[bluGill]

Shorts are rarely due at all. If those who hold the shorts have enough capital then they can just hold until the market loses interest, and then cover their shorts at $2. Or better yet, even with a sky high stock price gamestop could be forced to declare bankruptcy by their creditors. If I had shorts on gamestop I'd be looking to get all the companies bonds I could so that when the bankruptcy goes to court I can say I want the company shut down and the judge listens to me. The company could be trading at $1000/share and suddenly the judge orders it to stop trading and suddenly there is zero value in any shares.

If you want to be a conspiracy theorist, the smart thing for the insiders (those who control the board) to do would be to sell all their shares at this price, then declare bankruptcy. This would be illegal of courses, but there are lots of variations on this theme that make financial sense if you can get away with it.

[ZephyrBlu]

I think the whole deal here is that people buying $GME wanted to jack the price up exactly to force the shorts into a margin call, and therefore liquidation.

Alternatively, I think a lot of people believed a chunk of put options were expiring soon which would cause a lot of contracts to be executed (I.e. forced stock buying).