Ian Sherr | 21.02.03
What makes this roller coaster unusual is why the Reddit community is buying up GameStop shares. While some of them say they believe in GameStop’s future, others are attracted to the idea that the higher GameStop’s shares go, the more Wall Street’s bad bets will cost institutional investors money.
“It’s become political,” said Derek Horstmeyer, a professor of finance at George Mason University. He’d been watching WallStreetBets forums for a year and a half and seen community members take “insane” positions in the market, throwing all their money into a position that sometimes wins big and sometimes loses even worse.
But the fight against Wall Street is different, he said. Many community members are angry at big investors’ behavior over the past decade, be it when many were bailed out during the financial crisis, or watching them make even more money as people suffer during the coronavirus pandemic.
