It's possible, I just consider it a more charitable interpretation to assume they're trying to make a buck, than that they're trying to protest in the dumbest w

It's possible, I just consider it a more charitable interpretation to assume they're trying to make a buck, than that they're trying to protest in the dumbest way since self-immolation. To be clear, the make-a-buck version of events DOES make sense to me. I'm not standing here going "why are these people all doing this irrational thing?". It makes perfectly rational sense if they really do plan to exit, regardless of what they joke about in memes. It's not a game everybody can win, but there are some big winners paid for by the long tail of losers holding the bag at the end, and everybody can try to time the bubbles to make themselves one of those winners. On the other hand, the "I'm fine with taking a loss because at least I stuck it to the man" version makes no sense to me. If you buy and hold, and your diamond hands cause you to miss the window of profitability, you are helping somebody else who does sell get a better price for their shares. All you know about that person is that they DON'T have diamond hands. They might just be another hedge fund. Helping an unknown fund that's long make money off some other unknown fund that's short is... something... but I don't see how it's an effective protest. I guess it makes some amount of sense if your definition of "evil" is just short-selling, so somehow long funds are "good" and short funds are "bad". I admit I have seen that sentiment floating around. It doesn't make any sense, but it is out there, so I'll grant that at least a few shares have been bought on that belief. Again, I think the most charitable interpretation is that most price movement is not driven by people with such a naive idea about shorts and longs, but I could be wrong.