Free Republic

Reddit’s army of retail traders might not have been only force behind the unprecedented GameStop rally that turned Wall Street upside down, new data show. GameStop was “notably absent” from the list of 10 stocks that retail investors bought the most in January despite the video-game retailer being at the forefront of a supposed market revolution, according to JP Morgan analysts. “Although retail buying was portrayed as the main driver of the extreme price rally experienced by some stocks, the actual picture may be much more nuanced,” Peng Cheng, the megabank’s head of machine learning strategies, wrote in a research...

It's been a long time coming, but for precious metal fans the day of joy has finally arrived: following a coordinated campaign to buy both silver ETFs in the paper realm and precious metals in the physical, which over the weekend which left virtually US precious metals retailer with little to no physical inventory, silver has finally exploded higher following in the footsteps of other "most-shorted" names, and it was last trading just around $30/ounce, soaring by 11.5% - its biggest one-day jump since Sept 16, 2008 - the day Lehman filed for bankruptcy. And, if silver closes here, it...

Update: Top users on the Reddit WallStreetBets forum have called on others not to purchase silver, or SLV, saying that it could benefit Citadel LLC, while calling on others to purchase and hold GameStop and related stocks.Earlier Update: Top bullion dealers are encountering shortages.–A number of Reddit users on the popular r/WallStreetBets forum have said they are planning to launch a coordinated effort to target silver as their next short-squeeze target.Posts encouraged individuals to use the IShares Silver Trust, the largest silver exchange-traded fund, and carry out what one user called the “BIGGEST SHORT SQUEEZE IN THE WORLD.”“Silver Bullion Market...

Jon Stewart was prompted to join Twitter on Thursday to defend the renegade Reddit traders who turned Wall Street upside down this week. The former “Daily Show” host hit back at critics of the rogue day traders who used WallStreetBets to send GameStop’s stock skyrocketing in defiance of large hedge funds shorting the business. “This is ********. The Redditors aren’t cheating, they’re joining a party Wall Street insiders have been enjoying for years,” Stewart tweeted.

I remember despising the 2015 movie The Big Short for its cavalier representation of what was truly terrible carnage. Like many, the 2008 shorting of mortgage stock, and the pooling of solid mortgages with garbage ones, was devastating on the economy, and upended people’s lives. This is probably why what they have sought to do to us during the pandemic hasn’t completely taken me by surprise; I have already been chewed up by someone’s idea of gaming system.Between 2008-2010, my husband and I had lost two residences, our jobs, and our lives were reduced to our two dogs and what...

The GameStop stock battle between retail investors and hedge fund managers has resulted in Robinhood unlisting the stock and several others ... and people are pissed. As of Thursday morning ... Robinhood customers can no longer buy Gamestop stock on the free-trading app, thereby blocking members of the WallStreetBets forum on Reddit. Of course, that group of investors sparked the resurgence of GameStop's stock. It also aimed to do the same for AMC, Nokia, BlackBerry, Naked Brands and a few other stocks ... but Robinhood's unlisted those too! In making the move, Robinhood emailed customers warning of "the current volatile...

Full title: Pressure mounts on Tesla as it gets hit with a third securities fraud lawsuit in wake of Elon Musk's 'funding secured' tweet Tesla is facing another lawsuit accusing CEO Elon Musk of manipulating the company's stock price. The suit follows two lawsuits filed against the company last week by investors alleging securities fraud. A complaint filed on Monday in US District Court in California alleges that some investors purchased Tesla stock "at artificially inflated prices and suffered significant losses and damages once the truth emerged" that Musk had not secured the funding necessary to convert Tesla into a...

Euro Shock-And-Awe Will Create Huge Short Squeeze--Followed By Air Pocket And Market Collapse Mike "Mish" Shedlock May. 10, 2010, 8:35 AM Image: Defenseimagery.mil To defend the Euro, the ECB now is committed to throw up to $1 trillion at interventions in public and private debt. What's next? Direct intervention in the stock market? Bear in mind when this fails (which I guarantee you it will but I cannot state the timeframe), these clowns will think the reason was they did not throw enough firepower at it. Step back for a second. The problems are too much debt, too much government...

Adolf Merckle, one of the world’s richest men, committed suicide yesterday by throwing himself under a train, Bloomberg reports. Financial difficulties, and particularly great losses he suffered on Volkswagen stock, are being cited as the key reason he ended his life: [Merckle's company] VEM was caught in a so-called short squeeze after betting Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen’s stock would fall. Merckle lost at least 500 million euros on the bets on VW stock, people familiar said on Nov. 18. VEM lost “low three-digit million euros” on VW stock, the company said in November. A “short squeeze” sounds inconspicuous enough; you wouldn’t...

Hedge funds fear bankruptcy after Porsche squeeze Helen Power, Tom Bawden and Christine Seib Hedge funds were heading for a full-blown row with the German Government last night as it emerged that funds sitting on tens of billions of euro losses after short-selling Volkswagen could go bankrupt. Porsche, VW's biggest shareholder, stands to pocket a quick €6billion (£4.7billion) profit from the short-selling. The London-based Alternative Investment Management Association (Aima), the hedge fund trade body, said yesterday that it planned to ask the European Union to clamp down on a controversial German legal loophole that allowed Porsche secretly to take its...

Porsche to sell some VW shares to meet short demand By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch Last update: 6:43 a.m. EDT Oct. 29, 2008 LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Porsche Automobil Holding on Wednesday said it would sell up to 5% of its stake in Volkswagen AG to meet unprecedented demand for the Wolfsburg automaker's stock after arguably the biggest short squeeze in stock-market history. The move's designed "to avoid further market distortions and the resulting consequences for those involved," Porsche (DE:PAH003: news, chart, profile) said -- but laid the blame for this week's massive rise in VW shares squarely with the short sellers...

Cramer put out something about 2 hours ago and man, CMGI took off like a shot. Actually, the chart is not accurate. At the time of this posting, it had hit 2.22 already. Volume topping 31 million shares. Wow.