Someone asked me to explain this nonsense with GameStop and this Reddit vs. Some Hedge Fund stuff. There are a ton of explanations in the form of facecam YouTube videos, but if you’d rather read than watch a person talk for fifteen minutes then answers have been hard to come by.
The media is baffled and can’t seem to break it down for the non-experts. You can jump over to Reddit and try to follow the chaos, but the explanations are lacking in context, dense with technical jargon, and filled with in-jokes. There really isn’t a newbie-friendly way to get a handle on things.
I absorbed some financial knowledge during my time serving on the front lines of the Dot-Com bubble. I am nowhere near an expert and there are still details of this story that are beyond me, but I have a rough grasp of the basics and I think I can break it down for the uninitiated. So that’s what I’m going to do. Here is a short, jargon-free overview of what this mess is.
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. I am not an expert. I’m a programmer who
didn’t get rich in the Dot-com bubble.
I have no personal stake in this. I own no stocks, and if I did I’d have tissue paper hands”Paper hands” means you’re risk averse and will sell shares at the first hint of trouble. This is in contrast to “diamond hands”, which means you’ll hold a stock you believe in and ignore scary fluctuations that might make others sell.. I don’t have the composure or capital to participate in the market, but I really enjoy reading about it. I’m not a speculator, I’m a spectator.
Also, if any experts read this: Feel free to correct me where I’m wrong. I did quite a bit of research and tried my best to simplify things without bruising the truth, but this thing is fractally complex.
First off, we need explain what it means when people talk about “shorting” stock.
Continue reading 〉〉 “Reddit vs. Wall Street”
Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.