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GME stock price continues to rise, r/WallStreetBets sends open letter to CNBC

The subreddit responsible for the push has also begun eyeing off other shorted stocks.

Sam Chandler

January 26, 2021 5:32 PM

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GameStop’s (GME) stock price continues to reach new, unwarranted heights, as r/WallStreetBets wages war against hedge funds. The subreddit behind the recent growth has also penned an open letter to CNBC, drawing attention to the news company’s perception of retail investors, the bailouts companies receive, and the subreddit’s main gaol: to see hedge funds lose money.

A recent thread by Twitter user William LeGate highlights the movement happening over on the subreddit, r/WallStreetBets. The thread, consisting of screenshots of the subreddit, GameStop (GME) stock price, and other titbits of information lays out some of the reasoning behind why this group of traders is jumping on the GameStop rocket.

One user by the name of RADIO02118 has posted a thread titled “An open letter to CNBC” that outlines the overall ethos of the movement. The open letter to CNBC reads:

Your contempt for the retail investor (your audience) is palpable and if you don’t get it together, you’ll lose an entire new generation of investors.

I keep thinking about these funds that are short GME like your boys at Melvin Capital / your coverage of this subreddit and I’m getting madder and madder.

These funds can manipulate the market via your network and if they screw up big because they don’t even know the basics of portfolio risk 101 and using position sizing, they just get a bailout from their billionaire friends at Citadel. Then they have the nerve to turn us into public enemy #1 just because we believe in an underdog company getting a second chance.

We don’t have billionaires to bail us out when we mess up our portfolio risk and a position goes against us. We can’t go on TV and make attempts to manipulate millions to take our side of the trade.

The decision, then, to back GameStop is two-fold: to attempt to undermine hedge funds that have shorted the GME stock and to back a company the subreddit believes to be worthy of a second chance.

This ideology has grown, as LeGate points out, to the subreddit now backing AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) stock. Basically, any stock that is being shorted by hedge funds, that the subreddit is also fond of, appears to be receiving attention.

Overall, this movement by the subreddit is based on little sound reasoning or other traditional factors such as strong earnings reports. It’s essentially users trolling the stock market for a perceived slight.

Outside of r/WallStreetBets, hedge funds, and other stock trading, GameStop has seen an unexpected resurgence as Microsoft entered a multi-year partnership with the video game store company. All of this attention might see GameStop exist for a while longer.

Sam Chandler

Guides Editor

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as a Guides Editor. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler