Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/27/regulators-concerned-that-the-reddit-day-trader-army-made-money-in-gamestop-trading-instead-of-the-hedge-fund-elite.html
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All stock market investing IS GAMBLING.
I am 31 years old. I have watched the stock market crash, leading to people’s deaths.
I am 31 years old. I have watched this happen 3 times at least.
Whatever the FEC and other regulators are doing, they’re not making the stock market safe, sensical, or reality based.
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for rich people. That part of the regulatory remit can be hard to read in all the fine print. As long as the Poors don’t screw everything up for them, they’re golden.
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Only the robber barons are allowed to rob. It’s right there in the name.
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There are no good guys here. Short selling is inherently risky, they should know the risks and be ready to eat shit when it fails. On the other hand that subreddit is full of racist shitbags.
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“This isn’t investing, this is gambling,”
It’s neither, you silly dork. It’s tr0lling the people you really serve for the LULZ.
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So why is short selling legal? The only reason someone would borrow a stock and promise to give it back later is if they believed the price would fall and they’d make money. The only reason someone would lend a stock is if they believed the opposite. So it’s a side bet, but one that can ultimately damage the stock issuer. So why do we allow it to go on? If we make lending stock illegal, then investors could still sell stocks they think will drop and buy stocks they hope will go up, but there won’t be this kind of financial wanking that hurts employees and customers.
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“No, the wrong people got the money!”
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The stock market is like a casino, but with less regulation and oversight.
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Wall Street and all its hedge funds and private equity firms can eat shit. The Reddit crew proved that the stock market is a scam and our economy is a sack of lies. Of course, this has been proven countless times before, but nothing’s ever happened. Maybe something can finally happen now.
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Agreed. Everything I’ve read so far shows this is nothing more than the latest version of “pump and dump” - only the with the added goal of screwing over the big hedge funds in the process.
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“BoTh SiDeS aRe bAd”
Again, the hedge funds can eat shit.
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there is real social utility in short selling that might be missed if it were eliminated. professional short sellers were the first to realize how overpriced and inflated enron, worldcom, and mortgage-backed securities were. short sellers often get their borrowed stocks from organizations like pension funds and mutual funds who have staked out long positions, giving them a chance to make some short term earnings on their long positions. short selling also allows companies to hedge against losses.
there are any number of exotic derivatives that could be regulated out of existence ahead of the short.
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But have any of them cashed out or are their good fortunes and hopes about to be crushed by the bubble popping?
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I understand your sentiment but let’s not pretend all these Redditors are altruistic do-gooder modern day Robin Hoods.
They’re leading a coordinated effort to overly inflate a stock far, far above it’s reasonable price and making millions in the process. It’s blatantly illegal.
History teaches us that only the little guy gets hurt in these situations in the long run.
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I think there are still some guard rails that could be applied, at the very least, like not being able to short more than 100% of the available stock in a company, at which point when the bill comes due you’re robbing Paul to pay Paul.
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It ties in nicely with, “They’re hurting the wrong people!”, doesn’t it? Like feng-shui for fascism.
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Everything about how the stock market operates, allows companies to live and die based on gambling of the uber-rich, should be illegal, to be honest. Stocks just keep climbing during the pandemic while people lose their jobs by the millions and people are dying by the hundreds of thousands. It’s all fuckin’ fake. The Redditors are just the latest to bring it to light.
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It looks like Citron Research provoked this by shorting Gamestop, then releasing a phony “analysis” saying why it’s a bad stock and everyone should dump it. That a bunch of Redditors would take the opposite position seems like fair play to me. I just hate that my retirement efforts are tied up in the same market these guys play in.
I also hate that a bunch of these little guys who shouldn’t be in the market at all are going to be left holding the bag.
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