Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has big money. According to Forbes’ real-time billionaires tracker (which is just so gross), he’s worth $4.2 billion. I feel like it deserves to be written with the zeroes for perspective. That’s $4,200,000,000. Cuban, however, is on the side of the little guy.
Yesterday, Cuban tweeted his support for what was unfolding. In case you missed it, and I’m not a financial advisor, but apparently a hedge fund was shorting $GME (GameStop), and did so to 140 percent of GameStop’s float. Some savvy people on Reddit caught wind of this and encouraged a grassroots movement to buy GME stocks, driving the price up. This serves two purposes: It screws hedge funds, and it’s a way for people to play the market to make money.
On CNBC this morning, Cuban was asked if he was worried that some of the “Wall Street guys” could get behind the scenes on Reddit and manipulate things, Cuban said, “Yeah, but it’s not really manipulation. It’s absolutely no different than what has always happened.” Cuban went on to say that what happened over the last few days was a flex, and he expressed hope that these people would then also go on to other opportunities to essentially crowdsource support for small businesses or other companies with a social cause to help those businesses grow.
“This isn’t the first time that low float or heavily shorted stocks have been targeted, it’s just very visible and it’s just not the normal subsets that are doing the targeting. There are many hedge funds that have made a lot of money over the years targeting heavily-shorted stocks. I don’t think this is any different, it’s just that the people that are making the push aren’t the people that we thought they would be, and that’s why I like it.”
Yeah, screw the big money, Cuban. Except for you. You seem cool.
Listen, it’s a free market, or at least it’s supposed to be. People much smarter than me when it comes to the money and the investing and the, as Cuban would say, mishegas of the stock market saw what was going on and found a way to turn the tables on the big money. While the exact loss isn’t clear, Melvin Capital, the hedge fund targeted in this game of chicken, was infused with nearly $3 billion to help their financial situation yesterday.
When I said it’s supposed to be a free market, this is what I meant — multiple trading platforms, such as Robinhood (ironic), TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwabb, and others, have restricted the trading of $GME, $AMC, $NOK, and other stocks being heavily targeted. What the hell? Luckily, the outrage of the masses is also being heard by others. Cuban tweeted his skepticism that they are halting trading because they’re potentially losing their asses on the trades, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that she wants an investigation into the trade halting. She also did not seem too thrilled at the idea of working with Ted Cruz on this after he tweeted his support, by the way.
Two days ago, I couldn’t explain what it meant to short a stock. I believe that I speak with a large group of Americans that feel the same way. This situation is unfolding at a rapid pace, and I, like many, am learning a lot about trading and our economy. I may not know much, but my “bullshit” meter is off the charts right now.
Once your eyes are opened, you can’t unsee it: it’s a rigged game.
Robinhood is totally loading their shorts right now out of fear. But on a serious note, this is outrageous. Now, it appears that Robinhood is actually force-closing holdings against the will of their clients.
To all the parties involved in protecting the wealthy while capitalizing on and taking advantage of the average American in this current tomfoolery, I politely ask you to pound sand. You can’t change the rules because you don’t like the outcome. Fire up those corporate attorneys. You’re going to need them.
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