On what seemed like a quiet week following the Inauguration of President Biden, all eyes turned to Wall Street where a group of investors, known as Wall Street Bets on the website Reddit, assembled to completely catch everyone and their money off guard. By dumping their money into so-called "meme stocks," companies like GameStop, AMC, and Blackberry saw their stock price surge by as much as 1,000%, creating a short squeeze. Hedge fund managers who were shorting the stock had to buy up these stocks to cover their losses, driving up the price even further. The market became so volatile that the stock trading app Robinhood notably had to temporarily halt trading. With these meme stocks seeing a massive decline since, what really happened to cause this type of chaos?
My guest today is Kate Hyde, she's an independent stock trader and contributor to the Spectator.
On today's show, we're going to discuss the short squeeze, how the government is responding to it, what happened with Robinhood, and what's on the horizon for Wall Street.
"Hashing it Out" is a podcast hosted by Siraj Hashmi, Washington Examiner's commentary video editor and writer. Each episode includes a political guest to offer historical context of the news and politics of the day and insight into how we got to where we are. If you want to find the deeper meaning behind current events, then "Hashing it Out" is the podcast for you.