4 ms·

This is a ridiculous take in context of some of the things that institutional names get up to on national television.

krustyburger 6y ago
If you’re going to hold someone else’s opinion up for ridicule, perhaps you should first consider the matter a bit more. If you mean institutional names as in individuals like the much maligned Jim Cramer, if you look into it you’ll find that there are very specific rules in place regarding his own ability to hold positions in the companies he discusses. This influencer we’re talking about reached similar if not greater sway over his audience, all the while directly profiting from their misunderstandings and gullibility. He may have hoped that his viral screenshots would save him from legal consequences, but in the end they may instead work against him. Of course, he had no personal brand name to trade on when he started out, so those very screenshots were also his best way of getting anyone’s attention in the first place. The ones who deserve ridicule here are the people who continued to amplify this pump and dump long after it was readily apparent that that’s what it was. They are still doing this, including sadly here at Hacker News.
- acct776 6y ago
  > there are very specific rules in place regarding his own ability to hold positions in the companies he discusses. Would that be...being CEO of a giant "nonprofit" charitable trust?
  - krustyburger 6y ago
    Yes, and one that has somehow avoided benefiting from cashing in on any quixotic public attempts at a short squeeze he personally launched and curated.
- DSingularity 6y ago
  Pump and dump? Can you explain how you reached this conclusion? It truly feels like WSB organically triggered a contrarian move against the shorts to squeeze them. At least that is the reality I see — so why should we reject this?
  - bagacrap 6y ago
    Although the exact time is a matter for debate, at some point, the value shorts exited their position and "buy and hold" remained the refrain. At that point it became a speculative bubble with no real end goal. The bubble is a pump & dump because there were still a lot of hype posts ("10k is not a meme").

If you’re going to hold someone else’s opinion up for ridicule, perhaps you should first consider the matter a bit more. If you mean institutional names as in individuals like the much maligned Jim Cramer, if you look into it you’ll find that there are very specific rules in place regarding his own ability to hold positions in the companies he discusses. This influencer we’re talking about reached similar if not greater sway over his audience, all the while directly profiting from their misunderstandings and gullibility. He may have hoped that his viral screenshots would save him from legal consequences, but in the end they may instead work against him. Of course, he had no personal brand name to trade on when he started out, so those very screenshots were also his best way of getting anyone’s attention in the first place. The ones who deserve ridicule here are the people who continued to amplify this pump and dump long after it was readily apparent that that’s what it was. They are still doing this, including sadly here at Hacker News.

acct776 6y ago
> there are very specific rules in place regarding his own ability to hold positions in the companies he discusses. Would that be...being CEO of a giant "nonprofit" charitable trust?
- krustyburger 6y ago
  Yes, and one that has somehow avoided benefiting from cashing in on any quixotic public attempts at a short squeeze he personally launched and curated.
DSingularity 6y ago
Pump and dump? Can you explain how you reached this conclusion? It truly feels like WSB organically triggered a contrarian move against the shorts to squeeze them. At least that is the reality I see — so why should we reject this?
- bagacrap 6y ago
  Although the exact time is a matter for debate, at some point, the value shorts exited their position and "buy and hold" remained the refrain. At that point it became a speculative bubble with no real end goal. The bubble is a pump & dump because there were still a lot of hype posts ("10k is not a meme").