An army of traders on the Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets helped drive a meteoric rise in GameStop’s stock price in recent days, forcing halts in trading and causing a major headache for the short sellers betting against it and banking on the stock falling.
In the GameStop saga, at least, the answer is yes. Sure, small-time investors trade a lot, sometimes to the annoyance of more traditional institutions, but are they really consequential? And one big question amid the frenzy has been how much the little guys really matter. Who knew the first big 2021 stock market story would be … GameStop? But here we are.ĭay trading and individual investing have boomed over the past several months, with activity often taking place or being discussed on platforms such as Reddit and Robinhood instead of in more traditional arenas.
