# How Can Truth Social be worth $6 Billion? {Trump Media & Technology (DJT)} **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [March 22, 2024, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202 "2024-03-22T13:23:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/381 "2024-04-16T19:36:58Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > In contrast, Truth Social lost $58M last year, and currently has quarterly revenues (that’s revenue, not profit) of about $1M. No investor with a brain is going to go anywhere near this stock. I just don’t understand how it can have quarterly revenues of only $1M and get listed on the NASDAQ. Is this at all common? ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/382 "2024-04-16T19:37:47Z")
One other curveball. NASDAQ _does_ use Market Makers. I have absolutely no idea if they’ve been involved in trading DJT stock _at all,_ but it’s inherently a possibility. > **[Nasdaq Market Maker vs. NYSE Specialist: Knowing the Difference](https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/128.asp)** > > The job of both Nasdaq market makers and NYSE specialists is to maintain orderly financial markets; any difference in their roles reflect the nature of their respective exchanges. > [@](#): > > Nasdaq consists of large investment companies that buy and sell securities through an electronic network. Each security on Nasdaq generally has more than one market maker; an average of 14 market makers for each stock provides liquidity and efficient trading. > > These market makers maintain inventories of stock and buy and sell securities from their own accounts to individual customers and other dealers. Each market maker on Nasdaq is required to give a two-sided quote, meaning they must state a firm bid and ask price that they are willing to honor. Once an order is received from a buyer, the market maker immediately sells off their position of shares from their own inventory to complete the order. TL;DR: the guy to your right at the poker table? He _might_ be a casino employee. ETA: for those interested in _who_ the institutional holders are, with a stake in DJT … [**HERE**](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DJT/holders) ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/383 "2024-04-16T19:38:03Z")
> [@mjmartin](#): > > I just don’t understand how it can have revenues of only $1M and get listed on the NASDAQ. Is this at all common? I think it was them being a SPAC which allowed this to happen. > **Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Explained: Examples and Risks** > > A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is a company without commercial operations and is formed strictly to raise capital through an [initial public offering (IPO)](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/ipo.asp) for the purpose of acquiring or merging with an existing company. > > Also known as [blank check companies](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blankcheckcompany.asp), SPACs have existed for decades, but their popularity has soared in recent years. In 2020, 247 SPACs were created with $80 billion invested, and in 2021, there were a record 613 SPAC IPOs. By comparison, only 59 SPACs came to market in 2019.12 - [SOURCE](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/spac.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/384 "2024-04-16T19:40:48Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > Will that be taxed as income or gains? When I received restricted stock grants from my company, once they were fully vested, they ended up on my W2 as income. The company also simultaneously sold enough stock to cover Uncle Sam’s share. A very tidy system. When I finally sold the stock, that’s when capital gains kicked in. Trump and his peers have different tax challenges than I, but I would think any stock gifted or earned would amount to income. Not sure what else it would be. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/385 "2024-04-16T20:00:51Z")
The good news is that the daily 10% loss in share price is less of a hit to one’s portfolio with each passing day. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/386 "2024-04-16T20:13:21Z")
Dark Biden FTW! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/387 "2024-04-16T20:26:51Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > What I’d like to know is who is doing all the buying and selling. For the share price to drop, someone has to be selling it, and someone buying it, right? If no one was selling, you’d expect the price to increase as would be buyers try to entice the shareholders to sell. > > So who is selling? Who bought some shares and then decided to dump them? I would have expected most individual buyers to be MAGAt types, and why would they be trying to get rid of their shares? Have they no faith in their Glorious Leader? > > Or is it a revolving door of MAGAts? They buy in on the belief that Trump will make the price soar, and then sell for a loss when they see the price drop, selling to new MAGAts who are even stupider than they are? In addition to what you and others have said about the revolving door … When demand for a share _significantly_ exceeds supply, the price goes up by leaps and bounds. Few want to sell, and many want to buy. When we see a share price plummeting day after day hour after hour that is unmistakable evidence of the opposite. Lots of shares are looking for an exit and demand for shares is thin on the ground. The actual number of investors wanting out vs wanting in could go either way, depending on whether the would-be transactors are folks who are trying to trade 20 shares, or 20,000 shares. But very clearly the dollar-weighted sentiment of the players in the market, who are mostly MAGAt individuals, is strongly net negative. About the only thing that can save the share price from this rout is some kind of meme manipulation, maybe where the little guys will stick it the Man, those Wall Street short selling baddies. If only trump had some successful communication mechanism to reach his small true-believing shareholders, _then_ he could rally them to the meme. If only. Or if only the TS/DWAC/DJT merger/rollup had occurred closer to a close election. If this was unfolding in September or October and trump had a decent chance at actually winning that election without overt skullduggery, I believe we’d be seeing a very different price trajectory today. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/388 "2024-04-16T20:29:23Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > If only trump had some successful communication mechanism to reach his small true-believing shareholders, _then_ he could rally them to the meme. If only. I hope he does, that he tries to manipulate the market to his benefit. The SEC don’t play. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/389 "2024-04-16T20:31:58Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > I hope he does, that he tries to manipulate the market to his benefit. The SEC don’t play. You’re right of course. Up until he wins the election and the investigation stops and the SEC is disbanded, defunded, or some Bannon-like critter is made the head of its enforcement division. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/390 "2024-04-16T20:33:53Z")
The thing is, Trump cannot sell any shares for five months and he holds most of the stock. I am not sure it is possible for his minions to move the market much on what is left unless they really go all in and snap-up all available shares. Unfortunately for Trump, MAGAts like money as much as he does and while they may squander $100 here or there dumping their life-savings into this is not likely for any but the ones who will drink the Kool-Aid even knowing it is poisoned. And I do not think there are enough of them to save Trump. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/391 "2024-04-16T20:39:11Z")
Sort of. As you say, his holdings are locked up. Which also means they have zero impact on the current short term price trajectory. Those shares are not in the market or even potentially in the market for 5 months. Which is an eternity in share trading. The true free float is a pretty small number of shares. If some dedicated people can, through some buying and lots of hot air, break the doom-loop of sentiment, engineering an offsetting boomlet isn’t that hard. Witness the wild sentiment swings and the effect they have on the price of Bitcoin. And once there has been a boomlet, it becomes easier for folks to persuade themselves (or be persuaded by propaganda) that there are more boomlets ahead where that came from. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/392 "2024-04-16T20:47:14Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Which makes one wonder if there is a scheme afoot so the likes of Trump can “buy” the company cheaply and then hope to cash in later? Trump started out owning 90% of it. While he’s a greedy pig, I don’t believe this is some stunning plot of his to purchase additional shares. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/393 "2024-04-16T20:48:10Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Up until he wins the election and the investigation stops and the SEC is disbanded, defunded, or some Bannon-like critter is made the head of its enforcement division. Yeah, good point. The descent into depravity we’re poised to endure if he wins will make his first term look statesmanlike. I can get into a real panic if I dwell on the thought. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/394 "2024-04-16T20:58:46Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > What those numbers are telling us is that the majority of shares were issued to Trump and his cronies, the balance were purchased by individuals, presumably MAGA acolytes who are now losing their shirts, > > What I’d like to know is who is doing all the buying and selling. For the share price to drop, someone has to be selling it, and someone buying it, right? If no one was selling, you’d expect the price to increase as would be buyers try to entice the shareholders to sell. > > So who is selling? Who bought some shares and then decided to dump them? I would have expected most individual buyers to be MAGAt types, and why would they be trying to get rid of their shares? Have they no faith in their Glorious Leader? > > Or is it a revolving door of MAGAts? They buy in on the belief that Trump will make the price soar, and then sell for a loss when they see the price drop, selling to new MAGAts who are even stupider than they are? To add to what’s already been said, the stock market (or more accurately, any given stock exchange) is by design a very liquid market – there are always buyers and sellers. The way this is achieved is by price. If there’s a shortage of sellers, the price goes up to entice more selling. If there’s a shortage of buyers, as is the case with this scammy piece of shit, the price goes down to entice more ~~fools~~ buyers. As already mentioned, there are also traders tasked with buying and selling out of their own accounts to smooth out temporary imbalances. The whole point and value of an exchange is that you can always buy and sell, but the market determines the price. In the very rare case when there’s a large and persistent imbalance between between buyers and sellers, the exchange may temporarily halt trading in a particular security, for example to prevent a runaway complete meltdown. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/395 "2024-04-16T21:15:52Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > there are always buyers and sellers. The way this is achieved is by price. Indeed. The markets are, literally and at the base of it all, a price discovery mechanism. How much is a bushel of wheat worth today? How much next month? How much is Company-X worth? Where it gets weird is when companies are not really “worth” their valuation. But, at the end of the day, the price is whatever someone is willing to pay for it, even if the price is not really worth it. Is one Bitcoin really worth $63,269.20 USD? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/396 "2024-04-16T21:19:37Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > If you think there’s a better set of stocks to compare DJT to, by all means, provide it. A slightly closer example that I’m aware of: Rocket Lab. Went public via SPAC, fairly small and unprofitable, still founder-led, etc.: [https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RKLB/holders](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RKLB/holders) | | | | --- | --- | | 10.77% | % of Shares Held by All Insider | | 55.46% | % of Shares Held by Institutions | | 62.16% | % of Float Held by Institutions | Pretty different from blue chip stocks… but still nowhere close to the 70% insider ownership of DJT. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/397 "2024-04-16T21:24:30Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Where it gets weird is when companies are not really “worth” their valuation. The “worth” is some combination of fundamentals and anticipation of future value. When the latter is unsupported wishful thinking you get “meme” stocks and things like the dot-com bubble. And things like MAGAts throwing their money away on DJT, by which I mean both the stock and the orange conman. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Pretty different from blue chip stocks… but still nowhere close to the 70% insider ownership of DJT. DJT is also “distinguished” by the fact that the vast majority of institutional investors won’t touch it. A very few are indeed listed, but only as of last December. For all we know they dumped it when it went public, unloading it on eager MAGAts, and there may be others wisely shorting it. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/398 "2024-04-16T21:34:12Z")
Brief googling shows Bill Gates owned 45% of MSFT shares after their IPO, and I’d presume Ballmer et al also held some. Brin and Page each held 16% of Google when it went public. Zuckerberg held 28% of Facebook. Dorsey and Williams only held about 15% of Twitter combined after their IPO. So, the lesson we should learn from all this is that the tech CEO that Donald Trump most closely resembles is Bill Gates! 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/399 "2024-04-16T21:57:04Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > So, the lesson we should learn from all this is that the tech CEO that Donald Trump most closely resembles is Bill Gates! I know you’re joking but I’m inclined to give a serious response here. As a businessman Bill Gates was a ruthlessly aggressive asshole; as a technologist he was smart but undisciplined. He knew how to code, but he never understood software engineering, and Microsoft’s software development culture reflects that. Windows and Office have both historically been a mess of unstructured and buggy spaghetti code. But Gates nevertheless built a vast and successful company and is now dedicating himself to philanthropy. In contrast, the singular salient statement that can be made about Trump is that he’s a crook and a predator. He’s also an almost unfathomably ignorant simpleton. His ventures have always been failures because he doesn’t know anything beyond ways to cheat people out of their money… ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202/400 "2024-04-16T22:28:09Z")
Note that the 6-month waiting time before DJT can sell his shares can be waived by the board of directors. Here’s the [list](https://ir.tmtgcorp.com/corporate-governance/board-of-directors/). It includes the usual “experts in social media business” such as Nunes and Patel. It also has DJT Jr. but no Eric. (The guy really, really doesn’t mind how obviously he cares so little about that kid.) Such a waiver would obviously hurt the share price a _lot_, so the current fall has to have him worried. There’s so little wiggle room to gain anything huuuge from this path. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-truth-social-be-worth-6-billion-trump-media-technology-djt/999202.md?page=21)