Robinhood, Wall Street Bets, and the GameStop Stock Frenzy with Spencer Jakab

Spencer Jakab is the editor of The Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street column and the author of a fascinating new book called The Revolution That Wasn't: Gamestop, Reddit, and the Fleecing of the Retail Investor. In January of 2021, a large group of small investors from the WallStreetBets subreddit rallied around the stock of video game retailer GameStop, which they believe had been unfairly attacked by short-selling hedge fund Melvin Capital. The subsequent and totally unexpected rally in the stock made millions for several WallStreetBets members and crippled Melvin Capital which was lost up to a billion dollars *per day* during the worst of the short squeeze.

Spencer and I talk about the perfect storm of market, societal, and technological factors that catalyzed the Gamestop phenomenon, why the Robinhood stock trading app (which played a major role in this whole scenario) was designed to function exactly like a sports gambling app. We talk about how WallStreetBets and Robin Hood “investors” are different from boring old etrade or Schwab customers like me, the difference between investing and gambling and lastly, what Melvin Capital’s profound losses mean for hedge fund managers in the future. That is, in addition to market, political, and climate-based factors, these hedge fund managers also have to take into consideration the potential madness of crowds.

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Follow Spencer Jakab:

Twitter - https://bit.ly/3SqtqpI

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Website - https://www.spencerjakab.com

Read Spencer's Book:

The Revolution That Wasn't - https://amzn.to/3xUUC8g