Why Reddit Loves Elon Musk, Cathie Wood and Chamath Palihapitiya
Three of the biggest names in business and finance have benefited hugely from coopting retail investors. Can it last?
The man who wrote the book on how to charm retail investors.
Photographer: BRITTA PEDERSEN/AFPThe GameStop Corp. saga that has gripped the investing world this week was fueled in part by anti-establishment rage, as my colleague John Authers has written. On one side were retail investors who see themselves as crusaders for a democratized stock market, where even the shares of an ailing brick-and-mortar retailer must only go up. On the other were wealthy hedge fund managers who wagered that the price of equities should have something to do with financial fundamentals. The latter were crushed.
Most of the financial elite is either running for cover or baffled as to why amateur day traders might exhort each other on the r/wallstreetbets forum to sink their college savings or pandemic stimulus checks into such a company. A year ago GameStop’s market value was about $250 million, now it’s $13.5 billion.