Article: Hedge Funds Make Biggest Short Bet on Junk Bonds Since 2008

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Hedge Funds Make Biggest Short Bet on Junk Bonds Since 2008

Laura Benitez and Tasos Vossos, 07 May 2021

Hedge funds have accumulated the biggest short position on junk bonds since 2008 in another sign that investors are lining up to bet against frothy debt markets. About $55 billion of global high-yield bonds has been sold short, according to data from IHS Markit Ltd. That’s up from $35 billion at the start of the year.

The heady mix of rich valuations and willingness of bond bulls to throw cash at ever-riskier companies is raising alarm bells that credit markets are looking increasingly stretched. Add in the threat of rising interest rates, and there’s plenty of reason for some investors to be nervous. Continue reading “Article: Hedge Funds Make Biggest Short Bet on Junk Bonds Since 2008”

Article: Dummy WallStreetBets Crypto Pumps Telegram Group Dupe Investors In $2 Million Scam

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Dummy WallStreetBets Crypto Pumps Telegram Group Dupe Investors In $2 Million Scam

Bhushan Akolkar, 05 May 2021

The altcoins market is bustling with new all-time highs and crypto scammers are once again round the corner. Members of the popular WallStreetBets Reddit forum were recently targeted by a spammy and dummy Telegram group duping investors of $2 million in losses.

In the latest crypto scam, a dummy Telegram account dubbed ‘WallStreetBets Crypto Pumps’ swayed investors on buying the new token called WSB Finance even before its listing on the exchange. This Telegram account is in no way linked to the infamous Reddit stock board WallStreetBets responsible for the GameStop (NYSE: GME) earlier this year on Wall Street. Continue reading “Article: Dummy WallStreetBets Crypto Pumps Telegram Group Dupe Investors In $2 Million Scam”

Article: SOS Stock May Boom and Bust in the Meme Stock Space Indefinitely

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SOS Stock May Boom and Bust in the Meme Stock Space Indefinitely

Chris MacDonald, 04 May 2021

Cryptocurrency miners have increasingly come into focus of late. Miners such as SOS Limited (NYSE:SOS) with extensive Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) mining operations are becoming ever-more lucrative as Bitcoin prices remain elevated. That said, SOS stock has languished somewhat in recent weeks, to a greater degree than Bitcoin prices.

Investors in SOS stock have seen shares spike repeatedly in double-digit moves to the upside and downside in recent months. Continue reading “Article: SOS Stock May Boom and Bust in the Meme Stock Space Indefinitely”

Article: After WallStreetBets, Australia’s securities regulator warns share trading forums

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After WallStreetBets, Australia’s securities regulator warns share trading forums

Byron Kaye, 27 April 2021

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s securities regulator has contacted internet share trading forums to question them about policing of “pump and dump” scams on their platforms, a sign of growing scrutiny of an investment subculture that soared during pandemic lockdowns.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) told Reuters it has boosted surveillance of local retail trading internet chatrooms that have sprung up since the “WallStreetBets” Reddit chatroom was linked to wild U.S. stock fluctuations this year.

That has led to discussions between the regulator several operators of the profanity, irony and meme-laden chat forums – who often operate anonymously – about their liability if they allow share inflation schemes to flourish. Continue reading “Article: After WallStreetBets, Australia’s securities regulator warns share trading forums”

Article: The Short, The Index, And The Private Markets

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The Short, The Index, And The Private Markets

CFA Institute Contributors, 25 April 2021

The GameStop story returned short-sellers to the front pages of the global financial press. The Reddit crowd’s “Main Street Takes Revenge on Wall Street” narrative cast these short sellers as the villains of the financial markets. It also created enough consensus buying pressure to squeeze their positions into margin calls and realized losses.

But my focus here is not the GameStop story. Rather, it is the necessity of both short positions and representative, investable benchmarks for private market investments. Continue reading “Article: The Short, The Index, And The Private Markets”

Article: South Korea’s retail investor army declares war on short-sellers

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South Korea’s retail investor army declares war on short-sellers

Song Jung-a, 25 April 2021

Jung Eui-Jung, a former South Korean bank employee, recalls his bitter experience as a novice stock trader more than a decade ago, when he lost Won25m ($22,000) after the small metal group he invested in was delisted.

“It is the past that I want to forget. Back then, I didn’t have much access to information. I was bound to lose in an environment tilted against amateur traders,” said the 62-year-old head of the Korean Stockholders’ Alliance, an advocacy group that represents about 44,000 retail investors.

But the tables have turned over the past year as retail investors have emerged as the dominant force in South Korea’s $2tn stock market, accounting for almost 60 per cent of daily turnover. With that heft, amateur traders have become a political force, seeking to even the odds against professional investors.

Mom-and-pop investors bought a net Won63.9tn of Korean shares last year, compared with a net sale of Won5.5tn in 2019. That helped propel the benchmark Kospi index up 118 per cent following a coronavirus-driven sell-off last March, making it one of the best-performing markets globally.

Almost one-fifth of Korea’s population of 52m dabbles in stocks, and data showed local brokerages have amassed Won76tn in cash deposits.

“The market dynamic is changing fast with individual investors becoming a powerful force that even hedge funds should be afraid of,” said Albert Yong, managing director at Petra Capital Management, a Seoul-based investment firm.

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Article: 14 Critical Lessons Investors Can Learn From The GameStop Story

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14 Critical Lessons Investors Can Learn From The GameStop Story

Forbes Finance Council, 20 April 2021

Investing in the stock market comes with risks, especially in the age of social media. Valuable information that every investor should be aware of—including the occasional volatility of the stock market as well as investment nuances such as short selling—came into the spotlight recently when Redditors banded together to inflate the prices of retailer GameStop’s (GME) stock.

As well as serving as a refresher on stock market basics, the GameStop situation is also a signpost pointing to emerging trends in investment and fintech. Current and would-be stock market investors can take away some important lessons from this story. Below, 14 members of Forbes Finance Council share what every investor should learn from the GameStop stock saga.

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Article: Reddit grows up on its way to an IPO

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Reddit grows up on its way to an IPO

Nicolás Rivero, 17 April 2021

Reddit has traditionally taken a laissez-faire approach to policing content on its platform. The company hosts a loose federation of old-school internet forums, known as subreddits, which are each overseen by a team of volunteer moderators. Reddit sets certain baseline rules banning things like child porn, drug sales, and (as of 2015) harassment. But the rest is up to the users in each subreddit, who set their own community-specific norms and empower unpaid moderators to enforce them.

This is a starkly different moderation approach from Facebook and Twitter, which each set clear, granular, top-down rules in their terms of service and employ armies of contract workers and far-reaching algorithms to weed out noxious content. Reddit’s decentralized policy has become a liability in recent years, and may become even more of a drag as the company eyes an IPO. (Reddit recently hired Drew Vollero, who helped Snapchat go public in 2017, as its first-ever CFO to help prepare for the company’s debut on the stock market.) Continue reading “Article: Reddit grows up on its way to an IPO”

Article: Hedge funds rethink after GameStop pain

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Hedge funds rethink after GameStop pain

Laurence Fletcher, 15 April 2021

Hedge funds are to revise the way they monitor risk after retail investors sent the price of stocks such as GameStop soaring — triggering big losses for the fund managers that bet against them. Investors co-ordinating their purchases on Reddit’s WallStreetBets message board were able to drive up the share price of Gamestop, the US video game retailer, from less than $20 at the start of the year to more than $480 by late January, while the prices of some other beaten-down stocks also soared. For some hedge funds, that proved painful.

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Article: The Reddit revolt: GameStop and the impact of social media on institutional investors

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The Reddit revolt: GameStop and the impact of social media on institutional investors

Annabel Smith, 13 April 2021

The Reddit revolution in the US has drawn attention to the potential power that a growing force of retail investors can wield in stock markets when equipped by social media.

Amateur investors have increasingly engaged with retail platforms in the last year, partly due to the pandemic leaving them idol at home, but also due to the newfound onslaught of information through social media and access to the market through retail brokerages and platforms such as Robinhood. Continue reading “Article: The Reddit revolt: GameStop and the impact of social media on institutional investors”

Article: GameStop Slips as Skeptic Warns That Reddit Rally Will Fade

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GameStop Slips as Skeptic Warns That Reddit Rally Will Fade

Bailey Lipschultz, 12 April 2021

(Bloomberg) — GameStop Corp.’s Reddit-fueled trading surge is likely going to fade as threats from digital game downloads sink in, according to one skeptical Wall Street analyst.

The stock slumped after Ascendiant Capital Markets analyst Edward Woo downgraded the retailer to sell from hold, saying increasing digital sales for video-game publishers is a looming risk given GameStop’s minimal market share. He warned clients in a note about the long-term prospects for the company as the market for new gaming systems matures after new launches from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Group Corp. Continue reading “Article: GameStop Slips as Skeptic Warns That Reddit Rally Will Fade”

Article: GameStop plans to elect activist investor Cohen as chairman

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GameStop plans to elect activist investor Cohen as chairman

Reuters, 08 April 2021

GameStop Corp, which has been part of a recent Reddit-driven trading frenzy, said on Thursday it intends to elect activist investor Ryan Cohen as chairman, putting him in the driver’s seat as he looks to transform the videogame retailer.

Since Chewy co-founder Cohen joined GameStop’s board in January, he has been pushing towards transformation of the brick-and-mortar retailer into an e-commerce firm that can take on big-box retailers such as Target Corp and technology firms such as Microsoft Corp.

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Article: GameStop shares fall as company looks to cash in on Reddit surge

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GameStop shares fall as company looks to cash in on Reddit surge

Staff and agency, 05 April 2021

Shares in GameStop fell on Monday after the video-game retailer said it may sell up to $1bn (£720m) worth of stock as it tries to make the best of the 900% surge in its shares from a Reddit-driven rally this year.

The company said it would sell up to 3.5m shares and use the proceeds to speed up its shift to e-commerce in an overhaul being led by the billionaire Ryan Cohen, its biggest shareholder and a board member of GameStop. Shares in the company fell sharply in pre-market trading in New York but had recovered by the close to $186.95, a fall of 1.9%. Continue reading “Article: GameStop shares fall as company looks to cash in on Reddit surge”

Article: Where short sellers meet ESG

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Where short sellers meet ESG

THE MARKET EAR,  30 March 2021

Sustainable investments have seen accelerated trends during the last five years. ESG- screening and ESG compliance ETFs enormous inflows have created a huge demand for clean and “green washed” stocks, that consequently received huge valuation premium to the overall market. This is certainly a long-term trend, but the last year hype has now cooled down with popular stocks like PLUG, RUN, ENPH, NOVA having corrected by between 35% and 60% from their highs (PLUG needs to gain 120% to break even for those long at highs…). Continue reading “Article: Where short sellers meet ESG”

Article: GameStop Takes $6 Billion Round Trip as Results Shrugged Off

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GameStop Takes $6 Billion Round Trip as Results Shrugged Off

Bailey Lipschultz,27 March 2021

GameStop Corp. is ending the week where it started, after an earnings-related selloff was quickly reversed, with retail investors refusing to let go of their commitment to the stock.

Investors were quick to get over GameStop’s 12th consecutive quarter of slowing sales and management’s decision to not take questions on its earnings call on Tuesday, despite warnings from most Wall Street analysts. After see-sawing to as low as $118.62, the stock was trading near last week’s closing level on Friday. That created a more than $6.4 billion swing in market value from Monday’s intraday high to a bottom on Wednesday.

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THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?