Antonio Garza
Reporter
GameStop is a company that has lost popularity with the coming of the digital age, but a recent boom in GameStop’s stock price seems to prove this sentiment otherwise. This recent boom in GameStop stock originates from a seemingly inconspicuous post on a subreddit called Wall Street Bets.
The post told people to invest into GameStop to increase demand for the stock. Many people responded to this call to action and caused GameStop’s stock price to go from a mere $17 on a share to a significant $347. Another factor that increased GameStop’s stock price was a tweet from billionaire Elon Musk that said “Gamestonks.”
The rapid increase in stock price did not come without a few controversies. People have been questioning whether this seemingly innocent act is a form of stock manipulation. The people who bought GameStop stock have caused many hedge funds to lose billions of dollars. This stems from the tactic of short selling that many hedge funds use. Short selling requires a certain stock to decrease in value for the investor to make profit.
“If it shows how easy it is for ordinary people to work with the stock market, good for them. There is only controversy because a guy in a suit and tie didn’t do it,” junior Samuel Kerber said.
Many people are also trying to inflate the sock prices of other companies such as AMC, Nokia and Blackberry. These unrelated companies all share the same decrease in popularity that GameStop experienced and are being targeted in order to make hedge funds lose profit.
Melvin Capital, Google Finance
Melvin Capital loses over 50% in the month of January. This translates to a 4.5 billion dollar decrease in assets value.
GameStop's stock price starts below $100 before it increases to a max value of $340. Throughout the following days, stock value is highly volatile but stays above $100.
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