Reddit users were looking to stick it to the “fat cats” of Wall Street.Īs word spread on its message board that a hedge fund was planning to short sell GameStop’s stock - users decided to get their own back with what is described as a bull raid. Remember our own Margot Robbie in this famous scene from the movie The Big Short. The feud is playing out because of a stock market strategy called “short selling”. It lets anyone trade stocks without commission.īillionaire Elon Musk added more fuel to the fire when he tweeted a link to the Reddit message board, which saw GameStop’s stock end the day on Wednesday up nearly seven times its value from where it was less than a month ago. Individuals investors, many from the Reddit sub group that has nearly four million members, have driven the share price up using an app called Robinhood. Its stock has been hovering between $US3 ($A4) and $US10 ($13) for much of the past year but has hit four straight days of increases.Īt one stage its stock was priced higher than Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Disney, as it surged by 93 per cent with its shares climbing above $US300 ($A393). US company GameStop is a brick-and-mortar video game retailer that has been struggling with profits due to store closures, decline in physical sales and the COVID-19 pandemic. In what seems like a modern day twist to the Robin Hood story - a gaming company’s stocks have become a batteground between the rich and the poor with Reddit users attempting to bankrupt hedge fund managers.

Reddit the big short