These hedge funds keep grandma in her house and pay for her hip replacement surgery.
Respectfully, I'm pushing against the idea or possible implication that hedge funds are good guys & savy and redditors are the uneducated villains here costing grandma her hip money. No, the hedge fund did this by gambling with her money...the same thing that happened in 2008 when 40:1 to 50:1 overleveraged investment banks traded in garbage debts and caused many grandmas, grandpas, mothers, and fathers to lose their homes, jobs and life savings.
These hedge funds make money with money. They're not providing a charity or altruistic service to any individuals. Everyone has a choice where to put their money. And everyone who puts their money in the market (should) run the same risk of loss. There's nothing guaranteed. Growth and higher returns aren't guaranteed, as a disclaimer.
That being said, the customers of hedge funds expect the fund managers to reasonably manage that risk, not over-extend themselves financially by betting against OVER 100% of what's available to trade for a stock. I'm hearing the actual percentage is around 140% of Gamestop. There's *only* up to 100% of any available stock to trade. This means they risk owing all borrowed shares back PLUS a 40% fee if they lost their bet (if the stock price goes up instead of down). They were hoping for obsene profit.
They're the ones who gambled with Gamestop. Never short over 100% of any stock.
Other retail investors - redditors in this case - saw this stupid greedy move by the hedge funds and banded together to buy up all the remaining available shares of gamestop making its price increase...so when the hedge fund needed to buy back the stock they borrowed, to settle the bet, very little would be available to buy.
...and because of supply and demand...
This increased the stock price more, and caused the hedge fund to lose the bet even more, requiring them to buy back the stock at higher price plus the fee...but the redditors aren't selling...
This increased the stock price more, and caused the hedge fund to lose the bet even more, requiring them to buy back the stock at higher price plus the fee...but the redditors aren't selling...
This increased the stock price more, and caused the hedge fund to lose the bet even more, requiring them to buy back the stock at higher price plus the fee...but the redditors aren't selling...
...and on...and on...and on...causing the stock to soar and costing hedge funds billions.
Ordinary people beat the hedge funds at their own game within the rules. The stock is only valuable because the hedge fund NEEDS it to settle their growing debt.
What the hedge fund didn't plan on in their gamble was that a group of random people would band together and have enough money to buy all available shares.
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So this wasn't just a nostalgic buy. It was very calculated. If they make a move about this it'll probably be called The Big Squeeze.