**kingValue were far from done. There was one rallying cry: \u201cHE\u2019S STILL IN, I\u2019M STILL IN.\u201d January 25-27, 2021 ($GME at $76.79, to $351.94) Here, the saga goes viral. The WallStreetBets war had been simmering away for weeks, and hardened \u201cmorons\u201d on the subreddit had been following closely for any scraps on when to buy in, when to double-down, and when to sell. On January 25, however, the internet weighed in. The price explosion went truly viral. Mainstream media began reporting on the story, and that in term brought in more and more investors eager to grab a slice of the pie while it was still hot. Stocks began to rocket, and the $76.79 began to climb rapidly. January 25, $GME closed at $76.79 – The next day, $147.68 was the stock\u2019s top spike. – Then, Wednesday toppled that ($351.94). – The $GME was well and truly on its way \u201cto the moon,\u201d and nearly $500. 8am, January 27, 2021 ($GME at $351.94) \u201cGamestonk!!\u201d It was a simple tweet from Elon Musk amid all the GameStop excitement, but one that helped keep the momentum going. The share had dipped down to $301, before a $44 surge thanks to the Tesla guru. Any threats of an early dip faded away. 7pm, January 27, 2021 ($GME at $335.82) \/r\/WallStreetBets goes dark. The subreddit moderators took the forum offline for more than an hour, mentioning they were \u201csuffering from success.\u201d The subreddit, which now boasts over 5.38m followers as of publication, did come back online soon after. It was flooded with memes, cries to \u201cHOLD!\u201d and praise for those that had stuck through the dips and their \u201cdiamond hands.\u201d Around the same time, the \/r\/WSB official Discord was banned for \u201chate speech.\u201d GameStop stock, $GME has just reached over 300, with a total market cap of over $21 billion, as Reddit day traders continue to send the price soaring\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/ithyG1yrwt \u2014 Dexerto (@Dexerto) January 27, 2021 January 28, 2021 ($GME at $469.42) The next day, GameStop would go on to hit its highest peak yet \u2014 a $469.42 high that it hasn\u2019t been able to replicate since. This seems to have been \u201cthe moon.\u201d Trading app Robinhood has halted trading on GameStop, AMC, Blackberry and Nokia, stating “”This stock is not supported on Robinhood.”” This is as GameStop stock continues to surge. pic.twitter.com\/3mQ6zaeUfy \u2014 Dexerto (@Dexerto) January 28, 2021 January 29, 2021 ($GME at $197.44) Sellers have begun throwing their weight around on the market. A sharp dip to open the market on January 29 has seen the $GME stock slide as low as $193.60. According to his daily \u201cYOLO\u201d update post, DeepF**kingValue lost over $13m worth of value in 24 hours. And that brings us to the current day, where $GME is a smidge under $200. So what happens next? Unfortunately, for now, it looks like the bubble may have burst. There\u2019s already crack-downs coming from Wall Street \u2014 which \/r\/WallStreetBets is less than pleased about \u2014 and popular trading app Robinhood has restricted trading, leading to a huge dip in price. There\u2019s still plenty to come in the GameStop saga, however. WSB has declared the plan far from over, and DeepF**kingValue has more call options up to April 2021 (his last were on January 15, right before the spike). He\u2019s \u201cstill in.\u201d High-profile politicians, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are also beginning to wade into the issue. Paul A. Gosar has even gone as far as calling for \u201can immediate investigation\u201d into Robinhood, and its hedge fund owner, Melvin Capital. For now, it seems like GameStop got it right 40 years ago when they first started their marketing campaigns: it really is \u201cpower to the players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How WallStreetBets took GameStop \u201cto the moon\u201d \u2013 the $GME stock saga, as it happened ShutterstockThis time last year, GameStop shares \u2014 \u201c$GME\u201d on the stock market \u2014 were worth $4.13USD a piece. Almost exactly a year later, just one of the dying game store\u2019s shares spiked at an incredible $492.02 each. Here\u2019s how WallStreetBets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}