You ever heard that phrase check your ego at the door? Arrogance can and will destroy your business one way or the other, and I'm about to prove it to you.
This is another marketing with Tim podcast. My name is Tim Burt.
If you have kids, you’ve probably experienced this phenomenon. This stock market tale which I’m about to tell you is no different than you trying to score the hottest Christmas toy for your kid. When the stores are sold out of that toy, what do you do? You find someone who has one, and then pay them an extremely overinflated price to get it.
If you've been paying attention at all to the stock market over the last week, you've probably heard the incredible story of GameStop, AMC theatres, bed bath and beyond, and a few other stocks that have been decimated over the last few years.
On Wall Street there are companies called hedge funds. Their job is to basically put other businesses out of businesses by borrowing stock, selling it to an investor, and then driving the price down. These hedge funds then buy the stock back at a lower price and pocket the difference. This is known as “shorting” a stock.
Keep in mind, in a lot of cases, they are doing this with stock that they don't even own.
These hedge funds have been operating this way for so many years and made so much money, that they've practically achieved the status of being untouchable.
Over on the message board Reddit there is a sub-page called wallstreetbets. One extremely savvy user named deep expletive value discovered that one of these hedge funds named Melvin capital was shorting the position on GameStop stock. In fact, they were shorting the stock at 140% of the available supply. Meaning they were trying to sell – and short sell – at least 40% of something that didn’t exist.
How is this possible? Is it even legal? Probably not. But that's another discussion for another time.
So our friend Deep Expletive Value over on the Reddit message convinced enough people from around the world to start buying GameStop stock in a well-timed and coordinated attack on the Hedge Fund. This would drive up the price and severely damage Melvin Capital. Because they – just like you trying to get that hot toy at Christmas - would have to pay overinflated prices to buy the stock back just to cover their original short position.
Over the last week GameStop stock went from roughly $20 a share to almost 500 dollars. Adding fuel to the buying frenzy were celebrities such as Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, the rapper Ja Rule, and others. They were offering advice, and in some cases, encouraging people to buy.
This insane price spike cost the hedge funds at least 10 billion dollars – if not more – this week alone.
And the group of investors which all started on Reddit had grown from a ragtag few to thousands of people. Not just in the United States, but around the world. They wanted to get back at the Wall Street hedge funds who had a large part in the 2008 economic crash, received government bailouts, and still destroyed countless lives. This is the ultimate stick in the eye from David to Goliath.
So what would any normal rational thinking business owner do? They would probably cut their losses lick their wounds and go home. But not Melvin capital. Instead, during this incredible price surge we saw during the week, Melvin capital actually doubled down on their short position. A display of arrogance so brazen, it's almost hard to comprehend.
But it wasn't just one business that adopted this arrogant position, there were a few others. The most prominent and notable of these businesses that let their ego get out of control is the online trading platform Robin Hood.
Robin Hood is an investing app to allow the average everyday person buy stock - even at a fraction of a share. And it’s where a lot of GameStop stock was being bought.
When the price of GameStop AMC and all these other stocks skyrocketed, Robin Hood took the unprecedented step of not allowing their users to buy the stocks. At one point, you could sell GameStop, but you couldn’t buy it.
Oh, it gets worse: over half of the people using the Robin Hood app own GameStop stock.
And do you know who controls Robin Hood? Melvin capital.
It's ironic for an app named Robin Hood, which implies take from the rich and give to the poor, that all of a sudden, they took the extremely unpopular position of defending the rich hedge fund.
You can imagine the uproar on Reddit and even on traditional media outlets such as CNBC Bloomberg and Fox business. Even the Robin hood CEO bravely appeared on a few of these shows and defended the position of not allowing their users to buy GameStop stock. He claimed it was to protect the company, and the investors.
Meanwhile most of the talking head expert financial people on CNBC Bloomberg etc were saying that this coordinated attack by a bunch of millennials who had no idea what they were doing, and they were going to get hurt. That couldn't be further from the truth.
I personally have seen screenshots of people on Reddit who have lost $10 million in GameStop stock since the price jumped. and yet they were still holding $7 million of GameStop stock. Hardly the person I would call a millennial.
But what these talking heads were really doing was twofold. One - they were defending their hedge fund buddies on Wall Street, and two - they were portraying the very people whose dollars they depend on as stupid.
This is a level of arrogance in marketing and public relations I don't think any of us have ever seen.
Had Melvin capital not doubled down, took their losses and regrouped, and if Robin Hood hadn't restricted their own users from buying GameStop stock AMC and others, they could have avoided a massive public backlash.
Instead, Melvin Capital and Robin Hood chose the wrong path. They let their ego get in the way. Arrogance has killed many businesses, but hardly any more high-profile than this.
Many Robin Hood users on Reddit have said that once the dust settles from this incredible stock run, that they are closing out their Robin Hood accounts.
Which begs the question, when will this end?
that's hard to say. The vast majority of these read it users who have bought GameStop stock, AMC, bed bath and beyond and others, have said that they are not selling. In fact, they have a term for it. It’s called “diamond hands.”
And if they take a loss, they don't care. This is about principle. This is about teaching the hedge funds, who have rigged Wall Street for so long for the average consumer, a lesson that they will never forget.
So what does that mean? Just like that hot Christmas toy, the longer somebody holds onto it, the more the price increases. Therefore, if these people who own these stocks don’t sell, and the hedge funds have to settle their short contracts, they will be forced to pay an exorbitant price for stocks that were worth far less just days ago.
And that price could be just high enough to bankrupt Melvin capital, and other hedge funds.
My prediction is that Robin Hood as an investment platform is essentially done. They will be relegated to the Myspace online trading apps. As for Melvin Capital? Time will tell.
There is a silver lining to this crazy story. GameStop and AMC have raised so much money that they've been able to lower, or get out of, their corporate debt. In the end, a well-timed and well-researched plan from one savvy investor on a message board on the Internet may just save two very large American businesses.
And yet some of these talking head experts are pretending that this is a bad thing. I disagree.
in fact, one person on Reddit said he made so much money off is GameStop stock, that he went and bought 200 video game consoles from GameStop and donated them to a Children's Hospital in Dallas with his profits. The local news did a story about him. What's wrong with that?
The bottom line here: the second that you think you or your business is above or better than anybody else - especially your consumers - is the very second you will go into a tailspin from which you may not be able to recover.
Check your ego at the door.

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