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what caused gamestop stock to go up

by Mr. Ariel Blanda III Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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The GameStop stock surge began for a legitimate reason: The company announced on January 11 it had added three new directors to its board, including Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen.

GameStop shares skyrocketed in January as retail investors, urged on by popular Reddit forum WallStreetBets, bought the stock as a way to punish hedge funds that had taken an outsized short bet against it.Feb 26, 2021

Full Answer

Why did the price of GameStop stocks jump so suddenly?

The Reddit forum WallStreetBets was integral to the rise of GameStop stock. Though the group has been around for some time, it became more popular as the pandemic dragged on. People who were out of work, out of school, and under stay-at-home orders started dabbling in …

Why did GameStop skyrocket?

Jan 27, 2021 · GameStop’s (NYSE:GME) breathtaking run continues.The stock nearly doubled yesterday, up 93%, and is adding another 100% in premarket trading today. The share moves have dominated headlines as ...

When did the GameStop stock thing start?

Jan 28, 2021 · It's what happened with GameStop's stock. When a stock is very heavily shorted, a rise in its price can force short sellers to get out of their bets. To do that, they have to buy the stock, which pushes the stock even higher and can create a feedback loop.

How much did GME rise?

From the reporting, a group organized on Reddit to simultaneously buy up the stock. When people want to buy a stock more than they want to sell, the stock goes up. This tactic was adopted because the group (kitty something.. who’s not a cat) saw that gamestop was shorted 140% meaning hedge funds sold more of the stock than exists.

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Why did the GameStop stock rise?

Hedge funds in the US hoped to make a huge profit by short-selling the GameStop stock. Members of a subreddit (online community on Reddit) called r/WallStreetBets discovered this, and almost on a whim, implemented what is called a “short squeeze”. That is, they began buying GameStop, forcing the price up.Apr 3, 2022

How did they make GameStop stock go up?

This group noticed that short interest for GameStop stock was over 100%. With a clever combination of buying common shares and call options (called a gamma squeeze), the group was able to cause the price per share to go up, forcing many short-sellers to close their positions for massive losses.Feb 24, 2021

What happened to GameStop January 2021?

Stocks of video game retailer GameStop exploded in January 2021, effectively doubling in value on a daily basis. At the close of trading on January 27, GameStop Corporation's stock price reaching 347.51 U.S. dollars per share - or +134 percent compared to the day before.Jan 31, 2022

Who made GameStop stock rise?

In late January, a band of Reddit-obsessed retail traders coordinated trades on heavily shorted stocks, created a massive short squeeze in GameStop, whose shares surged 400% at one point. The brick-and-mortar retailer traded at less than $20 a share at the start of 2021.Apr 26, 2021

Who owns GameStop stock?

Despite GameStop’s bleak outlook, last year a well-known investor named Ryan Cohen increased his holdings of GameStop stock to more than 10% of the company, with hopes of transforming the mainly physical retailer into more of an online player.

What hedge fund lost money on GameStop?

In fact, one hedge fund called Melvin Capital lost so much money on its GameStop short positions that it needed a capital infusion of nearly $3 billion to shore up its finances. And GameStop isn’t the only stock that has seen this kind of tug of war between retail investors and hedge funds lately. A few others include:

How much did GameStop lose in 2020?

The company had a net loss of $18.8 million, or 0.29 per share. As a result of results like that, GameStop stock had been drifting lower for years. It was around $56 a share in late 2013, but had fallen to under $4 by March of 2020. Of course, that was before the massive surge.

How many stores does GameStop have?

GameStop (NYSE: GME) is primarily a bricks-and-mortar video game retailer with more than 5,000 stores. But this business model is frowned upon by many in the investment community due to both long-term and short-term factors. Long-term, fewer and fewer gamers actually journey out to physical stores to purchase their games.

Is GameStop a dying company?

GameStop has suffer ed massive ly from these negative trends. And some have begun to consider it a dying business. In the third quarter of 2020 (the most recent reported), sales were about $1 billion, down 30% from the same quarter in 2019. The company had a net loss of $18.8 million, or 0.29 per share.

Did hedge funds bet against GameStop?

Several major hedge funds looked at GameStop’s books and decided that the company was doomed to fail eventually. So they bet against GameStop stock by shorting it. That means they borrowed the stock and sold it, hoping to buy it back later (and return it to the stock lender) after the stock price fell.

When did DFV buy GameStop?

And he did it through call options—contracts that give investors the right to purchase shares at a fixed price on or before a certain date. Per the magazine: In this case, DFV bought in 2019 the right to buy GameStop stock on January 15, 2021, at $8 a share.

Do short sellers buy stocks?

Unlike long investors, short sellers do not actually buy a stock; they instead borrow shares and then sell them to another investor at higher price than what it'll cost to purchase the stocks from the original owner, typically a brokerage company. It's a risky move primarily based on speculation.

Is GameStop closing in 2021?

Image via Getty/Michael M. Santiago. GameStop, a company that was expected to close hundreds of stores in 2021, has made a stunning comeback in the stock market. And it's all thanks to an army of Reddit users who were gutsy enough to take on big Wall Street. According to CNBC, GameStop's share price went from under $20 at the beginning ...

What happens when you short a stock?

If you believe the shares of a company will fall, you "borrow" shares via your broker, sell them immediately, and then hope to "return" them by buying them back at a lower price, keeping the difference.

When did Chrysler go bankrupt?

Many automakers were viewed as bankruptcy risks, and in fact, Chrysler filed bankruptcy in April 2009 and General Motors ( GM) followed a month later.

What is the maximum loss of a stock?

When owning, or being long, a stock, your maximum loss is the amount of your investment. As long as you're not using margin, you can own a stock for forever and can't be forced to sell. If you believe a stock is undervalued, you having the luxury of time for the market to appreciate it and the stock to hopefully rise.

Is GM short interest?

GM has almost no short interest and has traded in a 10% range over the past two weeks. On Sunday, Robinhood significantly relaxed restrictions and only 8 stocks are now restricted. This moving target of what is allowed should erode investors trust in the Robinhood platform.

What happens when you short a gametop stock?

It's what happened with GameStop's stock. When a stock is very heavily shorted, a rise in its price can force short sellers to get out of their bets. To do that, they have to buy the stock, which pushes the stock even higher and can create a feedback loop.

Where is Gamestop in 2021?

The Associated Press. Pedestrians pass a GameStop store on 14th Street at Union Square, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in the Manhattan borough of New York. Robinhood and other online trading platforms are moving to restrict trading in GameStop and other stocks that have soared recently due to rabid buying by smaller investors.

What happens when you buy stocks on margin?

When they buy stocks “on margin,” they're using borrowed money, which can supercharge their gains and losses. With options, an investor can buy the right to buy the stock at a later date at a certain price. If the stock hits that target, investors can reap a bigger return than if they simply bought a share.

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