Day 8: The People Take on Wall Street

Whichever side of politics “the people” may choose, the overwhelming choice is an uprising. Fatigued by pandemic couch surfing, the vitriol directed towards Congress earlier this month shifted sharply towards billionaires when a group of Redditors took a few unassuming stocks to the moon.

GameStop, Blackberry and AMC were among the companies targeted for short selling — wherein day traders borrow on a stock, betting that it’ll eventually take a dive, so they can buy it back and pocket the profit. However, a non-organized group of renegade individual investors picked up on the opportunity and bought so much stock that it drove the prices to an outright upset of the markets.

At one point this week, GameStop was worth some $500, up from $40 about a week ago, squeezing the borrowers to sell at a higher cost than expected or risk bankrupting themselves with interest rates.

Fueled in part by access granted by investment apps like Robinhood, Main Street forced the hand of those billion-dollar hedge funds so much so that both AOC and Ted Cruz agreed the government should step in to regulate.

The effect — which began rippling some months ago — peaked today, once word of the opportunity had broken among the masses on social sites beyond Reddit. Wall Street giants took to traditional media to plea their case and just as swiftly, Robinhood responded by suspending further purchases of the stocks, at least until Friday.

The people, of course, turned on Robinhood, in return.