Note: Invest at your own risk. Do you own homework before buying / selling. Don’t assume advice posted here is financially sound.

Wanted to create an investment thread about stocks and how market conditions can impact those investments.

Thought about creating one in 2020 but with COVID & other items going on, I didn’t. Instead, I posted in a similar thread on another non-investing web site.
 
Posts can include topics relating to individual securities : stocks, bonds, options, indices, & ETFs.
Sharing informative links encourage.  
Please DON’T get political or posts will be removed. 

Isn’t it this? Wall Street has got to think they can outlast the common folk, right?

This is a fascinating exercise in crowdsourcing information and the power of group think.

Crazy.  45 minutes to go and GME is trending UP.

3 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Crazy.  45 minutes to go and GME is trending UP.

market in general, allot of my watch list going green

yeah, I would have guessed the party would be over with the option contracts closing today... but I guess not!

 

Funny think is that lots of people are starting to realize that Robinhood isn't the "market for the little guy"... it's a schill for the big guys.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjpnz5/robinhoods-customers-are-hedge-funds-like-citadel-its-users-are-the-product

25 minutes ago, House Schubert said:

yeah, I would have guessed the party would be over with the option contracts closing today... but I guess not!

 

Funny think is that lots of people are starting to realize that Robinhood isn't the "market for the little guy"... it's a schill for the big guys.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjpnz5/robinhoods-customers-are-hedge-funds-like-citadel-its-users-are-the-product

The WSB crew are all planning to abandon ship after the dust settles on this story. Can't say I blame them.

24 minutes ago, CsabaLazlo said:

The WSB crew are all planning to abandon ship after the dust settles on this story. Can't say I blame them.

Abandon ship on RH or on GME?

1 minute ago, Alpinemaps said:

Abandon ship on RH or on GME?

On Robin Hood. They're still holding their stock there as they can't transfer it out instantly but, they'll move to a different broker as soon as they sell their shares.

Robinhood is dead. The sacrificial lamb. They served their purpose.  

 

2 weeks ago, the co-founders were paper billionaires.  IPO isn't going to happen now.

47 minutes ago, dennugsmello said:

Robinhood is dead. The sacrificial lamb. They served their purpose.  

 

If not Robinhood, where would they go?

1 minute ago, exracer327 said:

If not Robinhood, where would they go?

Fidelity is being pimped at the moment as they didn't restrict trading.

10 minutes ago, CsabaLazlo said:

Fidelity is being pimped at the moment as they didn't restrict trading.

Oh great.  It was glitchy as **** today.  Can't wait for extra 100k users

I can't stand what Robin Hood did but their app has been easy to navigate and glitch free for me.

The ALLY app sucks and i might close it down since they didn't restrict trading per se, just couldn't log in at all during this amazing moment.  It's happened sporatically with them before.

Does anyone have any reviews of an app they use that has worked well and didn't restrict trades?

Rocket (RKT) might be taking off!

I actually tweeted about this. There is no reason for $rkt to be shorted 30%. They make a ton of money ($3b profit in Q3 2020). It’s a joke but at least we now know why Rocket’s stock stayed between $18 & $22 for so long.

I was in meetings today at the close but was thinking this morning that the last couple hours would be interesting on GME.

A lot of retail investor folks are trading the call options and may not understand assignments.  If your option expires "in-the-money" at the market close of the option expiration, then most brokerages will auto-assign the option.  I.e., if you had bought a $300 GME call, and it was worth $350 at the close on Friday and you still have it, then they will assign the call and the original buyer will have to come up with 100 shares of GME stock and take $30K for it (options are always 100 shares).  If they don't have the stock (a "naked" sell versus a "covered" sell), they'll have to buy it at market price, but folks selling naked calls are usually more versed in the market risks and have to get special brokerage approval.

Anyways, in my example, those people who were stuck holding the call -- either forgot to sell it, couldn't sell it, or don't understand them, are now required to come up with $30K for each contract.  If they don't have $30K sitting around, and the brokerage doesn't expect to see this money, then the brokerage can buy and sell (i.e. a margin call) -- as a courtesy.  This isn't usually a problem during the weekend with typical stock volatility.  But GME doesn't have typical volatility and I wouldn't trust my brokerage to get a favorable buy-and-sell value.  I.e. at $350, my call option is worth $5000 at market close, but could be worth $0 or $10K if it goes down to $300 or up to $400 before the brokerage converts it.  Or, if I had the cash in my account, do I want $30K in GME stock over a weekend right now?  Nope.  I'd do everything in my power to get rid of that option -- sell it to someone else (maybe the original seller is buying it back) -- so I would expect that the sell side of the options to be fairly extensive.  Looking at the numbers, it looks like the option volumes were many times the open interest -- those options shifted hands many times today like a game of hot potato!

Folks may discover this weekend they own a lot of stock they didn't own today, but didn't have the cash to cover the purchase -- with the brokerage forcing them to sell.  I haven't looked at the numbers to see how the number of options compares to the float, but it could make dent.  Or it could just be an academic exercise.

Fun to watch.  The only downside I see to this, personally, is that the SEC will be "required to do something about it" and there will be a slew of new regulations that create problems for normal and reasonable investing that shouldn't be necessary given that people will learn from this example such that it is unlikely to happen again.

 

13 minutes ago, TheBrickClique said:

Fun to watch.  The only downside I see to this, personally, is that the SEC will be "required to do something about it" and there will be a slew of new regulations that create problems for normal and reasonable investing that shouldn't be necessary given that people will learn from this example such that it is unlikely to happen again.

This 100%.  I was reading an opinion from a long timer who basically said the younguns do not learn from history.  Some spectacular stock market things happened in 2008, 2009, 2010 and EVERY SINGLE TIME the rules got tightened for retails.  Meanwhile the big money could still do what they're doing with impunity.

These people do not like to lose and they will use their influence in government to make up new rules

No diamond hands for me. I took my profits and got out. I sold 302 shares of BB at $23.13 on the 27th and instantly bought more LEGO. The only stock I own now is Marcus Cinema. 

 

2 hours ago, Darth_Raichu said:

This 100%.  I was reading an opinion from a long timer who basically said the younguns do not learn from history.  Some spectacular stock market things happened in 2008, 2009, 2010 and EVERY SINGLE TIME the rules got tightened for retails.  Meanwhile the big money could still do what they're doing with impunity.

These people do not like to lose and they will use their influence in government to make up new rules

Yep, the politicians just want their donations.

7 hours ago, cambridge02138 said:

Pricing comes down to supply and demand

If the last trading price is $x, if there is now demand at >$x and there is now supply at >$x, then a trade takes place at a price >$x.

If a hedge fund or any other investor wants to cover a naked short position by buying the underlying stock, then such investor could put in a bid of $y.  If all asking prices are >$y, then the bid is not executed.  If there is a asking price <= $y, then the bid is executed.  

Traders could see these bids, asks, and completed transactions.  Based on this data, traders could adjust their bid and ask prices, thus impacting supply and demand.

Thanks for the response. I guess I was more so wondering at what point $y < $x stops mattering and the shorts have to lube up and make $y = $x. Do they get charged interest for waiting? Is there a hard deadline and they are just forced to cough up money for the lowest available ask? 

Also, if AMC were to authorize more shares this weekend, would that just eff up everybody's world who is currently "holding the line?" 

On 1/28/2021 at 2:06 PM, Gonkalin said:

So who is getting burned here? Besides the short sellers. I was lucky and bought $5K of AMC before all this stuf started (completely unrelated to the reddit stuff) so I sold out at opening yesterday for a $10K profit with a 24 hour hold. Took half of that 10K and bought $5K of NOK which I'm currently down $1700. But up $8300 on the 2 days. And this is play money for me so nothing to worry about if it goes bad. Lots of people got caught with their pants down today I'm sure. 

Meanwhile, AAPL reports the most profit of any company in the history of the world and the stock is down 1.5%. Crazy world we're living in for sure.

Nokia is a long term hold so don’t expect anything quick. 

Anyone who sold right away is making a big mistake, the potential of GameStop is enormous. Patience is key, the short sellers are going to fold next week

56 minutes ago, BillyBricks said:

Thanks for the response. I guess I was more so wondering at what point $y < $x stops mattering and the shorts have to lube up and make $y = $x. Do they get charged interest for waiting? Is there a hard deadline and they are just forced to cough up money for the lowest available ask? 

Also, if AMC were to authorize more shares this weekend, would that just eff up everybody's world who is currently "holding the line?" 

When an investor initiates a short position, he's borrowing shares from someone else and then selling these shares in the market.  There are margin requirements imposed on this investor. 

• As the price of the stock rises, the margin requirements increases.  If the investor is unable to meet the margin call, the broker may unilaterally close out the short position by buying back shares at the prevailing higher price to close out the short position, resulting in a loss for the investor.
• The margin lender has the right to call the borrowed stock without any notice.  If the broker where this investor opened the short position is unable to find another lender, the broker is forced to close out the short position by buying back shares at the prevailing higher price.

Shorting is very risky and has potential unlimited downside.

If AMC issues primary shares, then the stock float increases.

• If there is insufficient demand for the newly issued primary shares, then share price should decrease as a result.
• If there is sufficient demand for the newly issued primary shares such that the entire offering is quickly snapped up, then share price should increase as a result.
• What happens to share price after that depends on the subsequent supply and demand, as reflected in the bid-ask spreads.

 

Let’s see if $RKT gains some traction in WSB. None of the posts below are mine.