I know little-to-nothing about stock trading. Can someone please give me the "Dummie's" version of

[ADK]

33. Maybe think of it this way for simplicity

You sell a security you do not currently own at a high price, betting that you will be able to repurchase the security later at a lower price to return to its owner. This is a strategy largely undertaken by institutional investors. There is a pretty good discussion at https://thismatter.com/money/stocks/selling-short.htm

The issue here is that a large number of small retail investors using Robinhood to affect their trades allegedly used social media — a Reddit discussion group in particular— to collude and coordinate their stock purchases to create a seemingly large demand and artificially drive up the price of GameStop and AMC stock, despite the fact that the stocks fundamentally should be declining in value. Some retail investors sold the stock to make astronomical profits. The large institutional investors that had been selling short started to take a bath, and Robinhood ceased allowing retail investors from trading in the stock, while institutional investors were allowed to continue. In other words, the market was manipulated by both the retail investors and then by Robinhood, and there are a number of issues with potential violation of federal securities laws on both sides that are the subject of ongoing investigations. The underlying question seems to be what effect social media can have on what is supposed to be an efficient market. It’s similar to the discussion regarding Facebook and the spread of false information in many respects.

Here is an WSJ article that summarizes the GameStop/AMC issues. https://www.wsj.com/articles/gamestop-stock-reddit-and-robinhood-what-you-need-to-know-11611960243