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Notes -
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.
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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.
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