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A) this source is hilarious B) I can’t believe everyone in this thread so far is talking about the actual company, and not what this means for the “I am 100% s

by bbor 3y ago

A) this source is hilarious B) I can’t believe everyone in this thread so far is talking about the actual company, and not what this means for the “I am 100% sure GameStop will make me a billionaire” cult! That is by far the most interesting thing to me about this dying brick-and-mortar. There are god knows how many people on that subreddit convinced that GameStop is poised to become the new Amazon. It’s almost enough to get me to cross the reddit picket line out of curiosity…

questime 3y ago
Gamestop and AMC's business is primarily selling stock at a massive premium to retail idiots. Their secondary business is making sure they are not violating their fiduciary duty. Very far down in their list of priorities is turning around the business (Selling stock is more lucrative for management than selling movies, games).
elegylegacy 3y ago
They don't think they'll become billionaires because GameStop is a great company. They think they will become billionaires because they expect failures to deliver on naked shorts of shares they've directly registered
- rschneid 3y ago
  Thanks for this crucial point of both clarification and further confusion. The 'true believers' in this stock's idiosyncratic risk are expecting a short squeeze due to a confluence of relatively unknown market mechanisms such as FTD, CNS, reg SHO, and the formation of a short-busting coalition between Carl Icahn via BBBYQ and others... It's a rabbit hole, for sure. But the fact is that the DTCC, FINRA, and other SROs controlling the markets are inscrutable black boxes that don't provide enough data for anyone to know the extent of the fraud they may or may not be perpetuating by systematically creating 'synthetic' shares in the publicly companies regardless of the officially authorized outstanding shares according to the companies' charters. Look at the ongoing BBBY CH11 bankruptcy proceedings for an example of how difficult it is to get an idea of 'TSO' or (Total Shares Outstanding) for a public company. The claim is that more shares have been created within the DTCC than the company has authorized, and the right corporate maneuvering could force these 'extra' shares to close or cover which would drive demand exceptionally high. Disclaimer: I own GME because the number of FTDs is in the high millions some days, and the notional values in the 10s of millions. Something is (still, 2 years later) up with this security in particular, and even if I don't become a billionaire from this investment I hope to shine some light on a corrupt corner of the market that has become 'business as usual' while I strongly disagree that it should be tolerated at all. (FTDs and Synthetic Shares)
  - rschneid 3y ago
    Since I've gotten an upvote or two, anyone interested in learning more may find this video a good place to start understanding 1) How the market 'truly' operates and 2) how this operation is being abused https://youtu.be/nLnw2_q5iMk https://youtu.be/nLnw2_q5iMk
  - foobiekr 3y ago
    I highly recommend that people go check out the bbby subreddit. It is readily apparent why there are investors who think this way, starting with a conspiracy theory about secret messages in a children’s book.
- bbor 3y ago
  I definitely believe some people think like that about their GameStop investment, but I am confident that the majority (/vocal minority) of /r/superstonk members honestly believe that GameStop is a good company that’s turning around, and that part of being invested is believing in the company. A sibling comment of yours summarized it best - I just understand their vision as an amalgamation of growing the online store considerably, replacing Steam, selling NFTs that in some way relate to in game functionality, and making GameStop stores “community centers” or smtn. All of this is backed up by mantras like “debt-free”, “based Ryan Cohen”, “warehouses full of product”, “corporate vision” etc etc etc. I really despise finance so I have very little to criticize you on there, and wish you the best, but from your reasonable tone I’m assuming you’re doing this as a considered risk, not going all-in with 100% confidence that a short squeeze is coming any day now. I oscillate between enjoying that whole part of the internet because it’s fun and interesting, and thinking of all the children who have their college savings tied up in the stock of a clearly dead-in-the-water legacy retailer :(
pavlov 3y ago
I believe the GameStop stock cult was mostly created by Ryan Cohen, an entrepreneur with a substantial social media following. He bought the distressed stock a few years ago and came up with the idea of transforming the retailer into some kind of next-generation game distributor. The plan included hiring a bunch of expensive Amazon execs, selling NFTs, and other very 2021 boom-time ideas that don’t seem to be working out too well.
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  As a Powerups Reward Pro member I received a completely incomprehensible email the other day that claimed I could get something (an NFT?) for free but when I clicked on the link I could see no sign of it, just offers to buy a handful of inscrutable products…. They certainly will sell you a metal plate that has some relationship with an NFT and it seems maybe you can get a T-Shirt with a picture of an NFT on it…. Maybe. Although I’m a crypto skeptic, YOShInOn shows me articles from Coindesk every day even though y’all will rarely vote for one if I post it to HN. I’m very aware of what is going on in the crypto world and if a marketing letter doesn’t make any sense to me it could only make sense to a handful of crypto bros.
  - bbor 3y ago
    Lol I appreciate the check-in, very much what I expected.
jader201 3y ago
> I can’t believe everyone in this thread so far is talking about the actual company I think what happens on HN is a subject matter comes up that often doesn’t get much attention on HN, so folks start chiming in with tangentially related but top of (their) mind thoughts/anecdotes. It’s nice to discuss things like that with the HN crowd, to see what they’re also thinking about things we’ve been thinking about, even if it may not tie in directly with the linked article.
karaterobot 3y ago
To be fair, the article does not talk about the stonk cult either. This is one of those articles where there really isn't much to say about the story itself.
Brendinooo 3y ago
> what this means for the “I am 100% sure GameStop will make me a billionaire” cult Was wondering this myself. Does this headline mean that this thing has been pumped and dumped and they're back to managing decline? Have unfolding events made the logic behind the bullish argument bad? Something else?

by bbor 3y ago

questime 3y ago

Gamestop and AMC's business is primarily selling stock at a massive premium to retail idiots. Their secondary business is making sure they are not violating their fiduciary duty. Very far down in their list of priorities is turning around the business (Selling stock is more lucrative for management than selling movies, games).

elegylegacy 3y ago

They don't think they'll become billionaires because GameStop is a great company. They think they will become billionaires because they expect failures to deliver on naked shorts of shares they've directly registered

rschneid 3y ago
Thanks for this crucial point of both clarification and further confusion. The 'true believers' in this stock's idiosyncratic risk are expecting a short squeeze due to a confluence of relatively unknown market mechanisms such as FTD, CNS, reg SHO, and the formation of a short-busting coalition between Carl Icahn via BBBYQ and others... It's a rabbit hole, for sure. But the fact is that the DTCC, FINRA, and other SROs controlling the markets are inscrutable black boxes that don't provide enough data for anyone to know the extent of the fraud they may or may not be perpetuating by systematically creating 'synthetic' shares in the publicly companies regardless of the officially authorized outstanding shares according to the companies' charters. Look at the ongoing BBBY CH11 bankruptcy proceedings for an example of how difficult it is to get an idea of 'TSO' or (Total Shares Outstanding) for a public company. The claim is that more shares have been created within the DTCC than the company has authorized, and the right corporate maneuvering could force these 'extra' shares to close or cover which would drive demand exceptionally high. Disclaimer: I own GME because the number of FTDs is in the high millions some days, and the notional values in the 10s of millions. Something is (still, 2 years later) up with this security in particular, and even if I don't become a billionaire from this investment I hope to shine some light on a corrupt corner of the market that has become 'business as usual' while I strongly disagree that it should be tolerated at all. (FTDs and Synthetic Shares)
- rschneid 3y ago
  Since I've gotten an upvote or two, anyone interested in learning more may find this video a good place to start understanding 1) How the market 'truly' operates and 2) how this operation is being abused https://youtu.be/nLnw2_q5iMk https://youtu.be/nLnw2_q5iMk
- foobiekr 3y ago
  I highly recommend that people go check out the bbby subreddit. It is readily apparent why there are investors who think this way, starting with a conspiracy theory about secret messages in a children’s book.
bbor 3y ago
I definitely believe some people think like that about their GameStop investment, but I am confident that the majority (/vocal minority) of /r/superstonk members honestly believe that GameStop is a good company that’s turning around, and that part of being invested is believing in the company. A sibling comment of yours summarized it best - I just understand their vision as an amalgamation of growing the online store considerably, replacing Steam, selling NFTs that in some way relate to in game functionality, and making GameStop stores “community centers” or smtn. All of this is backed up by mantras like “debt-free”, “based Ryan Cohen”, “warehouses full of product”, “corporate vision” etc etc etc. I really despise finance so I have very little to criticize you on there, and wish you the best, but from your reasonable tone I’m assuming you’re doing this as a considered risk, not going all-in with 100% confidence that a short squeeze is coming any day now. I oscillate between enjoying that whole part of the internet because it’s fun and interesting, and thinking of all the children who have their college savings tied up in the stock of a clearly dead-in-the-water legacy retailer :(

pavlov 3y ago

I believe the GameStop stock cult was mostly created by Ryan Cohen, an entrepreneur with a substantial social media following. He bought the distressed stock a few years ago and came up with the idea of transforming the retailer into some kind of next-generation game distributor. The plan included hiring a bunch of expensive Amazon execs, selling NFTs, and other very 2021 boom-time ideas that don’t seem to be working out too well.

PaulHoule 3y ago
As a Powerups Reward Pro member I received a completely incomprehensible email the other day that claimed I could get something (an NFT?) for free but when I clicked on the link I could see no sign of it, just offers to buy a handful of inscrutable products…. They certainly will sell you a metal plate that has some relationship with an NFT and it seems maybe you can get a T-Shirt with a picture of an NFT on it…. Maybe. Although I’m a crypto skeptic, YOShInOn shows me articles from Coindesk every day even though y’all will rarely vote for one if I post it to HN. I’m very aware of what is going on in the crypto world and if a marketing letter doesn’t make any sense to me it could only make sense to a handful of crypto bros.
- bbor 3y ago
  Lol I appreciate the check-in, very much what I expected.

jader201 3y ago

> I can’t believe everyone in this thread so far is talking about the actual company I think what happens on HN is a subject matter comes up that often doesn’t get much attention on HN, so folks start chiming in with tangentially related but top of (their) mind thoughts/anecdotes. It’s nice to discuss things like that with the HN crowd, to see what they’re also thinking about things we’ve been thinking about, even if it may not tie in directly with the linked article.

karaterobot 3y ago

To be fair, the article does not talk about the stonk cult either. This is one of those articles where there really isn't much to say about the story itself.

Brendinooo 3y ago

> what this means for the “I am 100% sure GameStop will make me a billionaire” cult Was wondering this myself. Does this headline mean that this thing has been pumped and dumped and they're back to managing decline? Have unfolding events made the logic behind the bullish argument bad? Something else?