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100% this. Price manipulation to trigger a short squeeze is explicitly illegal. https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/regsho.htm https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/r

100% this. Price manipulation to trigger a short squeeze is explicitly illegal. https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/regsho.htm https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/regsho.htm section 7. Anyone who told others to buy and hold with promises of short covering and higher prices is party to market manipulation, and it is absolutely, definitely illegal. Whether they'll be able to unmask and charge people behind the anonymity of WSB is another question though.

sumedh 6y ago
> a scheme to manipulate the price or availability of stock in order to cause a short squeeze is illegal. A good lawyer can argue that these people are exercising their first amendment right of free speech. They are not reporting false data and most of these people commenting have "average" net worth not millions/billions. Its also very hard to prove to a jury that a message from such an average joe on a message board is enough to form a "scheme" with million other readers on wsb.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
orestarod 6y ago
How can that even be remotely true. Virtually every comment there explicitly states it does not constitute financial advice.
- SkyPuncher 6y ago
  And that disclaimer that gets posted on Facebook all the time isn't legally binding. That gets posted to remind people that WSB is a bunch of random people on the internet. They have no duty to anyone.
- boatsie 6y ago
  It's funny, somehow when users click "agree" to hundred page document Terms of Service, they are held to the letter of it, yet clearly and simply saying "this is not financial advice" doesn't count.
lazyasciiart 6y ago
Anyone who promised to provide someone anything in return for buying may have done something illegal, but anyone who shared their genuinely held beliefs on what would happen in the future did not do anything illegal unless they are a market broker etc. And, anyone who bought shares or told someone to buy shares with the intent of driving up the price also did something illegal - but it's something that is done constantly and considered a fundamental part of the market, either as an attack on a company in the classic hedge fund short->bankruptcy or, more benignly, like buying up shares of a takeover target slowly so people don't notice you are interested and buy it, which would raise the price.

sumedh 6y ago

> a scheme to manipulate the price or availability of stock in order to cause a short squeeze is illegal. A good lawyer can argue that these people are exercising their first amendment right of free speech. They are not reporting false data and most of these people commenting have "average" net worth not millions/billions. Its also very hard to prove to a jury that a message from such an average joe on a message board is enough to form a "scheme" with million other readers on wsb.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

orestarod 6y ago

How can that even be remotely true. Virtually every comment there explicitly states it does not constitute financial advice.

SkyPuncher 6y ago
And that disclaimer that gets posted on Facebook all the time isn't legally binding. That gets posted to remind people that WSB is a bunch of random people on the internet. They have no duty to anyone.
boatsie 6y ago
It's funny, somehow when users click "agree" to hundred page document Terms of Service, they are held to the letter of it, yet clearly and simply saying "this is not financial advice" doesn't count.

lazyasciiart 6y ago

Anyone who promised to provide someone anything in return for buying may have done something illegal, but anyone who shared their genuinely held beliefs on what would happen in the future did not do anything illegal unless they are a market broker etc. And, anyone who bought shares or told someone to buy shares with the intent of driving up the price also did something illegal - but it's something that is done constantly and considered a fundamental part of the market, either as an attack on a company in the classic hedge fund short->bankruptcy or, more benignly, like buying up shares of a takeover target slowly so people don't notice you are interested and buy it, which would raise the price.