# Reddit users trying to manipulate stocks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 27, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627 "2021-01-27T18:14:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/61 "2021-01-28T05:14:28Z")
AOC also had a few choice comments:
[ ](https://i.redd.it/3v5c5quc5yd61.png)
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### Author:  [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/62 "2021-01-28T05:41:29Z")
We don’t often agree but we do here. If the system and its rules are a farce, which is typical, it deserves to fail. Of course it won’t because of regulatory capture and the politicians, of each party, being owned by corporations. But it should.
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### Author:  [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/63 "2021-01-28T05:58:14Z")
She has a funny way of spelling “eat.” 😉
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### Author:  [@Lantern2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern2)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/64 "2021-01-28T06:45:17Z")
It’s a mistake to see this as the small guys beating the Wall Street titans story. Maybe that’s how it’s played out till now but when the price crashes there will be a lot of retail investors who lose significant money. And there will probably be hedge funds who get their timing right who make money.
So at the end of the day there will probably be winners and losers among both the small investors and hedge funds. However the chaos and instability is a loss for the markets and the economy in general particularly if it spreads to more stocks. So I lean towards the SEC regulating this stuff more aggressively in the future.
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### Author:  [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/65 "2021-01-28T07:09:45Z")
Go read r/wallstreetbets and find out they’re perfectly aware that somebody ends up holding the bag, but so long as Melvin Capital gets gutted they don’t care. They’re being careful either to only use money they can afford to lose or they just don’t give a shit. This isn’t about money, this is payback. And there’s a bunch more shorted companies out there on the list for the next batch–because there needs to be consequences for naked short selling stock to the tune of 140% of all available shares and if governments won’t deal out those consequences then somebody has to do it. And I’ll remind you that these same shitty ass games and tricks ended up losing millions of people their houses, jobs and savings about a decade ago and there were NO CONSEQUENCES, in fact when it seemed like Wall Street might actually lose some money in their own shit casino Congress lined up to give them billions while doing jack/shit for those regular people who got fucked right in they culo. The bill might take a while to arrive but it is HERE, and now the whole world knows it’s possible for a large group of little people to band together and work together to take down the big assholes at the top. You can squash one wasp, but y’know what happens when five million get pissed off and come for you? You die, that’s what happens. Bad cess to the lot of them, Wall Street deserves every bit of pain we can possibly give them.
ETA: Oh, and a question–why have you and everyone else been completely silent for decades as hedge funds continually pulled this kind of shit and never once called for the SEC to come down on THEM? This is just the free market using the tricks and rules to funnel the money down to those who’ve been systematically robbed and what, your sympathies lie with Wall Street? Temporarily embarrassed billionaires, so thick on the ground.
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### Author:  [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/66 "2021-01-28T07:12:49Z")
How is it a loss for the market? Each transaction is zero sum is it not?
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### Author:  [@Lantern2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern2)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/67 "2021-01-28T08:09:36Z")
It’s a loss for the broader purpose of capital markets which is to allocate capital efficiently.
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### Author:  [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/68 "2021-01-28T12:58:53Z")
Watching the pre-market trades of GME, it seems that almost every trade is a very small number of shares (i.e. - less than 10). How can you corner the market, or hopefully make a decent profit with such a tiny amount of stock?
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/69 "2021-01-28T13:33:05Z")
A large fraction of the people involved in this stunt aren’t interested in making a “decent profit.” They just want to keep the action wheel spinning so the price stays inflated and the hedge-fund short players take a bath.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/71 "2021-01-28T14:00:08Z")
> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> A large fraction of the people involved in this stunt aren’t interested in making a “decent profit.” They just want to keep the action wheel spinning so the price stays inflated and the hedge-fund short players take a bath.
# “…some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/72 "2021-01-28T14:40:34Z")
Called it. Kinda.
Robin hood is the one now gaming the market for the large investors:
>
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/73 "2021-01-28T15:12:01Z")
Elsewhere on SDMB I’ve described QAnon as operating a botnet. But the bots are humans and can vote, protest, riot, and all the rest. And enough of them will do so on command to become a national-scale force to be reckoned with.
Turning to GME & this thread topic, it’s “nice” in a way that crowds are swarming supposedly in the name of a Robin Hood-like narrative. I loves me a billionaire bashing as much as the next Progressive.
But far better than bashing billionaires is bashing the folks who thought they had impunity. Like some financiers & the companies they rule. Impunity is like hydrofluoric acid to a society: nothing survives the corrosive onslaught for long.
I’m far more concerned about who’s controlling this living botnet and what they’ll aim it at next. This first go-around may well be spontaneous. But the next one most assuredly won’t be.
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### Author:  [@Olfatbut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olfatbut)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/74 "2021-01-28T15:50:20Z")
Billionaires aren’t necessarily evil, it’s just that the evil ones have too much power. Funds that manipulate the market by, say, over-shorting a weak stock and profiting from destruction, are a problem and as a result of all this I understand it better.
I stop short of celebrating the WSB/GME phenomenon because if it undermines market stability that’s also destructive. If it spreads and people flee the market out of anxiety, our wealthy friends will be just fine as always. The right way to fix this is through regulation.
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/75 "2021-01-28T16:11:03Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> I’m far more concerned about who’s controlling this living botnet and what they’ll aim it at next.
You’re not wrong, but is a botnet of 10,000 redditors more of a problem than a single person with the market power of 10,000 redditors?
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### Author:  [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/76 "2021-01-28T16:15:27Z")
I guess poor people aren’t allowed to do shit in this country.
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/77 "2021-01-28T16:17:51Z")
I’m trying to figure out why it’s okay for people on Wall Street to manipulate stocks but they’re crying out for SEC regulations when a bunch of people on Reddit decide to do the same. Is there anything to these cries other than lamentations that others are horning in on their game? It’s not as if they’re complaining about the destructive nature of shorting stocks.
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### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/78 "2021-01-28T16:19:03Z")
> [@asahi](#):
>
> I don’t think the SEC necessarily should punish or regulate the traders themselves. But perhaps the exchanges can be encouraged to have policies whereby they temporarily stop ‘unusual’ activity or activity that seems to be driven by mob behavior, but even that is a sticky wicket, I suppose.
Well, that seems to be what happened, only it’s the trading platforms that seem to be stepping in and not the exchanges themselves. It was a matter of time, I suppose. I wonder if threats from some peeps with financial muscle were involved.
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### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/79 "2021-01-28T16:19:33Z")
Because they have the fucking money and power - they make the rules.
Capisce?
You want fair? Go to another country, lol.
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### Author:  [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/80 "2021-01-28T16:20:08Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> Robin hood is the one now gaming the market for the large investors:
Yes, exactly! How can any trading platform freeze trades for their clients holding a given stock when other trade in that stock continues elsewhere? In this case, of course those clients are going to be left holding the bag. If trading is out of control, it should be the SEC who steps in and suspends **all** trade.
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### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reddit-users-trying-to-manipulate-stocks/931627/81 "2021-01-28T16:21:17Z")
Looks like Robinhood robs from the poor and gives to the rich.
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