It's interesting because none of what you say is true. Hedge funds definitely collude and not behind closed doors, but also out in the open. Hedge funds announce their picks and go from hedge fund to hedge fund explaining the decisions they made and why they made the stock pick they did. Thousands of analysts in the stock market influence the stock price based on what they see as future investments to be made and are very vocal about it. Wall street bets is no different, reddit just seems to have beat them at their own game.