[mattbrewsbytes]

A pump and dump is a scheme done on purpose with misleading or exaggerated statements to boost a price while holding a significant amount of shares and then sell the shares at some peak [0]. Wolf of Wall Street got caught with a pump and dump. This wasn't a pump and dump.

When a stock is shorted 140% of its outstanding shares it's simply a supply/demand math problem. Eventually those short positions come due via whoever owns them paying too much interest or a margin call and they have to buy actual shares. This demand for shares makes the stock go temporarily up when there aren't enough shares to go around. This happened with VW in 2008 and they temporarily became the most valued company on the planet via a short squeeze [1]. It is a simple supply/demand market correction.

Retail traders, and I'm certain other large investment firms with huge amounts of capital, tuned into this and bought shares knowing that the situation would resolve itself. There are a half-dozen other stocks with similar but smaller short percentages.

Robinhood is doing the opposite of their name, they give people an outlet to dump their money and risky features to lose it quickly. They have been fined by the SEC [2] for not disclosing revenue sources and "provided inferior trade prices that in aggregate deprived customers of $34.1 million" they take deposits from the ignorant, let them do risky things which give their money to Wall St.

[0] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp

[1] https://www.autoweek.com/news/industry-news/a35340727/heres-...

[2] https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-321