Can’tStop Won’tStop
How GameStop stocks made ordinary Americans go for broke
JEREMY was a 22-year-old college senior who took his $6,000 textbook money and turned it into $109,977. Kim was a single mom and psychiatric nurse hoping to pay for her kid’s braces only to get caught up in a much bigger search for meaning.
Sara was a pregnant 30-year-old hair-salon worker who used her stimulus money to be part of the hype, only to lose nearly all of it.
Win or lose, all three people were among the thousands of ordinary Americans who bought into last winter’s headline-grabbing GameStop “stonk” frenzy with a higher mission in mind.
“They bought GameStop in an attempt to stick it to the man,” said Ben Mezrich, whose new book, “The Antisocial Network” (Grand Central Publishing), is out now. (Mezrich has changed some of his subjects’ names to protect their privacy.)
The hype all started with a 34year-old broker named Keith Gill. From his basement computer in Brockton, Mass., Gill wrote regular posts on a subReddit forum called WallStreetBets, touting what he believed were undervalued stocks, using the handle “Roaring Kitty.”
In fall of 2019, Gill was all in on GameStop, buying $53,000 at around $5 a share. Through research, he had discovered that nearly every share of the stock was being sold short — meaning it had been borrowed by investors who believed the price would fall and they could later resell for a profit.
But Gill knew that if the stock price rose instead of falling, a socalled “short squeeze” would ensue, putting pressure on those who borrowed the shares to buy more to return to their lenders — thereby forcing the share price even higher.
“It would be like watching investors trying to get out of a burning building, through a single, narrow door,” Mezrich writes. “The stock would rocket.”
His posts on Reddit won converts, and by January 2021, GameStop’s share price had exploded to nearly $350 — a 6,900 percent increase.
Jeremy invested all his savings in GameStop, buying 200 shares at an average price of $15.44, then another 150 at $19.20 for a total investment of nearly $6,000.
Sara was sick of the big Wall Street players getting rich while regular people got the shaft. She bought 10 shares at $354 for an investment of $3,540.
“Maybe, finally, it would be her turn,” she thought.
Kim had lost money on stocks before. But as the GameStop hype grew, she feared missing out and cautiously invested $1,600 at $16 a share, buying 100 shares.
After that, she checked her phone constantly, watching as the stock price doubled in a day and continued to rise. She was pleased with the stock surge, but even more thrilled to earn the respect of her teen son.
“Getting cool points from a teenager was almost as good as getting accolades from Jim Cramer,” Mezrich writes.
GameStop eventually rocketed to more than $400 a share, with the Reddit mob claiming it was heading to $1,000.
Instead, on Jan. 28, trading became too frenzied. Robinhood, an investing app used by many GameStop investors, halted trading and the share price suddenly took a swift dive.
Jeremy, whose family had been begging him to sell for weeks, finally relented and sold at $314 a share, turning his investment into a six-figure windfall.
Kim still hasn’t decided whether to hold, sell or even buy more. Today, GameStop is at $178 a share, so if she sold now, she’d still make quite a bit.
“Her world might always be unfair, and her life might always be messy. But a big part of her liked messy,” the author writes.
Sara, meanwhile, had bought too high. But, even though her investment had bombed, she still took pride in being part of the movement.
“Her ten shares of GameStop were sitting at one-sixth the price she’d bought them at,” Mezrich writes. “But they were still hers.”
Across
1 Only astronaut to fly in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs 8 Sushi order 11 Short blue person? 14 Exile of 1979 18 Small bits of color 19 Easter lead-in 20 “Xanadu” rock gp. 21 Aqua __: U.K. mineral water brand 22 Place for reading recipes? 24 Fragrant teaflavoring shrubs 26 Quakers in forests? 27 E-mailed 28 Ink on a billionaire? 29 Extreme disorder 30 Through 31 Madrid mama bear 33 “The Bald Soprano” playwright 34 City center street performer? 38 Flash __ 39 Third-party accounts 43 Provide with the latest 44 Green stone 45 Where one trying to score may be out 46 U.S. Army medal 48 Classic Pontiac 49 __ pool 50 Like some stockings 51 Congers 53 React to a sprint 55 A montage of them was presented at the 2006 Oscars 56 Native Alaskans 58 Fencing moves 61 Nothing special 62 Bit of carelessness at cocktail hour? 64 Long stretches 66 They’re usually unbeatable 68 Accustoms (to) 69 Storied building material 70 Fit 71 Feds under Ness 72 Current amount 73 Mail ctrs. 75 Stadium cheer 78 Offbeat 79 Eyed impolitely, with “at” 80 Bath buggy 81 Not at all light 83 Corn syrup component 84 Joplin’s “Maple Leaf __” 85 Postal mishap? 89 Legislative group, e.g. 91 Backing-up key 92 Bit in a horse’s mouth 93 Cleaning tools, for short 97 Starter for a noncompetitive race? 99 Deli stock 101 Formed with the tip of the tongue, like the letter L 103 Property receivers, at law 104 Reality TV believer? 106 Axes 107 KC-to-NYC dir. 108 “The Ice Storm” director Lee 109 Acted like 110 Most massive known dwarf planet 111 Rehab hurdle 112 Screening org. 113 Western movie threat
Down
1 Imagine, colloquially 2 Horse-and-buggy ride sounds 3 Cod relatives 4 Library vol. ID 5 Letters after pis 6 1906 Runabout, e.g. 7 Shows hospitality toward, as a visitor 8 Before long, to Shakespeare 9 Bird named for
its cry 10 Annoy 11 “This seems familiar” word 12 Jubilance 13 University of Idaho city 14 Malice 15 Spider that stalks its prey 16 Opening number? 17 Surely is 18 Con job 23 Bar specification 25 “Death in Venice” author 28 Aspect 30 Bugs with brakes 32 Wrapped in a blanket, say 34 Mosque toppers 35 Due 36 Block off 37 Award-winning Mark Tatulli comic strip 39 Relaxes 40 Apply, as a brake 41 Lawn chair 42 Hanks sobriquet for films like “You’ve Got Mail”? 44 Fashionista dog? 46 Knish sellers 47 Ooze 49 Oxlike antelope 52 Stretch 53 Letters before chi 54 Duchamp contemporary 56 “What about me?!” 57 Layered Italian dessert 58 General direction 59 Bullfight figure 60 Traps
62 Long-running forensic series 63 First name in an 1857 case 65 Activist Greta Thunberg, e.g. 67 Hosp. units 69 Suspect 72 End of a ball game? 73 Like table salt 74 Composer of solo violin Études 75 “Vive le __!” 76 Karen of “Starman” 77 Fashion lines 80 Introduction 81 Portraitist John Singer __ 82 Long-vowel symbols 83 Tatami, e.g. 85 Leave speechless 86 “Thanks, it’s already done” 87 “Stay” singer
Lisa seen in GEICO ads 88 “Get a move on!” 90 Salad green 93 Like some popular videos 94 Perceptive 95 Pole tossed by a Scot 96 Downhill traveler 98 Applications 100 Discipline with stretches 101 Lie next to 102 Hide 104 Cricket club 105 Thurman of “Pulp Fiction”