[SpicyLemonZest]

The big pumping has only happened over the last few days. Hedge funds are starting to close their short positions (two of the most noted ones Melvin and Citron announced they had just this morning), and many commentators do expect that this will cause the stock to crash soon as people move on.

[bpodgursky]

Not to tinfoil this too much, but it seems pretty likely from volume that that was a lie by Melvin and Citron, with the explicit goal of tanking the stock (so they can then cover at a lower price).

[kickopotomus]

Agreed. The timing is also rather suspect. I am not sure why they wouldn't have announced it last night if they closed out yesterday. Instead, they waited until this morning after a ~100% jump in price. I find it hard to believe that news organizations haven't been reaching out to them pretty consistently over the last few days since they appear to be the explicit target of the WSB crowd.

[floxy]

Would lying not be a crime here? Maybe not if the position was all from their personal accounts. But wouldn't it be a problem if you were trading other people's money, and you ended up on the losing end, wouldn't you have problems with lawsuits from your clients, saying they were duped, and they would have pulled their money out, if not for this lie? (Or something similar)

[Yoofie]

Lying is a crime, but as we all know the punishment from the SEC and other regulatory agencies is usually a small "fine" that actually never prevents bad behavior. For many Wall street types, paying fines is literally part of the cost of doing business.

Its better for a business to be in court and pay fines then to be broke and bankrupt.

[andrethegiant]

They announced they closed outside of trading hours, which makes me think they didn't actually close. Why wouldn't they announce at the close yesterday to prevent the run up to 300?

[kemiller2002]

Am I correct in saying that if someone can forecast approximately when that will happen, they can short the stock and make money off of the mass selloff? Essentially putting the short sellers back where they started (in a sense)?

[SpicyLemonZest]

In principle, but it's fundamentally challenging to forecast this kind of thing. For example, Kodak is still up almost 300% (down from like 1,000% in July) on the news of a government loan they haven't received and a pivot to pharmaceuticals manufacturing they haven't started.

[unanswered]

If you think you can outsmart both the hedge funds and WSB, go right ahead. I for one will simply regret my lack of faith causing me to miss out on 4000% returns (so far) and move on.