Category: Article – Media

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Article: Report: Feds Investigating Meme Stock Frenzy For Market Manipulation

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Report: Feds Investigating Meme Stock Frenzy For Market Manipulation

Sarah Hansen, 11 February 2021

Federal authorities are investigating whether massive gains in “meme stocks” like GameStop in January were caused by market manipulation or other illegal behavior, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

In January, individual traders from online communities like Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets forum and users of popular online brokerage apps like Robinhood were a driving force behind the meteoric rise of a handful of previously unpopular stocks. The traders pitted themselves against major hedge funds who had bet that the price of stocks in struggling companies like GameStop, AMC Entertainment, and Blackberry would fall in a practice called short selling. The rapid surge of interest from retail investors pushed the price of those stocks to record levels, and hedge funds like Melvin Capital faced massive losses as a result. At the peak of the frenzy, Robinhood restricted trading on shares of GameStop and a handful of other stocks, prompting a swift backlash from lawmakers and multiple class-action lawsuits from traders who said they had missed out on gains.

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Article: What Investors Should Learn From Reddit, GameStop, Market Manipulation And Other Recent Headlines

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What Investors Should Learn From Reddit, GameStop, Market Manipulation And Other Recent Headlines

Bob Carlson,  11 February 2021

Over the last couple of weeks, the financial headlines have been dominated by market manipulation, GameStop, short squeezes, Reddit frenzies and other uncommon topics. A little perspective makes it easier to understand these events and how they should affect your investment strategy.

The big news was the strong increase in the price of the stock of GameStop, a video game retailer that many investors thought was slowly dying. The price apparently increased because a large number of members in a forum on the Reddit web site said investors should buy the stock. Continue reading “Article: What Investors Should Learn From Reddit, GameStop, Market Manipulation And Other Recent Headlines”

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Article: Government agencies probe GameStop pump over potential illegal manipulation

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Government agencies probe GameStop pump over potential illegal manipulation

DUNCAN RILEY, 11 February 2021

U.S. government agencies have launched federal investigations into whether the social-media-driven activity around GameStop Corp.’s share price rise in January constituted illegal market manipulation.

According to a report today in The Wall Street Journal, both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are formally investigating the pump of GME stock, and the Securities and Exchange Commission is also reviewing the matter.

The investigation by the justice department is being led by the department’s fraud section and the San Francisco U.S. attorney’s office who have sought information about the security activity from brokers and social media companies that were at the center of the trading frenzy. Subpoenas are said to have been issued for information to brokers including Robinhood Markets Inc. that was widely used by those buying up GameStop and other shares such as AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. Continue reading “Article: Government agencies probe GameStop pump over potential illegal manipulation”

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Article: 15 Hedge Fund Managers Made $23 Billion In 2020

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15 Hedge Fund Managers Made $23 Billion In 2020

Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, 10 February 2021

The historic gains by a handful of Wall Street tians demonstrates “the disconnect between the stock market and the real economy,” said finance professor Reena Aggarwal, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Financial Markets & Policy. While high volatility and low interest rates buoyed hedge funds, much of the population struggled “with worries about health, jobs, mortgage payments and student loans,” she said.

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Article: Robinhood Users Face Uphill Fight For TRO In GameStop Suit

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Robinhood Users Face Uphill Fight For TRO In GameStop Suit

Craig Clough, 10 February 2021

A California federal judge indicated Wednesday that she is unlikely to issue a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against Robinhood Financial LLC to prevent it from blocking specific transactions on volatile stocks after a user suing the company said the online trading platform’s recent actions were “unprecedented.”

The lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips is one of more than 30 civil suits Robinhood is facing over its decision late last month to block users from buying shares of GameStop, AMC and other volatile stocks recently caught up in a well-publicized trading frenzy. Continue reading “Article: Robinhood Users Face Uphill Fight For TRO In GameStop Suit”

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Article: Ballard Increases Bought Deal Offering of Common Shares

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Ballard Increases Bought Deal Offering of Common Shares

GLOBE NEWSWIRE, 10 February 2021

Ballard Power Systems (“Ballard” or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: BLDP; TSX: BLDP) today announced that, due to strong demand, it has agreed with a syndicate of underwriters led by TD Securities Inc. and National Bank Financial Inc. (collectively, the “Underwriters”), to increase the size of its previously announced US$350 million bought deal offering (the “Offering”). Pursuant to the upsized deal terms, the Underwriters have agreed to purchase, on a bought deal basis, 14,870,000 common shares of the Company (the “Common Shares”) at a price of US$37.00 per Common Share (the “Offering Price”) for gross proceeds of US$550,190,000. Continue reading “Article: Ballard Increases Bought Deal Offering of Common Shares”

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Article: Tucows Announces $40 Million Stock Buyback Program

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Tucows Announces $40 Million Stock Buyback Program

GLOBE NEWSWIRE, 10 February 2021

Tucows Inc. (NASDAQ: TCX, TSX: TC) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program to repurchase, from time to time, up to $40 million of its common stock in the open market.

The new $40 million buyback program will commence February 10, 2021 and will terminate on or before February 9, 2022. Purchases for the new buyback program will be made exclusively through the facilities of the Nasdaq Capital Market. The previously announced $40 million buyback program for the period February 13, 2020 to February 12, 2021 has been terminated. Continue reading “Article: Tucows Announces $40 Million Stock Buyback Program”

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Article: Mercurity Fintech Holding Inc. Announces Results of 2021 Extraordinary General Meeting

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Mercurity Fintech Holding Inc. Announces Results of 2021 Extraordinary General Meeting

PRNewswire, 09 February 2021

Mercurity Fintech Holding Inc. (the “Company”) (Nasdaq: MFH) today announced the results of its 2021 Extraordinary General Meeting, held on February 5, 2021 in Beijing, where it adopted resolutions, effective immediately, to: (i) increase the authorized share capital of the Company from US$50,000 to US$250,000; and (ii) re-elect following nominees as members of the Company’s Board of Directors: Continue reading “Article: Mercurity Fintech Holding Inc. Announces Results of 2021 Extraordinary General Meeting”

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Article: FINRA GameStop Probe May Put Firms’ Compliance In Focus

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FINRA GameStop Probe May Put Firms’ Compliance In Focus

Al Barbarino, 09 February 2021

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is likely investigating the social media activity of brokers tied to the GameStop stock-trading frenzy, which could ultimately lead to scrutiny of firms’ supervisory procedures and require fine-tuning of their compliance policies.

The erratic trading that sent GameStop’s share price soaring to a high of $483 on Jan. 28 before crashing down was fueled in part by a Reddit board where users promoted the stock to counter Wall Street firms that had bet against it. After weeks of wild fluctuations, the stock closed Tuesday at just over $50.  Continue reading “Article: FINRA GameStop Probe May Put Firms’ Compliance In Focus”

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Article: Investigations Into GameStop Trading And Reddit: Former SEC Enforcement Chief Provides Insights

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Investigations Into GameStop Trading And Reddit: Former SEC Enforcement Chief Provides Insights

Bruce Brumberg, JDN, 9 February 2021

The Reddit/GameStop aftermath continues. Now, it’s been reported, investigators at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are allegedly scouring posts on social media and online message boards for evidence of fraud and coordinated stock-price manipulation in the hype that led to recent unlikely surges in the stock prices of GameStop, AMC Entertainment Holdings, and a few other companies.

What goes on in these types of SEC investigations? Are individual investors who contributed to the online buzz about these companies really at risk of SEC enforcement actions or criminal prosecution? What about the legality of the decision by trading app Robinhood and other online trading platforms to temporarily restrict trading in the stock of GameStop and the other targeted companies? Continue reading “Article: Investigations Into GameStop Trading And Reddit: Former SEC Enforcement Chief Provides Insights”

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Article: The GameStop Stock Saga: A Postmortem

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The GameStop Stock Saga: A Postmortem

Milton Ezrati, 07 February 2021

So much has been written about GameStop stock it seems pointless to offer yet another take on its saga now. It also seems pointless to guess what motivated the Reddit crowd or why the short sellers hung on for as long as they did. All that is water over the dam, as the saying goes.

At this point, the adventure carries two important and age-old investment lessons: One is that taking part in a buying frenzy leads to at least as many losers as winners, usually more, for there are many in the Reddit crowd who enthusiastically bought at highs and have suffered significant losses. The second is that shorting is a very risky business. Both lessons should now be clear, even when seen through the tears of those who lost. What deserves attention here is that, with a few notable exceptions, the media made a hash of covering these events. Continue reading “Article: The GameStop Stock Saga: A Postmortem”

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