Smaller investors face down hedge funds, as GameStop soars

Smaller investors face down hedge funds, as GameStop soars

SeattlePI.com

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NEW YORK (AP) — A head-scratching David and Goliath story is playing out on Wall Street over the stock price of a money-losing video game retailer.

An army of smaller-pocketed, optimistic investors is throwing dollars and buy orders at the stock of GameStop — in direct opposition to a group of wealthy investors who are counting on the stock price to plunge.

The resulting action is wild, with GameStop's stock soaring nearly 145% in less than two hours Monday morning, only for the gains to disappear quickly afterward.

The struggling company based in Grapevine, Texas, has lost $1.6 billion over the last 12 quarters, and its stock fell for six straight years before rebounding in 2020. So, it might seem like a strange place for the locus of so much movement. But GameStop has been a target of many professional investors, who say the company will continue to founder as sales of games continue to go online.

These investors have been betting that GameStop's stock will fall. They “shorted” the stock, which means they borrowed shares and sold them, hoping to buy them back at a cheaper price and pocket the difference. But such bets have been disastrous recently.

GameStop was trading at less than $18 a few weeks ago. Its stock shot higher after the company named three new directors to its board on Jan. 11 to help speed its turnaround, including a co-founder of online pet-supply retailer Chewy. The thought was that should help GameStop's digital transformation.

A cavalcade of smaller investors, meanwhile, has been exhorting each other on the internet to keep the stock's momentum flying toward the moon. Many are pitching it as a battle of regular people versus hedge funds and big Wall Street firms.

It took just five days for GameStop's stock to double after announcing its...

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