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Originally Posted by arrowheadnation
Someone might have to clarify, but the way I understand it, the hedge fund Melvin Capital was a deep short seller of GameStop. A bunch of kids from reddit with day trading accounts then proceeded to short squeeze the stock and in effect, nearly bankrupt a $14 billion hedge fund in the process. The Mets new owner tried to bail it out yesterday with a $2.7 billion infusion, but that went "poof" in a matter of hours. It's a little double edged because there were probably everyday joe's that had their retirements tied up in that fund, but on the flip-side that was super unethical of the fund manager for tying the bulk of their funds up in short sells....did I get the gist of it?
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I think that's the gist, yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KCUnited
Is short selling in general frowned upon or is it more about Gamestop nostalgia and big money funds betting against it?
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Eh, there's nothing particularly "wrong" with short selling except that it can depress the stock's price. However, since stock price has very little to do with a company's day-to-day operations, it MOSTLY doesn't matter. The exception that comes to mind is that companies with a high stock price have more flexible financing options in general, so if they're looking at raising capital or taking out a loan, having a ton of shorts on the stock can make that more difficult.
From what I can tell, this situation is much more about gaming the system and "sticking it to the man" than about Gamestop itself.