CORP/BIZ GameStop Is Rage Against the Financial Machine

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

Yellen Gets Ethics Waiver To Lead Regulator Meeting On Gamestop Insanity After Taking $810K From Citadel
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BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, FEB 03, 2021 - 8:26
Once it became clear - just a few seconds after AOC first rage-tweeted about RobinHood refusing to let "the people" trade more shares of $GME and $AMC before adding that she'd support a public hearing on what had just happened - that all the key players in the "WallStreetBets"/"Gamestop" trading saga would soon be dragged in front of Congress like a gaggle of tech CEOs, the newly elected Democrats and their hand-picked economic team were faced with a critical question: who exactly was going to preside over these proceedings on the regulatory side, since they are virtually all compromised by key connections to the financial services industry, and not just the big banks.

Over the past decade, a new category of financial beast has arisen. At Zero Hedge, we have been writing about them for years. They're alternatively called "high frequency traders" "high freaks", and "orderflow frontrunners" for those enjoy speaking the truth, or "market makers" for the political correct, but after the events of last week, millions of people were either asking Google, or their one IBD analyst friend, to explain what 'Citadel' is, and how it works.... the same Citadel which threatened to sue Zero Hedge last June for accusing it of frontrunning orders, just weeks before regulators punished Citadel for frontrunning orders (oops).

Now, barely days after being confirmed as President Joe Biden's new Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen must preside over a major media circus and the most glaring indication yet of just how broken the US stock market is (thanks in large part to her actions while she was head of the Fed).


Which is a problem because as a reminder, Yellen received almost a million dollars in "speaking fees" in the past two years from the firm that is the quasi-monopoly "market maker" in the US, responsible for half of retail orderflow thanks to its domination of Robinhood trades...

... and is why one month ago, Yellen pledged in an ethics form that she will recuse herself for one year "from when she last made paid speeches to the companies." And yes, her last speech to Citadel was last October.

Alas it turns out this was all just a joke, and (un)fortunately for her and the 'integrity' of American so-called "markets", the honorable Fed Chair Treasury Secretary has received permission from ethics lawyers to lead the proceedings, which will begin Thursday with a meeting of top US market regulators.

Then again we already kinda knew that because when asked during a Thursday White House press conference whether Yellen would recuse herself from advising the president on the ongoing GME stock shorting after having been previously paid upwards of $1 million in speaking fees from Robinhood’s largest customer, Press Secretary Jen Psaki didn’t seem to have a problem with relying on the new Democratic Treasury secretary’s counsel.

“Separate from the GameStop issue, the secretary of the Treasury is one of the world-renowned experts on markets, on the economy. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone she was paid to give her perspective and advice before she came into office,” Psaki told reporters, ignoring the obvious conflict of interest.

It then got downright surreal, when Psaki implied that it was sexist to mention Yellen’s conflict of interest because she’s a woman.

“I’m also happy to repeat that we have the first female treasury secretary,” Psaki said in opening her response to the question from a reporter, going on to say Yellen’s communications team would typically take those questions instead of her.

In any case, with Citadel client Janet Yellen in tow, congressional hearings are expected to follow later this month in the House and the Senate, with the House Financial Services Committee, led by Maxine Waters and stocked with firebrand progressives, leading the way. Here's more on that from Bloomberg:
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has summoned U.S. financial regulators to discuss recent volatility in financial markets, in her first public effort to address the tumult involving GameStop Corp. shares and broker-dealer Robinhood Markets Inc.
Yellen called a meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Treasury said in a statement late Tuesday. The Biden administration and regulators have faced pressure in recent days to respond to the market frenzy.
"Secretary Yellen believes the integrity of markets is important and has asked for a discussion of recent volatility in financial markets and whether recent activities are consistent with investor protection and fair and efficient markets,” the department said.
Yellen’s predecessors, including Steven Mnuchin, also organized meetings of financial agencies during times of tumult. They aren’t necessarily a signal that any policy moves are imminent. The SEC already said Friday it’s seeking to identify potential misconduct and will scrutinize brokerages’ decisions to halt buying that triggered a retail-investor revolt.

As we reported one month ago, inbetween stints running the Fed, where she was buying and monetizing US debt, and returning to take the reins at Treasury, where she will be printing US debt, Yellen earned more than $800K in speaking fees from Citadel, giving speeches as recently as last fall. As part of being confirmed in her new role, she pledged not to involve herself in issues involving Citadel without receiving a written ethics waiver from the Department, which she herself leads. She made similar promises involving several of the big banks, Barclays, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

Of course, Citadel would be most displeased it its investment was for nothing, and lo and behold, Yellen recused herself and will lead this "crusade" against HFT while still in Citadel's pocket in one of the most glaring conflicts of interest in recent history.

The same top Treasury ethics official who signed off on Yellen's conflicts of interest is now telling Reuters that of course Yellen needs to preside over whatever comes to pass on the regulatory front, to say nothing about working with Congress, since she is, in fact, the Treasury Secretary.

And anyone who dares to challenge Yellen's conflict of interest will now be branded a sexist (see Psaki's quote above).

In the memo granting Yellen permission to call Thursday's meeting of regulators, which will be a quasi-public event closely watched by the press, with questions likely to be taken, Treasury ethics official Brian Sonfield acknowledged it would be "difficult, if not impossible" for Yellen to recuse herself from any matters involving dangerous market volatility.
"You are the Secretary of the Treasury, the duties of which require you to be involved in a broad array of matters focused on these sectors," Sonfield wrote.

Especially when it means enabling Citadel to continue dominating capital markets.
So with "ethics waiver" in tow, Yellen - as chair of the Financial Stability Oversight Council - will hold a hearing on the risks posed by redditors. Thursday's meeting of regulators, many of whom happen to be on the committee isn't being considered a formal session but merely an "ad hoc" gathering of top financial regulators.

As Reuters put it, last week proved that the power of the retail trader is very real but that's largely because HFT traders have conspired with discount brokerages to frontrun virtually all of their order flow, easily amplifying moves like what we saw last week. That's why the DTCC had to step in, or at least that's what the public was told.
The assault on GameStop short-sellers took it to a new level as small traders appeared to act in concert as they organized buying over Reddit. Posts encouraging silver buying also boosted prices on Monday, although that proved short lived.
"The power of the retail investor exists,” said Chris Brankin, CEO at TD Ameritrade in Singapore.
"We could see other similar events more regularly, but be sure the regulators will look to curb any market (volatility) or manipulation," he said.
Even though all the regulators - including members of the Federal Reserve Board, the New York Fed, The SEC and the CFTC - who will be present at Thursday's meeting
Meanwhile, on Monday, the House Financial Services Committee announced plans to hold its hearing on Feb. 18. The House hearing has been entitled, "Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide," and although no witnesses were listed, we can think of a few CEOs to whom the Democrats are eager to deliver a public spanking. After all, Robinhood and TDAmeritrade and E-Trade and the others, for a brief moment, exposed the fact that all of this plumbing that runs Wall Street now is new and complicated and almost nobody understands how it works.

Though, if anybody in this country does, its regulators like Janet Yellen and Biden SEC head Gary Gensler, who ran the CFTC under Obama. It's old rats on a new ship. If anybody knows where the bodies are buried, it's them, especially since it was they that created the massive asset bubble that made all this possible in the first place.
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

From GOAT To Scapegoat: Redditor Who Made Millions During Gamestop Chaos Already Being Set Up To Take The Fall
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BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, FEB 04, 2021 - 9:25
Reading about how YouTubers and Redditors with screennames liike "RoaringKitty" and "DeepF*ckingValue" contributed to last week's financial mania with posts and videos expounding the virtues of GME, AMC, BBY, BBBY, NOK, KOSS and the other "Wall Street Bets" stocks has been a big part of the drama in the aftermath of last week's trading chaos.

For the last week, a parade of financial analysts, academics, regulators and bankers have warned that the capital markets sickness that sent GME shares to nearly $400 can be blamed on a handful of rogue charlatans hawking an absurd "stick it to the man" narrative on social media (and not the hedge funds trying to short GME into oblivion with naked short positions so large, they amounted to more than 100% of GME's float before the explosion).

With Janet Yellen and the rest of the top financial markets regulators in the country meeting on Thursday, we learned last night via the New York Times, and via an interview with House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, that a key player in the Feb. 18 House committee hearing/media circus will be Keith Gill, the former MassMutual employee known alternatively on Reddit and YouTube as "DeepF*ckingValue" and "RoaringKitty".

As we've reported, Gill seemingly minted millions of dollars trading GME and other stocks, at one point displaying a screenshot of a brokerage account balance with almost $50MM in it. While that number appears to have declined substantially in the ensuing selloff, more recent screenshots suggest Gill has amassed quite a substantial fortune from his trading, just like another former scapegoat we can think of.

Of course, small-time traders like Gill aren't the only ones who profited from the chaos, and while Tenev and other witnesses will be appearing in a professional capacity, Gill is being painted as some kind of financial terrorist, and it's already becoming clear that - just like regulators did with Nat Sarao after the May 2010 "flash crash" - they will once again find a small-time trader to scapegoat, regardless of whether their actions actually had a major impact on the market volatility in question.

But not only is Gill being dragged in front of the Committee (though Waters couldn't say whether he was "confirmed", only that she was trying to "get" him for the hearing), but regulators in Massachusetts are taking aim at him, and it looks like they have found an excuse to punish and scapegoat Gill, due to the fact that, technically, he was still employed by a major insurance firm, and was a registered securities broker, while carrying on his anonymous social media persona and pitching stocks online. Some might construe that as a conflict, and regulators are reportedly - according to the NYT - putting pressure on both Gill and his former employer, MassMutual, one of the biggest financial services firms in the state of Massachusetts.

MassMutual has reportedly told regulators that it was unaware of Gill's extracurricular social media activity. Nevertheless, according to federal regulations, the firm is responsible for monitoring the activity of its employees.
Here's more from the NYT:
Moonlighting under the name Roaring Kitty, Keith Gill became something of an online folk hero for his dedication to GameStop, the struggling video-game retailer at the center of a trading frenzy that sent its share price into the stratosphere.
But now a regulator in Massachusetts wants to know more about Mr. Gill, a registered securities broker, and his former day job as a financial wellness education director at an insurance company based in Boston.
Inspired in part by Mr. Gill’s cheerleading, thousands of small investors pushed stock in GameStop to as high as $483 a share and made Mr. Gill fabulously rich on paper. A picture he posted last week on the Reddit WallStreetBets forum showed his GameStop investment was worth $48 million, though his actual returns could not be independently verified.
But Mr. Gill’s former employer, MassMutual, has told securities regulators in Massachusetts that it was unaware that Mr. Gill had spent more than a year posting about GameStop on social media, online message boards and YouTube. The insurer also told regulators that had it known about Mr. Gill’s outside activities, it would have asked him to stop or possibly fired him.

William Galvin, the Massachusetts secretary of the commonwealth, has already sent letters to MassMutual asking to learn more about Gill's employment at MM, where he reportedly served as a "financial wellness education director," a position that required him to be a licensed broker. Though Gill reportedly put in his notice on Jan. 21, he was still technically an employee of the firm. And this apparently opens him up to liability for breaking rules set by his employer, or any regulations or laws.
In a statement to the NYT, Galvin said: "I am not trying to inhibit anyone’s ability to access the marketplace,...the issue here is transparency."
On Friday, Mr. Galvin’s office sent a letter to MassMutual’s general counsel seeking information about Mr. Gill’s employment status and whether the company was aware of his outside activities promoting GameStop.
The letter also sought details about the firm’s “process for identifying undisclosed business activities” and for monitoring an employee’s use of social media.
Debra O’Malley, a spokeswoman for Mr. Galvin’s office, said much of MassMutual’s response was confidential because the inquiry is open. But she confirmed the date of Mr. Gill’s departure and reiterated the company’s contention that it was unaware of his activities.
Ms. O’Malley said MassMutual had told securities regulators that it previously denied a request by Mr. Gill to perform side work managing an investment portfolio for a family friend after he joined the company in April 2019.
Paula Tremblay, a MassMutual spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement that Mr. Gill was no longer employed by the company and that the matter was under review. She declined to comment further.
An outside lawyer quoted by the NYT said that while it's too soon to say whether Gill may have violated securities laws, but it's certainly possible that he might have violated rules set by his former employer if he was posting without their knowledge, which it looks like he was.
Andrew Calamari, a lawyer with Finn Dixon & Herling and a former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York office, said it was too soon to determine whether Mr. Gill had violated any securities regulations. But Mr. Gill could have violated company rules if he did not receive permission for his posts on Reddit and YouTube.
“Firms don’t allow employees to go out and make predictions on stock,” he said of employees who aren’t analysts. Many financial firms also require employees to disclose if they have brokerage accounts with other firms to monitor their trading activities, he added.

But as we noted above, state regulators in Massachusetts might be the least of Gill's worries.


In an interview with Cheddar yesterday, House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters confirmed that Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev was on "her list" of prospective witnesses for the Feb. 18 hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, along with Gill, representatives from the hedge fund community, representatives from Reddit - even representatives from GameStop, whom Waters is inviting to essentially pitch their business model. Waters added that she wants "all the big boys here".
"I understand that they are working on turning it around and there is a real possibility that they could be successful at this, so I want them here, too. I want to know a little more about GameStop, I want Robinhood, I want Reddit and I want the big boys here."
As for the Redditor's "stick it to the man" narrative, and its consequences for financial stability, Waters said she's not taking sides. The Democrats are simply trying to bring all the parties to the table, and listen to what they have to say (albeit with a few aggressive "gotcha" questions, grist for reelection in just under 2 years).

We also can't help but wonder, if Waters is truly trying to gather all the parties involved, who else might be called to testify? Dave Portnoy? Chamath Palihapitiya? Steve Cohen?
 

Red Baron

Paleo-Conservative
_______________
From GOAT To Scapegoat: Redditor Who Made Millions During Gamestop Chaos Already Being Set Up To Take The Fall

Once I saw the MSM allege possible Russian "collusion" it was pretty clear TPTB were going to circle their wagons and demonize individual investors for calling out the institutional racket of naked short selling.

It's a big club but we ain't in it.
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane


Deja Vu All Over Again: Gamestop Soars Over 165% As 'Gamma Squeeze' Returns
Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, FEB 24, 2021 - 16:24
Update (1620ET): After staging a massive rip in the last few minutes of trading, GME is up another 35% after hours (now up 165% on the day)...

As it appears a 'gamma squeeze' was manufactured once again as deep OTM Calls (expiring Friday) were heavily bid today...


The huge volume options trades hit around

Which corresponded perfectly with the start of the explosion higher in the stock...

It wasn't just GME either, AMC and other WSB-faves also ripped...


How long before Robinhood is taken offline?
* * *
The squeeze is back.
About a month after everyone was transfixed by the Gamestop-led short squeeze insanity, which however fizzled in early February when the stock plunged more than 80% from as high as $500 to $40, moments ago GME exploded higher, surging more than 70% in the last half hour of trading on no news, and what appears to be yet another attempt to spark a short squeeze...


... which however will be difficult with just 32.8% of the float now short, a drop of roughly 100% from a month ago.
Squeeze or not, after GME was reopened for trading following a brief halt, the stock exploded even higher, and was halted for a second time when it was up 100%, trading just above $91.

Without a clear buying catalyst, many speculated that the source of the move is likely to be found on the Wall Street Bets message board, and sure enough, after a week when Palantir was all the "incels" could talk about, according to Swaggy Stocks, AMC and GME were once again the two stocks with the top comment volume and positive sentiment on WSB.

Bloomberg chimed in, noting that retail traders took to Reddit "to discuss the stock following news of the upcoming departure of Chief Financial Officer Jim Bell" resulting in GME's biggest intraday jump in nearly three weeks

Reddit-fueled traders cheered each other on to buy more shares into the market close after news of Bell’s planned departure
The stock had been focus of a House hearing on retail trading
Elsewhere, Jefferies analyst Stephanie Wissink wrote that the move follows the natural progression of RC Ventures’ activist agenda. That agenda pushes for a faster timeline, with many strategies to boost the company already underway.
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

Reddit Outages Reported After GameStop Shares Erupted In Epic Short Squeeze
Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, FEB 24, 2021 - 15:50
Downdetector reports Reddit users are experiencing issues or outages across the country on Wednesday afternoon.



There is no definitive link between the Gamestop-led short squeeze, and the stock zooming up over 100% in minutes and everyone checking the r/WallStreetBets board on Reddit, but certainly, it's a coincidence.

Reddit outages developed around the time GME shares exploded higher.

Outages are seen from coast to coast.

Across the country, internet search trends for "GME" are exploding into late afternoon.


On Twitter user tweeted, "GameStop going up 100%, getting Halted, And Reddit going down in the same day?... SOMETHING IS UP."
... and it's only a matter of time before popular discount trading brokerages limit trading all over again.
Déjà vu.
 

Donghe Surfer

Veteran Member

GameStop shares doubled on Wednesday with most of the gains coming in the last hour of trading. The rally carried over into after hours trading, with the stock up another 70% in the extended session. The cause of the move is up for debate.

The rally is a sudden return of volatility for GameStop shares, which surged in late January. At Wednesday’s close of $91.71, the stock is still down 74% from its closing high of $347.51 on Jan. 27. Wednesday’s 104% gain was the stock’s largest percent increase since Jan. 27, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Nearly 51 million shares changed hands Wednesday, the stock’s highest volume since Feb. 5, when 81.3 million shares were traded.
On Tuesday, GameStop announced that its
Chief Financial Officer Jim Bell was stepping down next month. A person familiar with the matter told Barron’s that Bell was pushed out, as the company looks for a candidate to help its transformation into an e-commerce focused retailer.

Telsey Advisory Group analyst Joseph Feldman wrote that the hunt for a new CFO could bring in “a top talent who has deep understanding of digital and aligns with GameStop’s recently refreshed board’s financial and strategic approach.”

Still, Feldman has an Underperform rating on the stock with a $33 price target. “We believe the company has yet to show financial and execution success in an industry that is rapidly shifting to digital,” he wrote. “Importantly, we believe the current valuation levels exceeds our high fundamental expectations and projected multi-year benefits from the transformation.”

Jefferies analyst Stephanie Wissink has a Hold rating but a $15 price target. She thinks GameStop will look for a CFO with a more extensive technology background, “which will be a signal of the direction the company is due to take in coming years.”

But the CFO announcement was Tuesday’s news, and the stock initially fell in after-hours trading following the announcement. GameStop’s surge began nearly 24 hours later, with the rally picking up steam after 3 p.m. ET Wednesday. The stock was hotly discussed on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, according to a site that tracks ticker mentions. But that’s been the case for weeks.

Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen posted on Twitter for the first time since GameStop stock captured the nation’s attention. But the tweet was cryptic. It included a photo of a McDonald’s ice cream cone, with a frog emoji caption. What that means is anyone’s guess, though on Twitter speculation ran rampant. A representative declined to make Cohen available for comment Wednesday.

GameStop stock remains tied to the short selling interest and speculative options activity that colored the stock’s January moves, making it difficult to interpret the stock’s action. Still, it’s probably safe to stay the volatile will continue in the coming weeks.

Write to Connor Smith at
connor.smith@barrons.com

-----

And so the game resumes.
After-market, GME up another 64% to $150/shr.
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane
An update, it's now up 300%.


Deja Vu All Over Again: Gamestop Soars Over 300% As 'Gamma Squeeze' Returns
Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, FEB 24, 2021 - 16:24
Update (1620ET): After staging a massive rip in the last few minutes of trading...

GME is now up over 300% on the day...
 

Doomer Doug

TB Fanatic
Silver is now $28 and Gold $1800, so the avalanche is starting.



Feb 24, 2021 09:22PM
Why Bitcoin will ‘death spiral’ to $0 and Fed Chair Powell is ...
Kitco News09:22PM
Fed Chair Jerome Powell says money printing doesn’t lead to inflation
:prfl: OMG, he said this openly.

Kitco News
 

parocan

Veteran Member
looks like there is talk on the chans that the fed crash has something do do with it.
 

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Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

Round 2 Of Face-Ripping Short Squeeze Arrives Just As Hedge Funds Pile Into Shorts
Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, FEB 24, 2021 - 18:40
One of the key catalysts behind the original round of meme stocks such as GME and AMC surging in late January in "rip your face off" rallies, was targeting companies that were heavily short, in some cases - such as Gamestop - with a synthetic short position that was 140% of the float. Since then, the short interest in all of these original meme companies has collapsed dramatically as hedge funds that were short suffered tremendous, and in some cases, irreparable losses forcing them to cover at any cost (and price).

What is remarkable is that the targeted WallStreetBets raids of heavily shorted stocks took place in an environment where marketwide shorts were actually at the lowest level on record as a result of the endless levitation in the S&P500 thanks to the trillions of Fed monetary generosity, with most industries ranking in the 0 percentile vs history in terms of short interest as a % of market cap (with the exception of energy, where the short squeeze has yet to come at the industry level).


But is that really true? Well, it may have been until about two weeks ago when things changed drastically.

As JPMorgan wrote on Tuesday, while hedge funds were quite positive on markets especially in the US, over the past 6+ months (JPM had seen net buying most days since late July 2020), "following the recent weakness and rotation, we’ve seen HFs react by adding more shorts, which are picking up after the large covering in late Jan", and remarkably Monday was the largest day of short additions in North America since late June 2020!

Meanwhile, as JPM notes today in its summary of the furious rip higher in Gamestop and AMC, "we may be seeing the beginning of the Retail impulse returning." Translation: the WallStreetBets "incels" are back for round two and are trying to make lightning strike twice, by focusing on the two more popular shorts of the latest round of short squeezes. That said, we expect all the same mega-squeeze companies that ripped higher a month ago are all set to explode in the coming days.

This means that just as hedge funds reloaded on their shorts expecting a rapid acceleration in the recent market correction... the reddit rippers are back and set to squeeze all those millions in newly layered shorts which are not being picked up in the latest data which is as of two weeks ago, or just as the short flush peaked and a new layer of shorting was starting.
And while one can only dream, it would be truly remarkable if - expecting that lightning will not strike twice - the likes of Melvin Capital doubled down on their GME shorts after suffering catastrophic losses on the same position. While we doubt god can be that cruel, here is an artist's rendering of "what if"...
 

Red Baron

Paleo-Conservative
_______________
GameSpot currently trading at 153 in the pre-market,

Fair Use Cited
------------
GameStop soars in pre-market, after sudden 104% rally in prior session
Ines Ferré
·Markets Reporter
Thu, February 25, 2021, 6:44 AM

GameStop (GME) shares were up as much as 75% in the pre-market after a stunning spike of 104% on Wednesday. Those watching yesterday's rally in the last hour of trading wondered if an afternoon tweet from board member Ryan Cohen was one of the catalysts for the unexpected spike.

Just before 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Cohen tweeted a frog emoji with a picture of a McDonald's soft ice cream cone. Hundreds of comments linked the image to GameStop in an attempt to de-code what it meant.
Throughout the day Wednesday WallStreetBets members discussed the upcoming exit of GameStop's CFO Jim Bell. The company announced that Bell will be stepping down in March.

GameStop shares were at the center of a massive short squeeze in January fueled by Redditors who drove up prices as high as $483 each as some hedge funds and other short sellers were forced to cover their positions.

The GameStop saga was recently the focus of a congressional hearing where RobinHood CEO Vlad Tenev denied any collusion with hedge funds to disable buying of the video game retailer shares in order to stop the frenzy. The brokerage firm had restricted buying the stock on January 28. That day shares began plunging.The declines continued as restrictions were eased in the days that followed.

Citadel CEO Kenneth C. Griffin also took part in the hearing, along with Melvin Capital founder and CIO, Gabriel Plotkin, and Keith Gill, a YouTuber known as "Roaring Kitty" who has been bullish on GameStop for over a year.

Other recently shorted stocks also saw double digit percentage gains on Wednesday, including Koss Corporation (KOSS) , Express (EXPR), and AMC Entertainment (AMC).

GME 91.71 46.74 103.94% : GameStop Corp. - Yahoo Finance
 

dioptase

Veteran Member
That Durden guy almost sounds as though he is making the Redditors out to be the villains here. Um, no, sorry, as I understand it, there were more shares of GME shorted than were ever distributed. If it's anyone who's a villain here, it's not the WSB (Reddit Wallstreetbets) gang. Gill saw a good value in the stock a couple of years ago, and he took a lot of ridicule from WSB before they saw that he was right, and jumped on that train.

(Yes, I am holding a few shares of GME. I will sell when I have made my profit target.)
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane
That Durden guy almost sounds as though he is making the Redditors out to be the villains here. Um, no, sorry, as I understand it, there were more shares of GME shorted than were ever distributed. If it's anyone who's a villain here, it's not the WSB (Reddit Wallstreetbets) gang. Gill saw a good value in the stock a couple of years ago, and he took a lot of ridicule from WSB before they saw that he was right, and jumped on that train.

(Yes, I am holding a few shares of GME. I will sell when I have made my profit target.)
Tyler Durden is a pseudonym. Zero Hedge has a way of reporting things in an over-the -top style.
 

Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

Most Major Retail Brokerages Suffer Outages As 'Meme Stock'-Mania Continues
Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, FEB 25, 2021 - 10:19
Downdetector reports customers of E-Trade, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Robinhood, and Fidelity are experiencing outages and issues 30 minutes into the US cash session on Thursday. This comes as heavily-watched so-called 'meme stocks' are higher after yesterday's late-day gamma squeeze in GME (and AMC, among others).
E-Trade outages and issues were detected around the cash session start.


The outage map shows E-Trade disruptions are widespread.

TD Ameritrade users are reporting issues as well.

The outage map shows TD Ameritrade disruptions are from coast to coast.

Possible problems were spotted at Charles Schwab.


Robinhood users are also reporting possible problems with the trading app.

... and so is Fidelity.


The resurgence in bullish sentiment towards WSB-Short-Squeeze favorites began Wednesday afternoon, with GameStop doubling in minutes.
In a virtual conference on Thursday, Morgan Stanley Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Pruzan said the number of trades customers are making daily on the self-directed online trading platform E*Trade is "off the charts."
 
Can't get into my 'retirement' (laugh, cough, gag) account either (Empower).

My accounts in Sealy and Ag are very accessible right now, 'magine that.
 

Southside

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Bring on the 'it's happening to silver!!' next week threads!
It be a month off or so, just because of how futures work, but you can see the pressure building every day. Today we have them bringing Gold down $28, and Silver is down like 20 cents? How much in paper did that cost them? I bet a lot. Watch, Silver will be up by the end of the day!!!!!
 

Red Baron

Paleo-Conservative
_______________
Fair Use Cited
------------------
GameStop shares jump after retailer taps Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen to lead e-commerce shift

PUBLISHED MON, MAR 8 20218:19 AM ESTUPDATED MON, MAR 8 202111:19 AM EST

  • GameStop has tapped Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen to lead the company’s shift to e-commerce.
  • Cohen will serve as chairman of a new committee created by the board.
  • Cohen’s investment in GameStop helped spark the stock’s wild ride earlier this year.
Shares of GameStop jumped more than 30% after the company announced Monday that it has tapped Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen to lead its shift to e-commerce.

Cohen is serving as chairman of a special committee formed by GameStop’s board to help its transformation. Board members Alan Attal, Chewy’s former top operations executive, and Kurt Wolf, chief investment officer of Hestia Capital Management, also serve on the committee.

Cohen invested in GameStop last year to push the video game retailer to focus on online sales and turn away from physical stores. His involvement with the company helped spark the stock’s wild ride earlier this year. Shares of GameStop have surged 880% so far in 2021, giving the company a market value of $12.8 billion.

The committee has already appointed a chief technology officer, hired two executives to lead customer services and e-commerce fulfillment, and begun a search for a new chief financial officer with tech or e-commerce experience. GameStop previously announced that current CFO Jim Bell will resign on March 26. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Business Insider reported that Bell was pushed out by Cohen.

The new committee has also appointed Attal as chair of the board’s nominating and corporate governance committee and Wolf as chair of the board’s compensation committee. The responsibilities of the special committee include evaluating GameStop’s operational objectives, capital structure and allocation priorities, digital capabilities, organizational footprint, and personnel.

GameStop taps Chewy founder Ryan Cohen to lead e-commerce shift (cnbc.com)
 

Red Baron

Paleo-Conservative
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Fair Use Cited
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GameStop Defies Gravity Again With Rally Nearing 100% Gain

Bailey Lipschultz
Tue, March 9, 2021, 8:44 AM

GameStop Corp.’s latest winning streak has catapulted it to the highest in weeks as Chewy Inc. founder and activist investor Ryan Cohen continued to shake up operations at the video-game retailer, taking retail investors by storm.

Shares of the Grapevine, Texas-based company climbed as much as 19% to $231.74 at 9:36 a.m. in New York Tuesday, extending a winning streak for a fifth day. The gain follows Monday’s 41% climb after the company said Cohen would lead a new committee focused on its digital transformation.

Retail investors’ Reddit-driven frenzy has kept its shares afloat despite the broader market’s recent volatility and tech selloff. The stock has soared as much as 96% over five days. While the Nasdaq 100 fell 11% into a correction yesterday, it has rebounded by as much as 2.9% on Tuesday. Even so, GameStop remains far from its Jan. 28 intraday record of $483.

“It is interesting that GameStop has rallied as other momentum favorites are falling,” said Craig Birk, chief investment officer at Personal Capital. “For some, if they have losses in growth stocks, the quickest way to try to recoup them could be to find the most volatile stock.”

While GameStop remains a favorite for day traders, the momentum stock selloff has caught up with Cohen’s former darling Chewy, alongside the likes of pandemic winners Peloton Interactive Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc.

It is an inconvenient time for the online pet-products retailer that Cohen founded to take a tumble. The Dania Beach, Florida-based company has shed a third of its value from a Feb. 12 record -- that compares to a 335% surge for GameStop over that same stretch.

While Cohen’s push was applauded by investors, some skeptics like Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said the latest update was expected ever since Cohen took a stake in the company. Instead he credited the stock’s return as a “Reddit Raider favorite” for the rally.

Personal Capital’s Birk said the Cohen news appears positive for the stock but argued that “transformations take time and some fail.”

“It feels premature to assume GameStop’s challenges from a few months ago radically eased,” he said.

GME 238.99 44.49 22.87% : GameStop Corp. - Yahoo Finance
 

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
GameStop is a dumpster fire already in progress. This move to e-commerce will give them little help as they'll have to compete with Amazon, who has been doing this longer, and better, than GameStop. Without GameStop's current business model of "shake down used game holders for cheap product that we sell at a massive markup," it's game over for them.
 

mbabulldog

Inactive
no way this company is worth $240'ish dollars; nothing more than millennials with stimulus checks playing the short-squeeze game.
 

WTSR

Veteran Member
Its climbed back up nearly to 250 a share now. I had bought two at about 270 average back last month, bought another at 150 to dollar cost average, so I am in the green now, but I'll hold to $250, or higher if I feel lucky. it hit the 245 price today so lets see how accurate this prediction is.

I think a great deal of $1400 stimulus is going to go into Gamestop stock.

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WTSR

Veteran Member
no way this company is worth $240'ish dollars; nothing more than millennials with stimulus checks playing the short-squeeze game.

How can you say that? With how many dollars in circulation what is the true value of anything nowadays? The markets are so out of whack, Amazon stock is nearly 3000 a share...

It would seem in the market Money Talks but Bullshit talks louder.

I think Amazon is in danger of the shipping problems that are occuring now. I ordered two items in the last three weeks canceled because lost in shipment.
 
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