Reddit vs. Wall Street: the latest in the GameStop saga – The Verge

WallStreetBets donates more than $350,000 to gorilla charity to prove ‘apes together strong’

2021-03-18T08:39:57-04:00

"Apes together strong" is one of the mottoes of Reddit's r/WallStreetBets community. Now, members of the financial subreddit are making good on one of their favorite memes by donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities supporting gorillas in the wild.

The most prominent recipient of the redditors' generosity is the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, whose president and CEO Tara Stoinski describes it as "the world's largest and longest running organization that is fully dedicated to gorilla conservation."

The fund has so far received more than $350,000 in donations, according to a report from BBC News, with redditors adopting approximatel …

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GameStop’s stock was on the rise again, until it wasn’t

2021-03-10T19:48:40-05:00

GameStop stock (GME) soared in value on Wednesday, peaking at $348.50 per share. Then, in an event that's definitely not cause for concern, minutes later it lost fully half its value by plummeting to $172, Bloomberg reports. Yes, "stonks" are back, and GameStop is once again in the crosshairs of online amateur investors.

Wednesday's drama ultimately ended with the price settling back down to $265 per share, but it's hard to not feel déjà vu. It seems like it was only yesterday when everyone was watching in a mixture of shock, amusement, and general concern as GME crested $483 per share. The rise and fall doesn't quite compare, but the losse …

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Cybersecurity firm says social media bots hyped GameStop during trading frenzy

2021-02-28T18:08:34-05:00

A cybersecurity firm found that bots were promoting GameStop stock on social media before and after the stock's frenzied rise last month, Reuters reported. Massachusetts-based PiiQ Media says social media bots promoted Dogecoin, GameStop, and other "meme" stocks in posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The firm estimated that tens of thousands of bots participated, but it's still unclear how much influence they had or didn't have on the rise and fall of GME and other stocks.

Shares in GME skyrocketed in January as Reddit users on r/wallstreetbets rallied around the stock in an attempt to squeeze hedge funds that had bet agains …

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GameStop stock just jumped 100 percent, and WallStreetBets is ecstatic

2021-02-24T16:21:19-05:00

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GameStop is up… again, by a lot. Before market close on Wednesday, the video game retailer's shares started to soar, and GME just closed at $91.71 - up nearly 104 percent for the day.

It's the highest the stock has been since it fell back down to Earth at the beginning of the month following the unprecedented, Reddit-fueled rally that sent it as high as $483 a share. Over the course of the afternoon, trading on the stock was halted twice.

$GME +100% pic.twitter.com/qIWLTfveHq
- Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) February 24, 2021

It's not exactly clear what's happening here. But one group is celebrating: r/WallStreetBets. The community of retai …

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GameStop’s CFO has resigned because of course he did

2021-02-23T18:45:46-05:00

GameStop CFO Jim Bell has resigned, and will be leaving the video game retailer for good on March 26th. That's just over a month from now. GameStop also announced a "succession plan," just in case it can't immediately find anyone suitable to accelerate a mall-based video game retailer's transformation into the post-pandemic future. We can only speculate on the reasons for his departure, but let's just come out and say what everyone is thinking: STONKS!

It's not like he had a falling-out with the company: "Mr. Bell's resignation was not because of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company's operations, policies …

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Hill Report: who wants to talk to Reddit?

2021-02-18T18:00:02-05:00

Weeks after Reddit community r/WallStreetBets shitposted GameStop stock up to more than $400 a share, the House Financial Services Committee pulled all of the major players in for questioning on Thursday.

The hearing featured:

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, whose commission-free brokerage platform made WallStreetBets' GameStop short squeeze possible - well, until it didn't, and the app froze all meme trading for hours, angering both the meme traders, lawmakers, and regulators, creating the conditions for our hearing today!
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, who, in his opening remarks, basically just explained what Reddit is, providing a dictionary-style …

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Reddit’s lead GameStop hypebeast is being sued for his role in the stock surge

2021-02-17T15:32:39-05:00

"Roaring Kitty," also known as u/DeepFuckingValue on Reddit and Keith Patrick Gill in real life, is now the target of a lawsuit (which you can view below) that claims he manipulated the market to increase GameStop's stock price.

The lawsuit claims that he created a "fake persona" of an investment newbie, while actually having several financial certifications and working for an insurance company. That company, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, is also named as a defendant, with the case saying that it should've prevented Gill from talking about the stock.

Gill is well known on the WallStreetBets subreddit, where he's been posting …

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CEOs of Reddit and Robinhood and ‘Roaring Kitty’ slated to testify in GameStop hearing

2021-02-13T12:42:17-05:00

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, Robinhood co-CEO Vlad Tenev, and Keith Gill (aka Roaring Kitty) are all on the witness list for an upcoming hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, according to a release from Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA). The hearing, to be conducted virtually, will probe the recent volatility in shares of GameStop following a rally fueled by a group of day traders active on the r/WallStreetBets Reddit board.

Over a two-week period that began last month, GameStop's stock (GME) skyrocketed by 500 percent, hitting a high of $483 on January 28th. Several government entities are now looking into whether there was mar …

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Please GameStop it, Hollywood

2021-02-11T18:27:42-05:00

Okay, screenwriters, directors, authors, and production companies - we get it. You have some experience telling stories about Wall Street, the video game industry, or social networks, and you see some mighty big dollar signs in the true tale of how Reddit managed to drive an ailing video game retailer's stocks to completely ridiculous highs through sheer power of will plus a David versus Goliath narrative that probably doesn't hold up under close examination.

So you're making movies - five of them - and two shows. Why not? It's not like any one person has the rights to a news event like this!

As of Thursday, February 11th:

HBO now has a mo …

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Reddit bought a five-second Super Bowl spot celebrating GameStock

2021-02-07T22:17:40-05:00

You could have been forgiven for missing Reddit's Super Bowl ad tonight - it was only five seconds long. The ad mostly consisted of a text message that would've been pretty difficult to read in the moment, claiming that the company spent its "entire marketing budget on five seconds of airtime."

"One thing we learned from our communities last week is that underdogs can accomplish anything when they come together around a common idea," Reddit says by way of explanation, in a clear nod to the GameStop stocks saga that was driven by posters on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. "Who knows, maybe you'll be the reason finance textbooks have to add a …

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