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Last week a group of Redditors from the subreddit r/WallStreetBets took on Wall Street when they collectively bought shares of the struggling video game retailer GameStop.

This movement started when it was discovered that approximately 140% of GameStop shares were sold short. With the collective buying power of the millions of subscribers to the WallStreetBets subreddit, they initiated a short squeeze. By driving the price higher, those who had short positions had to buy back the stock to cover their positions, again driving the price higher.

In less than two weeks, the share price went from around $20 to over $460. 

Amongst the people on the wrong side of this trade were Melvin Capital, a Hedge Fund that started the year with over $12 billion under management. After frantically trying to cover their position, GameStop wiped out a staggering $4.5 billion of their assets and reported a 53% loss on its investments in January. 

At the height of the rally, and with WallStreetBets out for blood, Robinhood, the world's most popular retail trading platform ceased trading on a number of heavily shorted assets, most notably GameStop (GME).

The company claimed they were not prepared for the frenzied trading and that they lacked the capital to continue operations. However, some have suggested that the company's decision to cease trading was down to influential Wall Streeters.

To better understand what has been happening over the last few weeks, and the implications on the future, I am joined by Bill Barhydt, Hester Peirce, Jaime Rogozinski, Max Keiser, Nathaniel Whittemore & Preston Pysh.

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Coming soon…

Connect with the guests:

• Bill Barhydt

• Hester Peirce

• Jaime Rogozinski

• Max Keiser

• Nathaniel Whittemore

• Preston Pysh

Mentioned in the show:

• Reddit - wallstreetbets 

• The Tendieman (Full Version) 

• Wall Street is keeping very close tabs on WallStreetBets. Here's how 

• WallStreetBets is disrupting financial markets — possibly permanently 

• GameStop, Silver And WallStreetBets' War On Wall Street: What On Earth Is Going On? 

• Founder Of WallStreetBets Discusses Why The Group Unleashed Chaos On GameStop—And Why He's (Really) Exiled From Reddit 

• What Do We 'Know' About Robinhood & WallStreetBets 

• How WallStreetBets Pushed GameStop Shares to the Moon 

• Why Did Robinhood Ground GameStop? Look at Clearing 

• Dave Portnoy on Twitter: "Emergency Press Conference - Everybody On Wall Street Who Had A Hand In Today's Crime Needs To Go To Prison… " 

• SEC Charges Robinhood Financial With Misleading Customers About Revenue Sources and Failing to Satisfy Duty of Best Execution 

• GameStop: Elon Musk grills Robinhood chief over sharemarket battle 

• Robinhood is facing dozens of lawsuits over GameStop stock freeze

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