2021·Short-form and streams·amazing
The GameStop short squeeze
A message board moved a share price thirty-fold and made the machinery of the market a public spectacle.
You might remember it as GME squeeze, apes together strong, r/wallstreetbets GameStop
It happened on television
- SourceNo single original
- MediaNot held by ViralWorld
What this was
In January 2021 users of the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets noticed that roughly 140 per cent of GameStop's available shares had been sold short, and bought. The rush by short sellers to cover drove the price up further, and on 28 January the stock touched over five hundred dollars against seventeen at the start of the month. Brokerages including Robinhood then halted buying, which turned a trade into a political argument.
It first appeared in 2021, during short-form and streams.
It is the moment internet culture and financial infrastructure collided in front of everybody. The language was pure forum — apes, diamond hands, to the moon — and it was being read out on business news. Hedge funds lost billions, a congressional hearing followed, and for several weeks the most-discussed thing on the internet was the plumbing of stock settlement.
Dozens of class actions followed the trading halt, the episode reshaped retail trading regulation debates, and it produced two feature films and a durable folk memory of a moment when the crowd appeared to win. Whether it actually did remains contested.
More from 2021
- FoodTok 2021Short-form and streams
- Noodle 2021Short-form and streams
- Wellerman 2021Short-form and streams
- Zoom Cat Lawyer 2021Short-form and streams
- Berries and Cream 2021Short-form and streams
- Bones or No Bones 2021Short-form and streams
- Bernie Sanders' mittens 2021Short-form and streams
- Devious licks 2021Short-form and streams
- Cheugy 2021Short-form and streams
- Silhouette Challenge 2021Short-form and streams
Short-form and streams
- Doggface208 Dreams video 2020Short-form and streams
- Hawk Tuah 2024Short-form and streams
- Moo Deng 2024Short-form and streams
- Sigma Boy 2024Short-form and streams
- AI slop 2024Short-form and streams
- Grimace Shake 2023Short-form and streams
- Skibidi Toilet 2023Short-form and streams
- Rizz 2023Short-form and streams
Related
- This kind-hearted man rescued a trapped seagull and then ... 2024Short-form and streams
- Incredible Skills Caught on Camera! 🌟 Top Satisfying Moments of Amazing Workers 2024Short-form and streams
- Girl Accidentally Films Stunning Meteor Fall in Portugal 2024Short-form and streams
- Unbelievable Sight Caught on Camera! What Are These Strange Balls of Fire in the Sky? 2020Short-form and streams
- Crawler Lightning Flashes Across Night Sky 2020Short-form and streams
- Mother Nature Angry Caught On Camera | Amazing Monster Flash Flood #1 2020Short-form and streams
- Incredible driving Skills | Caught on camera 2020Short-form and streams
- Mother Nature Angry Caught On Camera | Amazing Monster Flash Flood /punatshangchu # 2020Short-form and streams
Grouped by explicit relationships where evidence exists, and by shared theme otherwise.
Behind the recordWhere it came from
There is no original to identify: this spread through many separate posts at once rather than from a first one. ViralWorld holds no copy of it either — what it was, when it spread and what people called it is the record.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first version of this, because research established there was not one — it appeared in many places at once.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
- What happens
- In January 2021 users of the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets noticed that roughly 140 per cent of GameStop's available shares had been sold short, and bought. The rush by short sellers to cover drove the price up further, and on 28 January the stock touched over five hundred dollars against seventeen at the start of the month. Brokerages including Robinhood then halted buying, which turned a trade into a political argument.