13 thoughts on “Tweet of the Day, Movie Of The Week edition.”

  1. Shorting stock is like betting on the shooter to crap out. It might be within the rules, but doing it makes you a complete a$$hole.

    1. It has its uses. When there’s a company that’s legitimately over-valued on the market, short-selling can be a useful tool to puncture a market bubble before it gets too big. However, in this case the hedge fund investors – through their reckless greed – have inadvertently been the ones who created the conditions under which a bubble could thrive.

      The first rule of short-selling is to avoid – through your own actions – creating a demand for the stock that you’re trying to short-sell. And that’s the opposite of what happened.

      Of course, if GameStop had gone under, then the stock would have lost all value, and they would be safe. But while I do see a use for short-sellers, putting yourself into a situation in which you can only survive when the company you’re trading in goes bankrupt is pretty sleazy.

      I’m just hoping that we (as taxpayers) won’t end up on the hook for their fiasco. I admit that we’ll probably end up having to bail out some retirement accounts. But the firms that were involved in this short-selling should all be “allowed” to suffer the consequences of their actions.

  2. He that sells what isn’t his’n
    Must buy it back, or go to prison*.
    .
    I’ve been in the futures market on the producer side.
    I don’t have a problem with selling short, it’s an important mechanism for determining price. It allows speculators to absorb risk in pursuit of potential profit, and reduces volatility for the producer and end user. (For the futures market, anyway.)
    I do have a problem with naked short selling.
    Which is illegal*.
    And I do have a problem with coordinated conspiracies to financially ruin investors and deliberately bankrupt companies for short-term profit.
    Which is illegal*.
    .
    .
    * Unless you’re politically connected, evidently.
    .
    Laws and margin calls should really be enough to make such efforts exceedingly rare, but money and power both tend to attract sociopaths.
    There’s no way you can sell 125% of something you don’t own without being someone best removed from society. (Method and permanence open for debate.)

        1. Wish I could agree with that assessment.

          Corzine and Goldman Sachs walked away from the 2012 crash with a government bailout and a slap on the wrist.
          Despite flagrantly breaking the law and using other people’s assets to finance speculative investments. (Those people were never made whole by the government bailout or Goldman Sachs being returned to solvency. They lost their shirts, and the thief was rewarded. I’m still pissed about it.)

      1. Up to 250% now.
        Melvin et al. doubled down and shorted the stock further to drive down the price. Hoping to freak holders into selling and start a cascade.
        Major investment houses with stock also selling (possibly coordinated, possibly just taking the profit and bailing out of risk avoidance).
        Communication between holders has been actively interfered with by various tech companies.
        Retail level holders and potential buyers are frozen out of buying more GME stock across all brokerages.
        Rumors (there are screen shots, but not yet confirmed) that Robinhood is taking it upon themselves to liquidate holdings of GME stocks of accounts in their care.
        First wave of shorts come due tomorrow.

        Something I learned today: Robinhood is owned by Citadel. Melvin, the most exposed hedge fund, is also owned by Citadel (and is worth billions, but has only seven clients).
        Citadel employs one Ben Bernanke as a senior advisor (whatever that means).
        Some coincidences don’t really lend themselves to conspiracy theories. Secret Masters are much more compelling when they’re competent

        1. So, because we somehow got shunted down the “stupid” leg of the trousers of time…

          The new Sec Treas has collected nearly a million dollars in “speaking fees” from Citadel over the past few years.

          Biden’s spokeswoman is married to Citadel’s Senior Portfolio Manager.

          I forget exactly how, but the person in charge of SEC enforcement is closely tied to Citadel as well.

          Our self-declared aristocrats want to emulate the Hapsburgs, but are only managing deepest Appalachia.
          Which would be more entertaining if they weren’t launching a feud.

          1. She’s Peter Strzok’s (Russiagate) wife.

            It’s like our media/political/financial power centers tried to emulate the Hapsburgs, but hit deepest Appalachia.
            (Which would be funny, if they weren’t declaring a feud.)

  3. From what I’ve read, the guy who tipped off Wall Street Bets that there was an excessive amount of GameStop short-selling had sunk a little over $50,000 into the company’s shares back in 2019, and then held onto them (and even reinvested his earnings into more shares). As a result, he had a vested interest in watching what was going on with the company’s shares, and noticed the funny business. I read earlier today that his shares (at the time of that writing) were valued at over $40 million.

    I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that there’s going to be some under-handed maneuvering to get his money taken from him and/or get him thrown in prison on some trumped up charges, both as punishment for having the audacity to spot what was happening and to publicize it. But I hope that’s not the case, and I hope he keeps it all (minus the capitol gains tax, of course).

  4. Side note, they tried a similar thing with AMC, so your theater may not be closing immediately after all.

    1. And Blackberry. I’ve also seen American Airlines and Nokia mentioned in ways that make me suspect they’ve been pulled into this as well.

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