Soaring GameStop stocks had been trending online this week after Redditors pushed for a “short squeeze”. The event shook the stock market significantly. In fact, many experts are betting that a new era has come to Wall Street. It is a wake-up call to how influential social media can become.
GameStop’s high-speed rise to Fortune 500
A Subreddit which is known as r/WallStreetBets has been urging its 4.7 million members to buy and hold GameStop stocks for the past few months. It is their goal to drive up prices of the struggling stock from the company. Why are they doing this? A multi-billion-dollar hedge fund was betting against GameStop’s stocks. The hedge fund was originally planning to short sell the stocks to earn higher returns. These investors from r/WallStreetBets were trying to put pressure on these short-sellers – short squeezing them.
Over the past few months, reports had been prevalent that the rich simply became richer despite the current situation. All while the rest of the world suffers from the disastrous economic effects of the pandemic. People online wanted to send these people a message. The soaring stock prices of GameStop has caused short-sellers significant losses.
What is even crazier, Fortune just confirmed that GameStop’s formerly struggling stock shares climbed up to No. 464 just recently. This means they are now a Fortune 500 company.
GameStop Stocks: Revenge on Wall Street
Right now, Wall Street is a bit threatened to see how much social media can cause such an unusual influence on the market. Just imagine, with a social media-fueled frenzy, what originally sold as $4 per share now sells for almost $500. Why did these people do it? As a revolution against the world’s top 1%.
Some people on the internet are just so sick of the “chosen few” to be holding such a huge chunk of the world’s riches. It’s pretty much a rebellion, a show that the masses can do damage when they work together and put their minds on it. Also, it shows how the “little traders” or small-time investors can create consequences in the market.
Other times social media showed its power
More than a few months ago, the #BlackLivesMatter movement became stronger than ever because of social media. The rebellion reached not only the entire US but also the entire world. Another time social media showed its influence was during the 2020 US Presidential Elections when the youth was encouraged to register and vote. Who would have known the outcome if the youth was not able to vote. On the other hand, social media’s influence is not always positive. Just recently, the Capitol Riots were instigated and incited by social media. Many Trump supporters flew from all over the country to join in. There are so many times social media has been proven to be powerful. In the future, no one really knows how much more powerful social media can become.
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