Hossein Azari of cmorq Discusses Meme Stocks, Sees DeFi as an Answer to Retail Desires
JD Alois, 04 June 2021
The rise of the “meme stocks” has been a fascinating adventure with the combination of ubiquitous technology and the ability to drive trading by retail investors in a way that has never been experienced before. While a certain amount of manipulation of markets has always existed, the recent advent of trading forums, like Wallstreetbets on Reddit, and other digital communication methods, has shifted some of the influence away from big money to smaller investors pooling resources.
The phenomenon really gained traction when GameStop (NYSE:GME), a highly shorted equity by certain hedge funds, became a focus for a targeted short squeeze. In brief, smaller investors, many trading on Robinhood, rocketed the price of GME higher causing certain hedge funds to lose money in a classic short squeeze.
More recently, shares in AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) have captured the attention of retail traders driving its share price to stratospheric values.
Of course, regulators and policymakers have not ignored all of this and there is always a risk that federal authorities jump in and attempt to reign the market in. The consequences of any regulatory or legislative action obviously remain unknown.
This week, Crowdfund Insider spoke with Hossein Azari, founder and CEO of cmorq – creators of a crypto app currently available on the Apple App Store.
Azari is a former Google Research Scientist, and co-founder of Clarity Money (acquired by Goldman Sachs) with a PhD in computer science from Harvard. We asked Azari for his perspective on meme stocks and why he believes DeFi is part of the solution.
