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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   3442 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 7, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Watching RoaringKitty's livestream right now. This is crazy, on multiple levels. This is his first time ever live streaming, and he's got half a million people watching him, with something like half a billion in potential value open right now (fluctuating wildly by the second).

I think this will be the end of him though. He's out of his element, or at least not ready for this level of exposure. He was brilliant at reddit and twitter, but he looks like a clown on stream. Gamestop is going to tank, and that will tank his reputation along with it.

edit (12:38 EST time): if you're watching this now, my advice is sell sell sell GME. it's at 33 right now, going down as he talks.

I think some of the downturn was gamestop taking advantage of the high prices to sell some stock themselves and make a few billion.

He was brilliant at reddit and twitter, but he looks like a clown on stream.

He literally covered himself in bandaids, put on a fake cast, and played a "flatline" sound effect in the background. If he looks like a clown, I think that was on purpose.

I agree that was his goal but... he just wasn't that funny? Like I said before he just lacked any charisma as a live streamer. More importantly: I don't think people were looking to him for jokes. The "joke" is the money involved, particularly for people who have invested their life savings. What they wanted was some confirmation that this is real, some sort of smart financial insight like he had originally. Not just dumb memes- anyone can do that.

For those not following along, we last saw Reddit user deep_fucking_value (hereby referred to as DFV) in 2021, testifying to Congress that he is "not a cat". He came out looking like a boss, and made the geriatrics in Congress look like clowns. Then he rode off into the sunset with a portfolio worth about $30 million. A nice story. They even made a movie about it.

Act II.

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain".

Suddenly, a couple weeks ago, there is a spike in options activity. A gamma squeeze is afoot. The price of GME starts to awaken from its slumber. Then, what's this, DFV reappears on Twitter! He posts this.

The market reacts to this hugely bullish sign and the price of Gamestonk doubles nearly instantly. But it gets better. A few days later, DFV comes back to Reddit where he posts his portfolio: $200 million in $GME stock and options.

Wait, you ask. I thought he had $30 million. How'd he get $200 million?

To me, it seems obvious that he bought far out of the money GME calls, then posted on Twitter to pump the stock, then closed those positions for others. The alternative: that he 7x'd his money in 3 years seems unlikely. Naturally, he hasn't posted his trade logs so we can only speculate.

In my opinion, DFV should have stayed out of the spotlight. As a "regular person", not an insider, I think there's a good chance he ends up in jail.

As for $GME, I really hope the stock does get to the moon someday. It's too much fun. Full disclosure: I own 40 shares of $GME. Direct registered of course.

"To me, it seems obvious that he bought far out of the money GME calls, then posted on Twitter to pump the stock, then closed those positions for others. The alternative: that he 7x'd his money in 3 years seems unlikely. Naturally, he hasn't posted his trade logs so we can only speculate.

In my opinion, DFV should have stayed out of the spotlight. As a "regular person", not an insider, I think there's a good chance he ends up in jail."

Agreed. The original boom was a nice story- average* Joe (not really that average, he was a CFA and a registered securities broker, but he wasn't rich) finds a massively undervalued stock, puts all his money into it, tells the world, and a bunch of average people make money. Great story.

This though- this just seems like market manipulation. There's no fundamental analysis going on, it's just pure speculation and market manipulation. People tuned into his live stream hoping to get some transparency, but he didn't give that at all, just some crazy rambling and dumb memes. At this point he's doing market manipulation aimed at teenagers and crazy desparate people.

I've been making a lot of money selling far out of the money calls against it whenever the price bubbles. I'll take the easy money but I feel bad for the idiots losing their life savings in this.

It's been said a few times that our rejection of supernatural stories has left young people without the kinds of cautionary tales that used to transmit some amount of wisdom.

Maybe Keith Gill can be the modern world's Icarus.

I've been making a lot of money selling far out of the money calls against it whenever the price bubbles.

Don't you have to own (many) shares of GameStonk to do that? (My understanding of options trading is quite limited.)

You would think so! But no. If you have a margin account and enough capital, you can sell them "naked" without owning the shares. Basically the broker just thinks "eh he's good for it" and will let you do whatever you want. In this case it's been eye opening... the shares are "not available to short" but there was no problem selling options. Options really are the tail that wags the dog, in this kind of market.

Live internet stock trading technology is awesome. When I was a kid this kind of pyramid scheme relied on snail mail, and you couldn't even buy on margin; the only way to cheat even more was to bump your name higher up the chain letter list.

Who?

AKA deep_fucking_value, the guy who started the frenzy on gamestop stock.

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