Wall Street scared about market populism: GameStop proves most realize the stock market is a fraud.

[egbertowillies]

Democratization via the Wall Street Bets subreddit GameStop stock short squeeze points out the stock market is a fraudulent casino.

https://egbertowillies.com/2021/01/29/wall-street-scared-about-market-populism-gamestop-proves-most-realize-the-stock-market-is-a-fraud/

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. If you have any kind of 401k plan or its ilk,

you are invested in the stock market. If you have any kind of life insurance, it's probably invested in the stock market. If you have a pension, and yes, there are still a few of those out there especially with state and local governments, you are invested in the stock market.

It's not really the Ponzi scheme people here claim. Plus, it's not going to go to zero, no matter what people are wishing and hoping.

[Rollo]

2. Plus, the Game Stop game was aimed at hedge funds...

I'd guess that most retirement funds are not invested in hedge funds. It's just too risky.

The problem now is that the Game Stop game has destabilized the entire market - including bond funds, which usually are a stable refuge for investors.

And I wonder if this Games Stop nonsense is being orchestrated by Trump supporters, who would love nothing better than to have the markets crash during the Biden presidency.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Right.

Most retirement funds are probably invested in various mutual funds, although those funds of course will be invested in individual stocks.

I honestly don't think the entire market has been destabilized. The Dow is barely down a noticeable amount. GameStop is one company. One. No matter what the manipulators think they are accomplishing, there really aren't the broader implications they think are there. Plus, it's hedge funds, which are hardly the entire market.

My impression is that this nonsense is being orchestrated by people who somehow think that by sticking it to the hedge funds, they are going to make some fundamental change in capitalism. What they're actually doing is making it certain that those who are helping prop of the share cost of GameStop will lose big time when the price goes back to whatever it ought to be.

[Midnightwalk]

4. How repeatable is it?

I don’t know so I’m asking.

GameStop is one company, but there are lots. Is there something that stops this at one?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. It's not all that repeatable.

This is essentially a one-off: some people got pissed that hedge funds were shorting GameStop and started a campaign to completely undermine all that short-selling. There will be other companies out there being shorted, but even if similar campaigns could be mounted, the little guys involved don't have the kind of deep pockets to undermine the entire stock market. Plus, by now a lot of people have paid a lot of money for the stock, money which they won't get back. At 10 am on January 28, the stock was at $469.42. An hour and a half later, at 11:30 am, it was at $132.00. I'm not sure how many people bought at that top price, and I'm sure few of them sold at that low price, but you get the idea. I certainly do not know enough about that company to offer any kind of guess as to what its stock should be worth.

Here's the real thing to understand about the stock market. Trying to time it is a fool's game. Buying good mutual funds or stocks and holding on to them is a far, far better strategy. Remember all the hype about day-trading a decade or so back? How all kinds of little guys were buying and selling multiple stocks multiple times during the course of the day? Most of them were spectacularly unsuccessful, and day trading seems to have largely disappeared.

It seems to me that what's going on with this stock is people trying to time the market on this stock, trying to both hurt the hedge funds and make some kind of a point about how terrible it is to short a stock. I don't have a lot of respect for hedge funds, but I also don't have the many millions of dollars needed to invest in one.

Anyway, I will just repeat that I don't think this is repeatable. Certainly not on a scale that would ultimately change the stock market in any meaningful way.

[3Hotdogs]

5. +1