Finance

Here’s how GameStop went from dying retail relic to a ‘meme stock’ that has rattled the American stock market (GME)

That large-scale buying sent GameStop’s share price to levels that it’s been unfamiliar with amid its years-long turmoil.

gamestop store

A New York City GameStop location on January 28, 2020.
John Minchillo/AP

Its share price and market capitalization were around $340 and $23 billion, respectively, at one point, putting the company on par with large corporations that actually make money as Insider’s Josh Barro wrote. That value is not likely to hold.

As the shares have soared, investors have jumped in to short GameStop’s stock, meaning they were selling it with the hopes that it will decline to pocket the difference. That didn’t happen, and these short-sellers have lost billions.

Read more:How hedge funds are tracking Reddit posts to protect their portfolios after the Wall Street Bets crowd helped tank Melvin Capital’s short positions

There are four main reasons why GameStop stock was targeted, which Insider’s Ben Gilbert and Allana Akhtar laid out, and the whole ordeal involves a slew of factors: Wall Street greed, financial instability, and the astonishing power of the internet’s collective will. GameStop has been called a “meme stock,” internet speak for a stock that was heavily influenced by people online.

At the end of the day, the Reddit-bred gaggle of day-traders may have thrust GameStop back into the public eye with its stock market stunt. But the company is still fighting the same fight it’s been facing: adapting to a changing video game industry that it had long dominated.

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