How Reddit’s Wallstreetbets Used GameStop to Attack Hedge Fund Narcissism
What’s going on with the GameStop situation? What is the internet good for if not a tightly-knit network of folks doing a deep-dive into an obscure problem? The fervent group of Redditors known as Wallstreetbets (WSB) are finance mavens who claim they’ve found a way to make themselves rich while taking down a cadre of slick, high-powered, hucksters on wall street. Many of these self-identified “diamond-handed” “apes” have already made millions buying GameStop (GME), a Texas-based company that political pundit Ben Shapiro calls “a swap meet meets blockbuster.” Many of these newly-minted millionaires are willing to lose millions to stay in the game. The talking heads ridicule the bros from Wallstreetbets because they’ve chosen to support a company that lost its competitive edge as online retail and digital media have proliferated. If the historically brick-and-mortar company was not obsolete before the COVID-19 pandemic, its physical locations must be doomed as the world resigns itself to buying online. And yet, over the last few weeks, major hedge funds like Citadel and Melvin have allegedly lost billions …