Stonks: Guerilla Investors

“Meme stocks” is not a term I thought would ever exist. That being said, Netizens created and weaponized meme stocks, a stock heavily invested in for “lols,” to usher in the new era of the stock exchange. Gamestop, Nokia, AMC and the cryptocurrency Dogecoin were and are being boosted to destroy hedge funds and take billions from Wall Street.

A mass investment scheme was mobilized to combat a “short squeeze” implemented by billionaire investors. A short squeeze is when a stock or other asset jumps sharply higher, forcing traders who had bet that its price would fall to buy it in order to forestall even greater losses.

Reddit thread u/wallstreetbets noticed this trend being inflicted on Gamestop and called to arms its 3,000,000 followers to counter-attack. Casual investors heavily invested in the stock and managed to drive the value up 10,400% at one point. This little maneuver forced billionaires using the short squeeze method to buy stocks back to mitigate damage to funds they already lost. Redditors managed to take a $20 stock to a $500 value in three weeks. This movement cost Wall Street over four billion dollars.

Gamestop was not the only company that received a boost. AMC has had a rough year dealing with the pandemic. Investors expected them to fold later this year and began trying to short squeeze AMC the same way they tried with Gamestop. Redditors responded again in a mad rush, pulling stock value up from $4.96 to $19.90 in a matter of hours.

Cryptocurrency was also mobilized, as Dogecoin found itself in the center of attention. Dogecoin has been valued at roughly $0.01 per Dogecoin. As this article is written, Dogecoin is valued at $0.07. Which means if you invested $100 on Tuesday, you would have had $700 on Thursday. It can be expected that Dogecoin hasn’t finished climbing yet.

In the end, those on board were able to claim back billions of dollars. Those who caught the wave were able to take their fair share of the prize. The rest of us who found out minutes after the deed was done are left staring in awe of the undertaking. Billionaires are clamoring for laws against this, and the masses are being reminded of the power that they wield. And I am left with my hand to my head thinking, “if only I had been five minutes faster.”

Alexander Nesmith is a junior

communication major from

Calhoun, Ga.