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Comment by gopher_space | Hacker News Reader

The vibe on /r/wallstreetbets seems to be "this all makes sense as a massive pump and dump". Very useful source of info if you view them as essentially black boxing the stock market.

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Game recognize game.

Anyone can see this is a pump and dump. Trump literally tweeted that it's a great time to buy right before announcing tariffs.

> it's a great time to buy right before announcing tariffs.

you mean annoucing the pause?

he flip flops so much i have no idea what's goign on anymore.

I mean, WSB isn’t a serious place, but they have their moments. I just have no idea who would or even could “pump” the entire S&P 500. My best theory of the last month is just basic “sell in May and go away” theory where you get rosier fundamentals in spring because everyone buries the bad news in Q1 reports, but it’s more difficult to hide as the fiscal year actually happens.

The signal to noise ratio is difficult but now and then a factoid pops up - like the amount of retail investors piling in recently. It aligns with messaging in other forms of media that they, well, only use as indicators and frequently don’t take seriously. I’m using it often as a useful tool for counter-balancing my long term plans with the impatient gambling mentality which feeds the machine there. I learned my lesson ages ago from ZeroHedge about being overly bearish and things didn’t play out, so WSB is helpful in my situation because in principle I agree with the market is distorted assertion but believe the collapse will manifest months from now and this is a sucker’s market. Q2 earnings calls are going to be telling.

I don’t think any collapse is coming. I just think the risk profile doesn’t justify many of my smaller cap investments, and where I am in life.

A factoid is something that is masquerading as a fact, not a small fact.

Indeed, the suffix '-oid,' when appended to nominal stems, frequently functions as a significant etymological marker, often denoting mere semblance, superficial imitation, or, with particular pertinence to the present deliberation, an inherent spuriousness or ersatz quality. Accordingly, the primordial definition of 'factoid'—a term whose coinage is frequently attributed to Norman Mailer—designates an item of information presented as if it were an established fact but which is, in reality, unverified or demonstrably fallacious, yet achieves widespread acceptance as truth through its persistent promulgation, especially within journalistic or mass media contexts. The subsequent, more contemporary construal of 'factoid' as merely signifying a 'trivial' or 'minor piece of information' represents a notable semantic deviation, a misconception whose widespread dissemination has been paradoxically facilitated by the very media channels implicated in the term's original, pejorative sense. Ergo, in a compelling instance of recursive irony, this now prevalent, albeit technically inaccurate, understanding of 'factoid' (as a diminutive datum) has itself metamorphosed into a quintessential exemplar of a 'factoid' according to its original definition: an unsubstantiated assertion that has gained popular currency through sustained, uncritical repetition.

> I just have no idea who would or even could “pump” the entire S&P 500.

Have you not been paying attention? Tariff announcements.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

It’s not like WSB has any inside info, and we conspiracy theories are always “fun”.

> I just have no idea who would or even could “pump” the entire S&P 500.

The White House, evidently. After the 90-day pause was "leaked" on Twitter[1], the market gained trillions in value, which it promptly lost when the White House disavowed it, before gaining back after the president posted that "It [was] a good time to buy DJT" (paraphrasing), and then formally announcing the 90-day tariff pause a few hours later.

1. The jury is still out whether that was an actual leak, or a guess that later became policy.

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