Brodigan - January 28, 2021 at 12:29PM
If figuring out the Wall Street/Reddit/GameStop brouhaha is giving you a headache, I share my migraine with you. Here's an in-depth explainer. To summarize, the lockdowns have led to an increase in people's day trading stocks. It's what El Presidente has been doing. Many chose a company called Robinhood as their broker, which marketed itself as the trading app for the people. That's an important detail.
These day traders discovered a thing called "shorting." It's where hedge fund managers bet against companies and make a profit off of doing so. One hedge fund manager "shorted" GameStop, angering people on Reddit. So the Reddit traders started buying up GameStop stock and caused it to more than double in a day. Regular folks were making millions, but hedge fund managers were losing money. Of course, the hedge fund managers needed to be bailed out. Banks and firms prevented THE CUSTOMERS OF THEIR PRODUCT from using the product to buy GameStop stock. Including -- wait for it -- Robinhood.
Still with me? Because things have gone so stoonad, Congresswoman AOC is starting to make sense.
If you find yourself questioning your sanity, imagine how Ted Cruz feels. Up is down. Red is blue. Cats and dogs are gaming together. And Senator Ted Cruz agrees with Rep. AOC.
While Cruz retweeted Rep. AOC, he also shared this video to further illustrate what happened.
It's good to see two people from opposite sides of the aisle agree on the problem. Or, at least WAS for about a few seconds before Rep. AOC did a Rep. AOC thing.
Most of our elected officials agree on problems. The disagreeing on solutions is where we run into issues. I think most people can agree that the playing field should be level. Reddit trolls should be allowed to play by the same rules as hedge funds. A reasonable solution is to simply let them. If you manage a fund and got outsmarted by some randos with fake names on the internet, sucks to be you. Have fun explaining it to your clients. The problem is that when people like Rep. AOC want to get involved, their plans usually involve over-regulating the issue. That winds up screwing everybody outside of the politicians who call for the over-regulations.
Stay angry at the hedge funds and apps like Robinhood. They've earned it. Just don't let yourself get so angry you find yourself supporting horrible ideas to "fix" the problem.
from Steven Crowder Says
