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Comment by omosubi | Hacker News Reader

Why more people don't realize that this is a bubble is beyond me. The banks and hedge funds will come out of this alive and a lot of people who shouldn't be day trading are going to lose a lot of money.

It's fun to watch but quite sad at the same time

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> and a lot of people who shouldn't be day trading

Where does this paternalistic attitude come from? Do you go an lecture people throwing money at the craps tables?

People on WSB certainly know this is no different than gambling. There is a reason loss porn is a thing. The entire sub mocks the seriousness of “real investors” who have big accounts and pretend they are gambling by reading a blog about the number they pick on the roulette wheel.

Seasoned readers (or even those only on the sub for a few months) know that, but the influx of WSB readers is coming from average reddit users who are here for the get-rich-quick and "stick it to wall street" theme the GME squeeze has ignited. They'll be the ones disappointed and holding the bag once everyone, including WSB veterans, have cashed out.

yeah but who cares and why do they care

I could be in my most empathic state after a heavy acid trip and still wonder where this unnecessary paternalistic attitude comes from

what do you guys want to happen, another paragraph added on page 73 of the regulatory disclaimers?

They care because Wall St. fucked over the entire planet in 2008 and these guys are sat around, bored, probably with an extra stimulus lying around, and have been told they can destroy a few hedge funds via GME.

I don't know how realistic that is, but the message is certainly powerful.

> who are here for the get-rich-quick

That means you’re there to gamble. You can’t waltz in expecting 1000% returns in a few days and pretend you’re not gambling.

I agree with this historically, being in the WSB old-timer club myself.

But there's about 5 million new people subscribed to that sub in the last couple weeks, and I don't believe they all know holding GME is gambling.

If you are buying GME at this point after the publicity, you know absolutely that it’s gambling. It’s had 50+% swings every day for the last week or so.

Even on WSB the posts are very much about it being a batte that has a potential of being lost. There is no pretense of GME being an investment that only goes up or that GME is some up and coming company.

there’s literally comments of people who say they only have 40 in their bank and they are spending it on meme stocks instead of gas to get to work. not sure what to say

I've spent a quarter of my rent money with no idea how I'd replace it when a highly reputed Asian Massage Parlor girl from Korea passed through our town's AMP and the internet rumors said she might not pass through again for a year. FOMO. That's life, who cares?

As far as I'm concerned, folks on this board who haven't at least once spent critical money for a passion are completely out of touch with the everyday realities of working class life.

> folks on this board who haven't at least once spent critical money for a passion are completely out of touch with the everyday realities of working class life.

Amen to that!

There’s people that make that trade off with alcohol and drugs as well. At least this has a non zero expected value.

> non zero expected value

day trading has always had -EV :)

Of course some know it is gambling but when the suicide hotlines inevitably show up i don't think you'll be saying they knew what they were signing up for.

some hedge funds will suffer greatly. (Melvin Capital, Citron Capital, Point72, D1 Capital Partners, Maplelane Capital, Candlestick Capital)

some benefit (Vanguard Group, SIG, Semvest Mgmt, MUST Asset Mgmt, BlackRock, Fideility Investments, Dimensional Fund Advisors, Maverick Capital) also Micheal Burry as well

it is more of a message for that - the power of the commoners can take down a few elites.

for some, it is to be part of the history

Michael Burry sold most of his holding in September last year. It's kind of why he's criticizing the reddit crowd.

Michael Burry is also a famous short-seller, who bet on the failure of the mortgage market while it went through one of the biggest crashes of the century. It shows how superficial most of these narratives are as they change from a value play in 2019 to turnaround/holiday runup in 2020 to occupy 2.0 by 2021.

> Why more people don't realize that this is a bubble is beyond me.

I think plenty of people recognize that it is a bubble, but they are planning on offloading to the bigger fools.

They aren't planning on offloading to the bigger fools, but rather to institutional short sellers who will eventually be forced to cover by escalating interest payments. I don't know if that will actually work, but apparently that's the plan.

The cost to borrow GME right now is outrageous but it's not unprecedented in the recent history of the stock. If 200% cost to borrow didn't put the shorts out of business last year, why would 50% do it now?

Because it never traded at $200+

> Why more people don't realize that this is a bubble is beyond me.

I think most people are just trying to make money and a bubble is a great way to make money. Until it isn't.

Perhaps because you are ignoring the people who are saying that making a profit is not their motivation. A lot of people bought GME with the willingness to lose their stake.

I think the fact that it's easy to make infinite accounts on reddit will end up showing this is a mob started by a dozen or so people to profit off of this.

Are you really not able to conceive of any other motivation?

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