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I’ve been surprised to have seen this kind of comment here at HN more and more this week. The specific claim in this comment is one that is being made at /r/wal

I’ve been surprised to have seen this kind of comment here at HN more and more this week. The specific claim in this comment is one that is being made at /r/wallstreetbets, among many others. Over there, users seem to delight in repeating statements like this and not providing any supporting evidence or adding their own arguments. I think being an echo chamber is meant to be part of the fun of that subreddit at this moment. But why do this on HN also? I can only guess that the users here are personally invested in GME and are hoping to increase their own profits by spreading the word and convincing more investors to join in with them. If this is the case, it seems to be at odds with how Hacker News is generally used and I am surprised to see it being tolerated so much by the administrators.

metalliqaz 6y ago
> I can only guess that the users here are personally invested in GME bingo
- wintorez 6y ago
  I'm the original commenter. I don't have any of the shorted stocks. I only find the story fascinating. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Tenoke 6y ago
Because it's technically true? Regardless if it's likely to happen or not the actual squeeze - the closing of shorts when there's no available stock to buy - hasn't happened (and maybe never will) yet.
- Aunche 6y ago
  That's not something you can know for certain. It's possible that hedge funds closed their early shorts, but now, the mind-boggling valuation has inspired a wave of new shorts.
UncleMeat 6y ago
> But why do this on HN also? I have never seen HN comments get as bad as the past few days. There have been multiple 1000+ comment threads. I've seen oodles of comments that are just sentence fragments barely more coherent than "to the moon". Righteous fury and conspiracy theories abound. This has clearly struck a nerve and bridged the gap between HN and reddit more than ever before.
- oneeyedpigeon 6y ago
  I've been in and out of this site for many, many years now. I came back a few months ago, having been away for quite a while. It was noticeably different even then. At that time, it was all about the US political situation. It's not necessarily that the focus has become more political — although it undoubtedly has — it's more that the comments are skewing more towards memes and triviality. Sad to see; let's hope it's just a phase.
- Rapzid 6y ago
  I was surprised at these narratives being repeated so many times here with only a few people refuting them: * GME was illegally shorted 140%, maybe by one company, and a stock being shorted 140% is somehow intrinsically bad/evil/shady. None of this really seems to be the case regardless of the utility. * GameStop was being driven to bankruptcy by hedge funds shorting it. I'm not sure what the logic is here. These narratives almost seemed designed to rationalize the manufacture of a short squeeze; something the SEC seemingly has some strong opinions about.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- jariel 6y ago
  The populism here on HN has been indeed disturbing, what with nobody willing to look at it from anything other than the lens of 'Robin Hood Fury'. People talking in terms of 'shorts', 'positions', 'rights to buy' etc. or any kind of analysis, are missing the point - mostly what is happening here is straight up mania on a stock. This is a study in memes not markets.
dragontamer 6y ago
> I am surprised to see it being tolerated so much by the administrators. I think its been a tough month for the administrators and they're more interested in policing more... serious... politics that keep coming up around here. Standard "HODL" or "Bitcoin hype" has been around Hacker News for a while. Hell: remember that this site is ultimately owned by YCombinator, a venture capitalist group. Hyping $$$ talk is tolerated a bit more around here not necessarily because the admins agree with it... but because its adjacent to what they do.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
subsubzero 6y ago
Right now everything is speculation, nobody knows anything during the rally as the shares don't point to who owns what and who is shorting. So if anyone says the squeeze hasn't happened yet, it just their opinion. For all we know the hedgefunds got out of their short positions and retail is pumping the stock higher. Or conversely hedgefunds are still short and waiting for the rally to fizzle until it collapses and then they reap huge gains. Or it could explode higher like this week(the big squeeze), the point is nobody knows with any certainty what will happen. I never thought tesla in a million years would be a $800B company but I and many like me have been proven wrong. its whats great about investing, there are always surprises all the time.
wintorez 6y ago
Sorry, I should have backed up my statement. Apparently, most hedge funds are actually doubling down on their short positions, believing people who are holding will sell. GME is still shorted more than 100%, so it's basically a game of chicken between short and long gamers. The problem is the shorts have to pay interest, so they need an out ASAP, while the sentiment of the longs is that they will hold indefinitely. Disclaimer: I'm not a financial advisor, and I don't even have any of the shorted stocks. I'm just following the news.
- nojvek 6y ago
  That’s my understanding too. Although most places don’t have cited data. How do I check how much of a stock is shorted, and what’s their deadline. I imagine that once the hedge funds are forced to buy, the holders will dump it and they’ll be a sell rally on r/wsb. That will be the bubble burst. But like anything else, there’s so much vested conflict of interest, it’s hard to know who to trust.

metalliqaz 6y ago

> I can only guess that the users here are personally invested in GME bingo

wintorez 6y ago
I'm the original commenter. I don't have any of the shorted stocks. I only find the story fascinating. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tenoke 6y ago

Because it's technically true? Regardless if it's likely to happen or not the actual squeeze - the closing of shorts when there's no available stock to buy - hasn't happened (and maybe never will) yet.

Aunche 6y ago
That's not something you can know for certain. It's possible that hedge funds closed their early shorts, but now, the mind-boggling valuation has inspired a wave of new shorts.

UncleMeat 6y ago

> But why do this on HN also? I have never seen HN comments get as bad as the past few days. There have been multiple 1000+ comment threads. I've seen oodles of comments that are just sentence fragments barely more coherent than "to the moon". Righteous fury and conspiracy theories abound. This has clearly struck a nerve and bridged the gap between HN and reddit more than ever before.

oneeyedpigeon 6y ago
I've been in and out of this site for many, many years now. I came back a few months ago, having been away for quite a while. It was noticeably different even then. At that time, it was all about the US political situation. It's not necessarily that the focus has become more political — although it undoubtedly has — it's more that the comments are skewing more towards memes and triviality. Sad to see; let's hope it's just a phase.
Rapzid 6y ago
I was surprised at these narratives being repeated so many times here with only a few people refuting them: * GME was illegally shorted 140%, maybe by one company, and a stock being shorted 140% is somehow intrinsically bad/evil/shady. None of this really seems to be the case regardless of the utility. * GameStop was being driven to bankruptcy by hedge funds shorting it. I'm not sure what the logic is here. These narratives almost seemed designed to rationalize the manufacture of a short squeeze; something the SEC seemingly has some strong opinions about.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
jariel 6y ago
The populism here on HN has been indeed disturbing, what with nobody willing to look at it from anything other than the lens of 'Robin Hood Fury'. People talking in terms of 'shorts', 'positions', 'rights to buy' etc. or any kind of analysis, are missing the point - mostly what is happening here is straight up mania on a stock. This is a study in memes not markets.

dragontamer 6y ago

> I am surprised to see it being tolerated so much by the administrators. I think its been a tough month for the administrators and they're more interested in policing more... serious... politics that keep coming up around here. Standard "HODL" or "Bitcoin hype" has been around Hacker News for a while. Hell: remember that this site is ultimately owned by YCombinator, a venture capitalist group. Hyping $$$ talk is tolerated a bit more around here not necessarily because the admins agree with it... but because its adjacent to what they do.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

subsubzero 6y ago

Right now everything is speculation, nobody knows anything during the rally as the shares don't point to who owns what and who is shorting. So if anyone says the squeeze hasn't happened yet, it just their opinion. For all we know the hedgefunds got out of their short positions and retail is pumping the stock higher. Or conversely hedgefunds are still short and waiting for the rally to fizzle until it collapses and then they reap huge gains. Or it could explode higher like this week(the big squeeze), the point is nobody knows with any certainty what will happen. I never thought tesla in a million years would be a $800B company but I and many like me have been proven wrong. its whats great about investing, there are always surprises all the time.

wintorez 6y ago

Sorry, I should have backed up my statement. Apparently, most hedge funds are actually doubling down on their short positions, believing people who are holding will sell. GME is still shorted more than 100%, so it's basically a game of chicken between short and long gamers. The problem is the shorts have to pay interest, so they need an out ASAP, while the sentiment of the longs is that they will hold indefinitely. Disclaimer: I'm not a financial advisor, and I don't even have any of the shorted stocks. I'm just following the news.

nojvek 6y ago
That’s my understanding too. Although most places don’t have cited data. How do I check how much of a stock is shorted, and what’s their deadline. I imagine that once the hedge funds are forced to buy, the holders will dump it and they’ll be a sell rally on r/wsb. That will be the bubble burst. But like anything else, there’s so much vested conflict of interest, it’s hard to know who to trust.