A new fangled twist on the classic Pump and Dump scheme. a/k/a Make Money Fast.

Those not knowing, the classic pump and dump used a penny stock and social media and e-mail campaign. Crooks tossed a dart at the list of penny stocks. Bought a bunch. Waited a bit so that volume moved down the chart. Then they started the tout phase usually saying the earnings were going to be off the charts. As the price explodes they would sell out and make their profit and off to the next dart in the list of stocks. SEC got wise and made some of this a bit harder and the marks got smarter.

New method captures both the run up and the crash down. Game Stop isn't a penny stock. It has put/call options, a trading a profit multiplier. Because it is much more widely followed the classic pump scheme won't work. The crooks had to come up with a new angle. What better than to make the mark think he is stealing from a wall street fat cat? So the crooks find a stock with a large open short. Buy a bit and the options for an upside move. Then start the social media pump campaign. Up it goes and they squeeze the big short out as well, really driving the price up. Now at the top they sell out and even short it themselves and buy options for the crash. So now the crook has the mark's stock, the short, and he makes profit on the crash as well. Twice the return on the same scheme. With the way people eat conspiracy theory today it is perfect!

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It was a good redistribution of wealth moment. ;-)

As L/Cpl Jones used to say "They don't like it up 'em".

The latest surge comes as the damage to one Wall Street firm becomes clearer.
Hedge fund Melvin Capital lost 53% in January, according to media reports.
However, the firm received commitments for fresh cash from investors in the last days of January, and ended the month with $8bn (£5.8bn) in assets after having started the year with roughly $12.5bn, according to Reuters.

Small traders now target Silver.
Good luck to them.

Hedge funds – what are they and why are they in the news?

Why are hedge fund managers so rich?

Hedge fund managers are so rich because of the business structure of hedge funds. Management and performance fees combine to produce a lucrative remuneration package. Essentially, hedge fund managers receive a flat management fee alongside a percentage of the hedge fund’s profits. Many hedge fund managers are responsible for billions of dollars of capital, and their remuneration is proportionate to this.

It's just rich people gambling with little people's hard earned cash and I don't mind this latest move against them at all, even proper stock brokers/managers need better controls put on them.