The FTSE

[Bluemanc100]

No it's the other way. Hedge funds are artificially depressing the prices of average stocks and retail investors have caught on and are taking advantage which is hitting the hedge funds hard. Some trading platforms have illegally and immorally come to the hedge funds' rescue by preventing private investors from trading and in one case selling their stock against the owners wishes.
The fact that the stocks have risen well above the value of the companies is due to the hedge funds short positions and the consequent opportunity for the small investor to make some money at their expense.

GME is due to go nuclear in the next week... Sorry (but kinda glad) I only have 3.5 shares....

 

[west didsblue]

I can see today being another day where I don't get any work done and instead will spend it staring at a screen watching the wild ride of some of these share prices to pick a moment to plunge in.

 

[west didsblue]

GME is due to go nuclear in the next week... Sorry (but kinda glad) I only have 3.5 shares....

There's a concern that the regulator might step in and end up screwing the small investor. That's the biggest risk as I see it.
However it is up 104% in before hours trading so it's going to be another wild day.

 

[MillsyTheMosher]

Bit of info for poeple on here with money in AMC/GME...

Hedgefund whales are spreading disinfo saying Friday is make-or-break for $GME. Call options expiring ITM on Friday will drive the price up if levels are maintained, but may not trigger the short squeeze.

It may be Friday, but it could be next week the we see the real squeeze.

DON'T PANIC IF THE SQUEEZE DOESN'T HAPPEN FRIDAY.
It's not guaranteed to. The only thing that is guaranteed mathematically is that the shorts will have to cover at some point in the future. They are trying to get enough people hooked on the false expectation of Friday so that if/when it doesn't happen, enough will sell out of panic/despair. DON'T BE THAT PERSON.

WE LIKE THE STOCK
KEEP HOLDING UNTIL THEY FEEL THE PAIN, WHETHER THAT'S FRIDAY OR NEXT WEEK

 

[inbetween]

Essential what is going on here is small retail investors are piling into poor quality stocks that by all rights should be going down in order to artificially boost them up. It is inevitable that many people will get burned. In the stock market there are 2 parties to every trade and for everyone buying and selling at a profit there has to be someone on the other side trading at a loss.

There is a wider story about hedge funds and short positions but don't let that distract you from the fundamental above.

AMC weren't dead, they were making billions per year until the pandemic and the hedge funds capitalised on this by shorting them. What's happened over the last few days has allowed AMC to raise a lot of cash and convert some of their debt to equity therefore protecting jobs.

AMC Jumps as $917M Capital Raise Takes Bankruptcy 'Off the Table’

Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings soar after the cinema-chain operator says it has raised $917 million that takes bankruptcy ‘completely off the table.’

www.thestreet.com

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I've used my free Revolut trades for the month anyway so I can't sell the 1.83 AMC I have - no choice but to hold!

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

Sorry but that's not true.

Gamestop was an artificially deflated stock, driven down to a tiny fraction of what it "should" be based on its business activity, by hedge funds who wanted to short it until it went bankrupt.

And the only reason they are able to drive the price up is because of the oversaturated short positions. Yes, gamestop is a declining company and it wasn't a great stock, but the reason this is happening is because it was shorted 140% and had the fundamental business to not go under despite that.

You talk about the winners and losers, what about all the people who owned gamestop shares at $15 in 2019 who saw it driven down to $0.2 not because it suddenly became an unviable business, but because of the shorting bandwagon?

What about the 22,000 people who work at Gamestop who would have lost their jobs when the hedge funds shorted them into bankruptcy?

I agree with the fact it was shorted below its true value but a company does not go bankrupt when its stock gets devalued. All it means is it can't really tap the markets for more funding. But if the business model is sound then it should survive irrespective of what short selling goes on. And if it gets massively devalued then a private equity firm would just take it off the market and run it as an unlisted company.

Hedge fund shorting can be used to manipulate the market but whenever a stock is manipulated outside its true price someone somewhere, who holds the stock or a short on the stock, will get burnt. I like the idea of hedge funds getting burned but you can see on here all the people wanting to 'get involved' when the stock right now is over valued. By all means get involved to burn a hedge fund but anyone who thinks they are getting invloved to make money needs to understand what is going on.

 

[MillsyTheMosher]

I agree with the fact it was shorted below its true value but a company does not go bankrupt when its stock gets devalued. All it means is it can't really tap the markets for more funding. But if the business model is sound then it should survive irrespective of what short selling goes on. And if it gets massively devalued then a private equity firm would just take it off the market and run it as an unlisted company.

Hedge fund shorting can be used to manipulate the market but whenever a stock is manipulated outside its true price someone somewhere, who holds the stock or a short on the stock, will get burnt. I like the idea of hedge funds getting burned but you can see on here all the people wanting to 'get involved' when the stock right now is over valued. By all means get involved to burn a hedge fund but anyone who thinks they are getting invloved to make money needs to understand what is going on.

You are talking utter shite. People CAN get involved to make money and HAVE done.

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

No it's the other way. Hedge funds are artificially depressing the prices of average stocks and retail investors have caught on and are taking advantage which is hitting the hedge funds hard. Some trading platforms have illegally and immorally come to the hedge funds' rescue by preventing private investors from trading and in one case selling their stock against the owners wishes.
The fact that the stocks have risen well above the value of the companies is due to the hedge funds short positions and the consequent opportunity for the small investor to make some money at their expense.

I agree re the trading platforms - I suspect some of them will get sued and rightfully so.

Re the true value of the stock / strength of the underlying businesses - that is the subjective. Is it still too low from all the shorting or has all the media frenzy and small invstor interest boosted it above its value. That is the decision for investors to make. I'm just pointing out that there is no magic here, you need to understand it and the risks.

Unless you just want to burn a hedge fund then in that case pile on.

 

[west didsblue]

I agree re the trading platforms - I suspect some of them will get sued and rightfully so.

Re the true value of the stock / strength of the underlying businesses - that is the subjective. Is it still too low from all the shorting or has all the media frenzy and small invstor interest boosted it above its value. That is the decision for investors to make. I'm just pointing out that there is no magic here, you need to understand it and the risks.

Unless you just want to burn a hedge fund then in that case pile on.

For these very unusual circumstances where the hedge fund short positions have been monetised by a large group of small investors to their advantage, the biggest risk is the established insiders screwing them over which is what appeared to be happening yesterday. Trading platforms manipulating the market is a fucking outrage but they know that the fines for doing this will be dwarfed by the losses that the hedge funds would incur if they didn't, and the incestuous relationship between the hedge funds and some trading platforms is why this is happening. Ironically the biggest offender is a platform called Robinhood which appears to be doing the opposite of its Sherwood Forest namesake by robbing the poor to give to the rich.