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There are still many retail investors who think the saga is far from over, and are now betting on direct registration (DRS) of their GME shares with the goal of

There are still many retail investors who think the saga is far from over, and are now betting on direct registration (DRS) of their GME shares with the goal of triggering another, much bigger short squeeze than last year.

phphphphp 5y ago
Also known as the Mother Of All Collective Delusions
- mixologic 5y ago
  Yeah, yet not even cool enough to get its own phrase in the zeitgeist like "Drink the Kool-Aid"
  - goldnugget92 5y ago
    Its easily dismissed as conspiracy but having read many of their supporting arguments and seeing the SI (Short Interest) being over 220% myself along with the SEC report suggesting that shorts never closed their position... I can't say I would dismiss the possibility of another short squeeze...
    - mupuff1234 5y ago
      Where do you see a short interest of 220%? Checking yahoo finance now it's listed at around 20%.
      - goldnugget92 5y ago
        Here is a archine from Jan 14, 2020 showing 101% of float SI. https://web.archive.org/web/20200114081942/https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/gme https://web.archive.org/web/20200114081942/https://www.marke... The 220% was in Feb.
        mupuff1234 5y ago
        The site you linked shows the short interest is currently at 14%.
        Kaspar1313 5y ago
        And in October 136%; https://web.archive.org/web/20201003083657/https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/gme https://web.archive.org/web/20201003083657/https://www.marke...
      - Kaspar1313 5y ago
        They've changed the way the calculate SI now. Before; SI = [Number of Shares Short] / [Float] Now; SI = [Number of Share Short] + [Float] / [Float] Ask yourself, why...
        JumpCrisscross 5y ago
        > They've changed the way the calculate SI now This is nonsense. Who is “they”? FINRA and the SEC require brokers to report short interest data twice a month [1]. These are share aggregates. FINRA then provides those data for U.S.-listed companies to the exchanges, who publish it. None of those exchanges have changed their publishing methodologies in years. [1] https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/short-interest https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/short-interest
        Kaspar1313 5y ago
        "They" are the data aggregation websites that post shares SI. FINRA and the SEC have nothing to do with the actual calculation of SI that various websites report. Read; https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/lbydkz/s3_partners_s3_si_of_float_metric_is_total/ https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/lbydkz/s3_p... S3 SI% of Float = Shares Sold Short/(Float + Shares Sold Short)
        ahtihn 5y ago
        > Before; SI = [Number of Shares Short] / [Float] > Now; SI = [Number of Share Short] + [Float] / [Float] So you're saying that SI is always reported as higher than 100% now? Since that's not the cause, are you saying there's negative number of short shares now? Maybe think for 2 seconds about your 2nd formula?
        Kaspar1313 5y ago
        Sorry; Now; SI = [Number of Shares Short] / [Float] + [Number of Shares Short]
        Kaspar1313 5y ago
        Read; http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fwallstreetbets%2Fcomments%2Flbydkz%2Fs3_partners_s3_si_of_float_metric_is_total%2F http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps... S3 SI% of Float = Shares Sold Short/(Float + Shares Sold Short)
    - BYazfVCcq 5y ago
      You should take the time to read the SEC Report "In seeking to answer this question, staff observed that during some discrete periods, GME had sharp price increases concurrently with known major short sellers covering their short positions after incurring significant losses. During these times, short sellers covering their positions likely contributed to increases in GME’s price. For example, staff observed that particularly during the earlier rise from January 22 to 27 the price of GME rose as the short interest decreased. Staff also observed discrete periods of sharp price increases during which accounts held by firms known to the staff to be covering short interest in GME were actively buying large volumes of GME shares, in some cases accounting for very significant portions of the net buying pressure during a period. Figure 6 shows that buy volume in GME, including buy volume from participants identified as having large short positions, increased significantly beginning around January 22 and remained high for several days, corresponding to the beginning of the most dramatic phase of the run-up in GME’s price." Meaning shorts covering causing a small increase in price and then retail FOMOd in. See also the graph on the next page that show short interest dropping from over 100% to around 20%.
      - WJW 5y ago
        I'd like to add to this the following scenario for explaining why short interest can be high even if the original shorters have closed their positions. 1. Lots of people are short. 2. Price goes up significantly, shorters get margin calls. 3. Price goes up a lot due to buying pressure from shorters closing their positions. (ie, the squeeze itself) 4. Price is now extremely high and fairly disconnected from fundamentals. 5. People notice the price is very high compared to earnings and open new short positions. After step 5, there can be a ton of shorters in the stock yet there is not a very big chance of a new squeeze since the price at which the new short positions were opened is so high. Imagine how much the price of GME would need to rise to squeeze out the shorters who opened their position in the 300-400 USD price range.
      - Dork1234 5y ago
        It is kinda hard to believe the drop in Short Interest with corresponding volume on those days. Something doesn't add up, but I don't know what.
- shpx 5y ago
  A modern day cargo cult, the QAnon of finance.
- jsemrau 5y ago
  just look at where /r/superstonk has gone with that. It's hilarious.
mcv 5y ago
I made a little money of it last year when the squeeze squoze, and I don't see it happening again. I was late to get in, but not too late; the next morning, the price had doubled, so I sold half. I held on to the rest just to be along for the ride, but I think that morning was the real squeeze. I think I bought some extra on a dip, sold half of that for double again, and sold the rest on a minor bump a few months later. Hectic stock like this can be an easy way to make a quick profit as long as you remember to buy the dips and sell at any bump that comes along. I bet that's what the big guys on Wallstreet did to make way bigger profits than I'll ever be able to.
- danuker 5y ago
  > remember to buy the dips As long as the dip is not permanent, say, due to a permanent change in the fundamentals. Then it might just keep dipping.
  - tootie 5y ago
    GME is still trading way, way above what the fundamentals say it should be. It was trading at $4 before the squeeze.
    - mcv 5y ago
      That doesn't mean that $4 was what it should be, though. I hope GME used the ridiculously high stock price to issue a bunch of new shares, so they have plenty of money to invest in whatever they want.
  - mcv 5y ago
    Of course. Always check if something changed about the company itself. And when trading derivatives, even dips caused by the market (rather than fundamentals), can lose you lots of real money. Because even if it will eventually recover, it might dip deeper and longer than you can afford. I lost a ton of money on Tesla that way. (I would have been rich now if I'd been able to keep that.)
    - 5y ago
Nursie 5y ago
> There are still many retail investors who think the saga is far from over I had the misfortune to encounter one of these on reddit the other week. I asked (what I thought was) a fairly simple question - are people still in it because they think the company has a reasonable chance of turning around and making good money, or is this now an idealogical thing about sticking it to the man, or a bit of both? And I basically got a full-on hard sell as a response, massive amounts of details about business plans and any reservations I expressed were due to me being stupid and/or biased. So that's me told.
- Ocerge 5y ago
  You're arguing against QAnon at this point, best to let that dog lie.
moffkalast 5y ago
It does seem like a good idea on paper, though when you look at the reports of how many people have actually DRSed their shares it becomes painfully obvious that it's so few that it isn't likely to ever make a difference.
- rccb2002 5y ago
  What reports have you seen that show the actual numbers? Genuinely curious. As far as I know, there is only one report that has been released--that was by Gamestop itself for the 3rd Quarter (Aug 1-Oct 30). That number was 5.2 Million. Now, the DRS movement, for lack of a better term, did not start to take off until late August/Early September. IOW, DRSing shares has not been going on since last January. The next quarterly results (Nov-Jan) will be released around the end of March and, assuming that Gamestop continues to release the DRS numbers, will provide 2 data points. The last point I would like to make is that the total number of shares outstanding for Gamestop is only 76.5 Million. 12 Million of those shares are Insider shares. Even if you Ignore institutional holdings and individual investor shares held in brokerage accounts, 5.2 Million is 8% of 64.5 Million. I would say that is not an insignificant percentage, even if the DRS movement stagnated after October.
  - rekoil 5y ago
    From what I've seen there are now ~122,000 accounts for DRSed shares, and even if the average numbers we're seeing on reddit hold for all accounts (which I doubt), that's still only around ~18M shares, or 28% using your numbers. That's a lot, but it only matters when it reaches 100%. I don't want to spread negativity, I have a bit of money invested as well on the off chance that the theories are true, but I'm placing my bets that if anything happens it'll be because of stricter regulations regarding short selling, not because of DRS.
    - rccb2002 5y ago
      Just to clarify my original statement, I did not mean to imply that after the 4th quarter results come in, that another squeeze will immediately happen. I've always thought that this would take some time (i.e. DRSing the float). I don't think it necessarily has to reach 100% (although that would fantastic) I do think the higher the number climbs, the harder it will be for investors and regulators to ignore. DRSing shares will reveal irrefutable, easy-to-digest proof that there is illegal naked shorting of Gamestop. How that plays out (squeeze, investigation etc) is anybodies guess because this exact situation has never happened previously. (individual retail investors directly registering shares in their name to secure the entire inventory of a company).

phphphphp 5y ago

Also known as the Mother Of All Collective Delusions

mixologic 5y ago
Yeah, yet not even cool enough to get its own phrase in the zeitgeist like "Drink the Kool-Aid"
- goldnugget92 5y ago
  Its easily dismissed as conspiracy but having read many of their supporting arguments and seeing the SI (Short Interest) being over 220% myself along with the SEC report suggesting that shorts never closed their position... I can't say I would dismiss the possibility of another short squeeze...
  - mupuff1234 5y ago
    Where do you see a short interest of 220%? Checking yahoo finance now it's listed at around 20%.
    - goldnugget92 5y ago
      Here is a archine from Jan 14, 2020 showing 101% of float SI. https://web.archive.org/web/20200114081942/https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/gme https://web.archive.org/web/20200114081942/https://www.marke... The 220% was in Feb.
      - mupuff1234 5y ago
        The site you linked shows the short interest is currently at 14%.
      - Kaspar1313 5y ago
        And in October 136%; https://web.archive.org/web/20201003083657/https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/gme https://web.archive.org/web/20201003083657/https://www.marke...
    - Kaspar1313 5y ago
      They've changed the way the calculate SI now. Before; SI = [Number of Shares Short] / [Float] Now; SI = [Number of Share Short] + [Float] / [Float] Ask yourself, why...
      - JumpCrisscross 5y ago
        > They've changed the way the calculate SI now This is nonsense. Who is “they”? FINRA and the SEC require brokers to report short interest data twice a month [1]. These are share aggregates. FINRA then provides those data for U.S.-listed companies to the exchanges, who publish it. None of those exchanges have changed their publishing methodologies in years. [1] https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/short-interest https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/short-interest
        Kaspar1313 5y ago
        "They" are the data aggregation websites that post shares SI. FINRA and the SEC have nothing to do with the actual calculation of SI that various websites report. Read; https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/lbydkz/s3_partners_s3_si_of_float_metric_is_total/ https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/lbydkz/s3_p... S3 SI% of Float = Shares Sold Short/(Float + Shares Sold Short)
      - ahtihn 5y ago
        > Before; SI = [Number of Shares Short] / [Float] > Now; SI = [Number of Share Short] + [Float] / [Float] So you're saying that SI is always reported as higher than 100% now? Since that's not the cause, are you saying there's negative number of short shares now? Maybe think for 2 seconds about your 2nd formula?
        Kaspar1313 5y ago
        Sorry; Now; SI = [Number of Shares Short] / [Float] + [Number of Shares Short]
        Kaspar1313 5y ago
        Read; http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fwallstreetbets%2Fcomments%2Flbydkz%2Fs3_partners_s3_si_of_float_metric_is_total%2F http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps... S3 SI% of Float = Shares Sold Short/(Float + Shares Sold Short)
  - BYazfVCcq 5y ago
    You should take the time to read the SEC Report "In seeking to answer this question, staff observed that during some discrete periods, GME had sharp price increases concurrently with known major short sellers covering their short positions after incurring significant losses. During these times, short sellers covering their positions likely contributed to increases in GME’s price. For example, staff observed that particularly during the earlier rise from January 22 to 27 the price of GME rose as the short interest decreased. Staff also observed discrete periods of sharp price increases during which accounts held by firms known to the staff to be covering short interest in GME were actively buying large volumes of GME shares, in some cases accounting for very significant portions of the net buying pressure during a period. Figure 6 shows that buy volume in GME, including buy volume from participants identified as having large short positions, increased significantly beginning around January 22 and remained high for several days, corresponding to the beginning of the most dramatic phase of the run-up in GME’s price." Meaning shorts covering causing a small increase in price and then retail FOMOd in. See also the graph on the next page that show short interest dropping from over 100% to around 20%.
    - WJW 5y ago
      I'd like to add to this the following scenario for explaining why short interest can be high even if the original shorters have closed their positions. 1. Lots of people are short. 2. Price goes up significantly, shorters get margin calls. 3. Price goes up a lot due to buying pressure from shorters closing their positions. (ie, the squeeze itself) 4. Price is now extremely high and fairly disconnected from fundamentals. 5. People notice the price is very high compared to earnings and open new short positions. After step 5, there can be a ton of shorters in the stock yet there is not a very big chance of a new squeeze since the price at which the new short positions were opened is so high. Imagine how much the price of GME would need to rise to squeeze out the shorters who opened their position in the 300-400 USD price range.
    - Dork1234 5y ago
      It is kinda hard to believe the drop in Short Interest with corresponding volume on those days. Something doesn't add up, but I don't know what.
shpx 5y ago
A modern day cargo cult, the QAnon of finance.
jsemrau 5y ago
just look at where /r/superstonk has gone with that. It's hilarious.

mcv 5y ago

I made a little money of it last year when the squeeze squoze, and I don't see it happening again. I was late to get in, but not too late; the next morning, the price had doubled, so I sold half. I held on to the rest just to be along for the ride, but I think that morning was the real squeeze. I think I bought some extra on a dip, sold half of that for double again, and sold the rest on a minor bump a few months later. Hectic stock like this can be an easy way to make a quick profit as long as you remember to buy the dips and sell at any bump that comes along. I bet that's what the big guys on Wallstreet did to make way bigger profits than I'll ever be able to.

danuker 5y ago
> remember to buy the dips As long as the dip is not permanent, say, due to a permanent change in the fundamentals. Then it might just keep dipping.
- tootie 5y ago
  GME is still trading way, way above what the fundamentals say it should be. It was trading at $4 before the squeeze.
  - mcv 5y ago
    That doesn't mean that $4 was what it should be, though. I hope GME used the ridiculously high stock price to issue a bunch of new shares, so they have plenty of money to invest in whatever they want.
- mcv 5y ago
  Of course. Always check if something changed about the company itself. And when trading derivatives, even dips caused by the market (rather than fundamentals), can lose you lots of real money. Because even if it will eventually recover, it might dip deeper and longer than you can afford. I lost a ton of money on Tesla that way. (I would have been rich now if I'd been able to keep that.)
  - 5y ago

Nursie 5y ago

> There are still many retail investors who think the saga is far from over I had the misfortune to encounter one of these on reddit the other week. I asked (what I thought was) a fairly simple question - are people still in it because they think the company has a reasonable chance of turning around and making good money, or is this now an idealogical thing about sticking it to the man, or a bit of both? And I basically got a full-on hard sell as a response, massive amounts of details about business plans and any reservations I expressed were due to me being stupid and/or biased. So that's me told.

Ocerge 5y ago
You're arguing against QAnon at this point, best to let that dog lie.

moffkalast 5y ago

It does seem like a good idea on paper, though when you look at the reports of how many people have actually DRSed their shares it becomes painfully obvious that it's so few that it isn't likely to ever make a difference.

rccb2002 5y ago
What reports have you seen that show the actual numbers? Genuinely curious. As far as I know, there is only one report that has been released--that was by Gamestop itself for the 3rd Quarter (Aug 1-Oct 30). That number was 5.2 Million. Now, the DRS movement, for lack of a better term, did not start to take off until late August/Early September. IOW, DRSing shares has not been going on since last January. The next quarterly results (Nov-Jan) will be released around the end of March and, assuming that Gamestop continues to release the DRS numbers, will provide 2 data points. The last point I would like to make is that the total number of shares outstanding for Gamestop is only 76.5 Million. 12 Million of those shares are Insider shares. Even if you Ignore institutional holdings and individual investor shares held in brokerage accounts, 5.2 Million is 8% of 64.5 Million. I would say that is not an insignificant percentage, even if the DRS movement stagnated after October.
- rekoil 5y ago
  From what I've seen there are now ~122,000 accounts for DRSed shares, and even if the average numbers we're seeing on reddit hold for all accounts (which I doubt), that's still only around ~18M shares, or 28% using your numbers. That's a lot, but it only matters when it reaches 100%. I don't want to spread negativity, I have a bit of money invested as well on the off chance that the theories are true, but I'm placing my bets that if anything happens it'll be because of stricter regulations regarding short selling, not because of DRS.
  - rccb2002 5y ago
    Just to clarify my original statement, I did not mean to imply that after the 4th quarter results come in, that another squeeze will immediately happen. I've always thought that this would take some time (i.e. DRSing the float). I don't think it necessarily has to reach 100% (although that would fantastic) I do think the higher the number climbs, the harder it will be for investors and regulators to ignore. DRSing shares will reveal irrefutable, easy-to-digest proof that there is illegal naked shorting of Gamestop. How that plays out (squeeze, investigation etc) is anybodies guess because this exact situation has never happened previously. (individual retail investors directly registering shares in their name to secure the entire inventory of a company).