[MegaButts]

They don't think they'll save GameStop and almost nobody cares. They just want to see hedge funds lose money, and they've already lost billions so many have already objectively succeeded.

They also love to see Jim Cramer have meltdowns, which is almost every day now.

If you want to hate on /r/wsb that's fine (there are many legitimate reasons to hate that subreddit), but don't pretend to understand something you clearly don't.

[kminehart]

Here's my hot take: they're victims of a pump-and-dump, only instead of enticed by the promise of a get-rich-quick scheme, they're experiencing groupthink while people encouraging and controlling this narrative are running away to the bank.

[MegaButts]

There is definitely a ton of shilling on /r/wsb and people outside thinking there is any single collective entity are ridiculously wrong.

Some people are pushing pump and dumps to make money. Some are ignorantly following along. Some genuinely treat it like a gambling addiction and enjoy it.

The GME thing though is unique, and there really is a narrative to hurt hedgies (in addition to all of the above).

[jjoonathan]

Yep. One hedge fund lost billions while a dozen more who could spare the effort to model these pumps made away with every penny the "rebels" spent!

[Aunche]

>they've already lost billions so many have already objectively succeeded

Hedge funds lost billions to the original WSB actors who wanted to profit from a short squeeze. The activist investors of GME were just handing the hedge funds more money.

Jim Cramer is entirely a performer now. It's his job to put on a show and have meltdowns.

[mlrtime]

Some hedge funds lost billions, other hedge funds maid billions. Some HF will short and still make billions.

[Aunche]

Hedge funds make money by having better information than their opponents. When buy and HODL appears on national news, you know that hedge funds are accounting for this in their strategy. It's naive to assume that activist investors could hurt them at this point.

[MegaButts]

That was the narrative a month ago before Melvin announced losing billions, so much they actually required billions in emergency capital. "We've closed our positions. Now please sell GME."

'The hedge funds are smarter' is as stupid as 'the VCs know better.' It's a narrative they have to push to stay relevant. Otherwise they'd just point towards their balance sheets to shut people up.

It's theoretically impossible for hedge funds, in aggregate, to outperform the market.

https://web.stanford.edu/~wfsharpe/art/active/active.htm

[Aunche]

You're assuming that hedge funds trade like self-professed WSB autists rather than professionals. There is a difference in being stupid and being completely nonsensical. You don't ask stochastic calculus interview questions, and simultaneously risk your entire holdings on HODLing all your shorts.

> We've closed our positions. Now please sell GME

Nobody would expect anyone to behave that way. Hedge funds have clients and need to reassure them that they aren't going to lose all their money. Any rational investor knew that Melvin could have opened up new short positions after GME had skyrocketed.

Hedge funds may not be smart enough be beat the market, but they're certainly smarter than a group of people who learned what a "short" is, after the squeeze.

[MegaButts]

I'm sorry, but what are you talking about? Everything you say is a denial of reality.

> Nobody would expect anyone to behave that way. Hedge funds have clients and need to reassure them that they aren't going to lose all their money. Any rational investor knows that Melvin could be opening up new short positions after GME had skyrocketed.

I don't care what people expected. I'm telling you what happened. And Melvin lost money. Obviously some hedge funds made money too, but you are specifically defending Melvin's position wrt GME.

> Hedge funds may not be smart enough be beat the market, but they're certainly smarter than a group of people who learned what a "short" is, after the squeeze.

This is why hedge funds lost money in the first place. Your denial is the fuel that continues to make /r/wsb successful, so honestly I find it refreshing. You want to believe you/they are smarter. That's it. You have no data to back up your claim. If you were right, GME would never have popped a second time and it would be trading for less than 1/10 its current price. You can call it irrational all you want, this opportunity is making people money that reject your thesis.

I'll continue to bet my money on my thesis and so far I have been ridiculously successful (far more than I was making at FAANG). I've already pocketed enough to retire so I'm not concerned about volatility. I encourage you to invest your money however you see fit. I'll do the same. So far it's working great for me.

[xenocratus]

> They just want to see hedge funds lose money, and they've already lost billions so many have already objectively succeeded.

They want to see hedge funds lose money, and some have lost billions while others made billions, so what exactly was acomplished?

[kevinmchugh]

I understand opposition to hedge funds, but it's not the case that they were all short GameStop. Some were long and made a lot of money by selling into the WSB fervor. Others were not especially interested but must have seen the price grow by 20x and seen a great opportunity to short it.

I have a high school friend who posted that they didn't care if they lost their entire investment, this was about sending a message. I'm not sure what that message was.

[rtkwe]

> Others were not especially interested but must have seen the price grow by 20x and seen a great opportunity to short it.

Near the peak I don't think there were shares available to short though, at least not publicly offered who knows what was available through Bloomberg chat.

[fredophile]

There might not have been shares available to short but a hedge fund could still sell a lot of options. If you sold call options anywhere near the peak you could have easily closed your position by now and taken pretty much the entire sale price as pure profit.

[throwaway5752]

Yes, those are very bad investing reasons. And while it feels like a game, they are investing with real money. It's not just entertainment. They will end up making different hedge funds richer, and will only end up poorer and more resentful in the end.

[Barrin92]

>They just want to see hedge funds lose money

more accurately, they wanted to see one hedge fund lose money, others, and plenty of private equity firms like Silver Lake have made a killing because of the spectacle. And I'm sure Jim Cramer loves the attention too even if he has to play the enraged TV personality for a while.

[klmadfejno]

Jim Cramer must hate it when people watch his show