4 ms·

Slavoj Žižek: What the wallstreetbets story tells us

32 points by undefined1 6y ago

MuffinFlavored 6y ago
I probably deserve to get downvoted for this but the same way Trump got kicked off of Twitter for spreading misinformation, I kind of wish r/wallstreetbets would start getting more heavily moderated/"fact checked". There are tons of "fake news" posts regarding things like current short interest statistics, Melvin Capital's open/closed positions, etc. spreading like wildfire. You have hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of active participants believing that the purchase of fractional shares in GME (a ~$200-$300 stock) is "retail banding together to create a giant force, able to move the market". It almost seems unethical to allow so many "poor suckers" part ways with their money the way r/wallstreetbets is encouraging right now. It's literally cool and upvote worthy and trendy to have double, triple, or quadruple digit losses. "Don't gamble more than you can lose" should be shortened to "you really shouldn't gamble on this, at all". "if DFV doesn't sell, I won't sell" DFV already closed a massive, life changing gain.
- goldsphinx 6y ago
  WSB is a hub for psychological manipulation, preying on emotionally vulnerable people. Coronavirus is real, but the more important shadow pandemic is spiraling mental health crisis. its amazing to see WSB'ers so confidently parroting terms like "short ladder attack" when they don't even know what a P/E ratio is
  - icefrakker 6y ago
    It's funny but where I see a spiralling mental health crisis are the people who think the WSB subreddit is comparable to a president who attempted a coup.
- rspeele 6y ago
  The claims and the consequences are very different, but I definitely get the same sense I got reading Q stuff when I skim the current WSB page. - The media, government, and elites are conspiring against us. - Info that says short interest has decreased / shorts have covered is propaganda and should be ignored. - Info that says short interest is still sky-high is to be believed without question. - Parties who were on our side of the bet but are now advising caution (e.g. Burry or S3) must be malicious or compromised, can't possibly be genuine. - Mix of facts with misunderstood interpretations thereof: 140% short interest is very high (fact), 140% short interest should not be legally possible (misunderstanding). - The dark truth we are about to reveal (counterfeit stocks?) has been going on for a long time, but now the wool will be lifted from the eyes of the nonbelievers. - Your continued belief in "the plan" is important. You must keep the faith! - "The Event" will take place on X date, but when it doesn't, no problem: it was always going to be Y date that It Happens. - We all KNOW our version of the story is right. What particular pieces of evidence are so rock-solid and convincing? Oh, well, there's SO MUCH, but it's not my job to spoon feed you the facts. If you don't know, you clearly haven't been paying attention and should do your own research. - If somebody published something saying that we're wrong, it means that "They" are scared of us. We must be getting close. I don't know whether WSB's narrative is right or wrong, which is why I am on neither side of this trade and merely watching with interest from the sidelines. They could very well be correct about all of this. I also am not trying to allege that being a "GME to the moon" person makes you a "Q person". They are completely different sets of beliefs. All that I'm observing is that the marketing of the ideas is similar.
  - netsharc 6y ago
    Hear hear. Even on here people were throwing conspiracy theories around like they're facts...
commandlinefan 6y ago
So, I feel like I should probably understand this better, but I still can't quite get my head around how buying a stock drives up its price. I understand this was all driven by "short sells" of Gamestop's stock: some hedge fund traders entered into a contract to buy some stocks at whatever price that stock was trading at at some point in the future, and then sold the stock (that they didn't yet have) at the price it was trading for now, predicting that the price would go down so they could buy it for less than they sold it. If that's what was going on, doesn't it require some uninformed yokel to buy the stocks in the first place? If people buying stocks drives the price up, and short-selling requires selling the stock before the price goes up, how does short selling ever work for anybody? Is there some "sweet spot" of stock selling that the hedge fund traders are hoping for where they can make back their money but still let the stock price fall?
- doublejay1999 6y ago
  i take a list of orders from a few grocery stores in my town and go to the market. i've got some orders from people who'll pay £1 for 10 potatoes, some that will pay 90p and some that will pay 80p. i meet with the farmers. they're offering 10 potatos for £1. My order s at £1 gets filled. Theyh wont sell me any more, because more people have arrived who bid £1. Still More buyers arrive, armed with orders from people prepared to bid £1.10. Those buyers get their orders filled until yet people arrive and start bidding £1.20. potatos are in demand. those orders get filled and £1.20 is the new price. Later, all the people offering £1.20 have gone home...there's only me left. THe farmers have some potatos left, but no buyers at £1.20 and no buyers at £1, so they lower the price further . I get my 90p order filled. noone else arrives, so farmers lower the price again, and they aceept my 80p offer.. i dont know if that makes any sense ? its gets a litte more complicated, in that the owner of the market where the deals are done, must commit to filling everyone's orders - so they have some juggling to do . they take a small margin in between the bid price and the offer price, in return.
  - commandlinefan 6y ago
    So in your analogy, it's up to the farmer to set the price for the potatoes. In this case, was it Gamestop who was setting the price? Or rather, the shareholders themselves... that is, the people who were buying the stock in the first place?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

32 points by undefined1 6y ago

I probably deserve to get downvoted for this but the same way Trump got kicked off of Twitter for spreading misinformation, I kind of wish r/wallstreetbets would start getting more heavily moderated/"fact checked". There are tons of "fake news" posts regarding things like current short interest statistics, Melvin Capital's open/closed positions, etc. spreading like wildfire. You have hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of active participants believing that the purchase of fractional shares in GME (a ~$200-$300 stock) is "retail banding together to create a giant force, able to move the market". It almost seems unethical to allow so many "poor suckers" part ways with their money the way r/wallstreetbets is encouraging right now. It's literally cool and upvote worthy and trendy to have double, triple, or quadruple digit losses. "Don't gamble more than you can lose" should be shortened to "you really shouldn't gamble on this, at all". "if DFV doesn't sell, I won't sell" DFV already closed a massive, life changing gain.

goldsphinx 6y ago
WSB is a hub for psychological manipulation, preying on emotionally vulnerable people. Coronavirus is real, but the more important shadow pandemic is spiraling mental health crisis. its amazing to see WSB'ers so confidently parroting terms like "short ladder attack" when they don't even know what a P/E ratio is
- icefrakker 6y ago
  It's funny but where I see a spiralling mental health crisis are the people who think the WSB subreddit is comparable to a president who attempted a coup.
rspeele 6y ago
The claims and the consequences are very different, but I definitely get the same sense I got reading Q stuff when I skim the current WSB page. - The media, government, and elites are conspiring against us. - Info that says short interest has decreased / shorts have covered is propaganda and should be ignored. - Info that says short interest is still sky-high is to be believed without question. - Parties who were on our side of the bet but are now advising caution (e.g. Burry or S3) must be malicious or compromised, can't possibly be genuine. - Mix of facts with misunderstood interpretations thereof: 140% short interest is very high (fact), 140% short interest should not be legally possible (misunderstanding). - The dark truth we are about to reveal (counterfeit stocks?) has been going on for a long time, but now the wool will be lifted from the eyes of the nonbelievers. - Your continued belief in "the plan" is important. You must keep the faith! - "The Event" will take place on X date, but when it doesn't, no problem: it was always going to be Y date that It Happens. - We all KNOW our version of the story is right. What particular pieces of evidence are so rock-solid and convincing? Oh, well, there's SO MUCH, but it's not my job to spoon feed you the facts. If you don't know, you clearly haven't been paying attention and should do your own research. - If somebody published something saying that we're wrong, it means that "They" are scared of us. We must be getting close. I don't know whether WSB's narrative is right or wrong, which is why I am on neither side of this trade and merely watching with interest from the sidelines. They could very well be correct about all of this. I also am not trying to allege that being a "GME to the moon" person makes you a "Q person". They are completely different sets of beliefs. All that I'm observing is that the marketing of the ideas is similar.
- netsharc 6y ago
  Hear hear. Even on here people were throwing conspiracy theories around like they're facts...

commandlinefan 6y ago

So, I feel like I should probably understand this better, but I still can't quite get my head around how buying a stock drives up its price. I understand this was all driven by "short sells" of Gamestop's stock: some hedge fund traders entered into a contract to buy some stocks at whatever price that stock was trading at at some point in the future, and then sold the stock (that they didn't yet have) at the price it was trading for now, predicting that the price would go down so they could buy it for less than they sold it. If that's what was going on, doesn't it require some uninformed yokel to buy the stocks in the first place? If people buying stocks drives the price up, and short-selling requires selling the stock before the price goes up, how does short selling ever work for anybody? Is there some "sweet spot" of stock selling that the hedge fund traders are hoping for where they can make back their money but still let the stock price fall?

doublejay1999 6y ago
i take a list of orders from a few grocery stores in my town and go to the market. i've got some orders from people who'll pay £1 for 10 potatoes, some that will pay 90p and some that will pay 80p. i meet with the farmers. they're offering 10 potatos for £1. My order s at £1 gets filled. Theyh wont sell me any more, because more people have arrived who bid £1. Still More buyers arrive, armed with orders from people prepared to bid £1.10. Those buyers get their orders filled until yet people arrive and start bidding £1.20. potatos are in demand. those orders get filled and £1.20 is the new price. Later, all the people offering £1.20 have gone home...there's only me left. THe farmers have some potatos left, but no buyers at £1.20 and no buyers at £1, so they lower the price further . I get my 90p order filled. noone else arrives, so farmers lower the price again, and they aceept my 80p offer.. i dont know if that makes any sense ? its gets a litte more complicated, in that the owner of the market where the deals are done, must commit to filling everyone's orders - so they have some juggling to do . they take a small margin in between the bid price and the offer price, in return.
- commandlinefan 6y ago
  So in your analogy, it's up to the farmer to set the price for the potatoes. In this case, was it Gamestop who was setting the price? Or rather, the shareholders themselves... that is, the people who were buying the stock in the first place?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]