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[DIGITAL SOUNDS]
DIRECTOR:All right, Sir Jackalot,
if you were making a filmabout WallStreetBets,
what's the story to you?
- [SIGHS]
I think the story is abouta group of idiots,
a very large group of idiots,
who just got fed upwith the world,
got fedup with being told
go to college,get a job, make a living.
Frankly,that's just not realistic
for our generation.
You know,it is really frustrating.
The boomers,they think we're lazy.
You know the whole term,
pull up your bootstrapsand work hard
and you get the same lifethat they had?
No.
The world is very,very different these days.
Hell, the next pandemicin 2025
might wipe us all out anyways.
I ain't got timeto wait for retirement.
You got to will itinto existence.
Life's just not fair.The world is a harsh place
and the stock market was justthe purest form of YOLO.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
REPORTER: Stocks up againthis morning, 12%.
Short sellerscontinue to get hurt
by the thread WallStreetBets
and other retail--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
REPORTER: All this whiningby Wall Street,
it's making me sick.
REPORTER: This is populismcoming for capitalism.
GameStop.
MATT KELLY: On surface,I can be pretty scattered.
In the water, though,it's calming for me,
because you're seeing out ofa little hole, right,
and everything is quiet.
You hear your bubbles.You hear breathing.
And you just hear the wateraround you, right?
I don't give a shitabout risk.
[LAUGHS]
[EXPLOSION]
I was deployed tothe Middle East.
We were doing anti-terrorismforce protection,
so looking forunderwater IEDs,
things like that.
I found outI had a brain injury.
So basically, I havea cyst on my brain
that was expanding and
contracting during allmy dives all the time.
And I didn't know that.
Nobody knew that, right,until I lost consciousness.
And things kind of startedto go south
for me after that,
like just like kind ofdeteriorating mentally.
I was having troubledoing anything, you know.
And then I was drinkinglike a fish to kind of--
right, that makes itbetter or worse.
[LAUGHS]
REPORTER: --experts reportedlyfound a new coronavirus
that traces backto the outbreak
that we are seeing in Wuhan.
CHRIS GARCIA:I had just actually bought
the family businessfrom my dad.
I purchased GSP Studio,which is Garcia's School
andSports Photography.
- Smile at the camera.
CHRIS GARCIA:I was looking forward to 2020
and beyond with the business.
Our spring season is justabout to kick off, right?
School pictures,baseball picture day,
softball picture day.And you know, March hits.
REPORTER: Wall Street,
and there are fearsthat the DOW will drop,
and drop quickly.We're already seeing that.
REPORTER: More than 20%.
CHRIS GARCIA:I remember, literally,
on a Friday night,
I'm preparing for a baseballshoot the next morning.
And 8 o'clock atnight,
I get that phone call.
Hey, we gotto cancel the shoot.
And it's like domino effect.The next thing I know,
like my entire spring is gone.
REPORTER: America has passedthe grim milestone.
REPORTER:They are saying we are
on the vergeof a medical disaster.
[CLANGING]
REPORTER:Millions of Americans
are sheltering at home,with the nation's economy
almost at a virtualstandstill.
- My mother wasa tax accountant.
So my whole life it was like,you got to save money.
Got to save money.Got
to save money,which means I didn't.
[LAUGHS]
I don't havea savings account.
I have a little bit,but for all the years
I've been alive,it should be more.
So I make enough moneyto pay my rent,
but when everything went away
it's kind of likemy rent still is due
but I'm on unemployment,
and the numbersjust didn't add up.
Reality hit a little bit,and I was like,
OK, like we need
to figure out a wayto save some money
and make some money.
And that's whenI got into investing,
because Iwas just trying to figure out
how to makesome money back, so.
REPORTER:Late last night the Senate
passed a $2 trillionstimulus package that will--
REPORTER: Biggest bailoutin American history.
REPORTER: Economic activity.
REPORTER:Close their businesses,
staying home from work.
MAN (ON VIDEO GAME):Primary objective complete.
CHRIS GARCIA:I got really good
at "Call of Duty" in April.
Shoot, I even caught myselfwatching novelas at one point,
you know,
just to pass the time, dude.
I was like, oh my god,Catrina, what did you do?
I didn't know what to do.
You know, Iwent from working,
owning a business,working 60,
70, 80 hours a weekto I can't do anything.
And I thought, at the time,
I had little extra moneyin the savings account.
So I thought, it's justsitting there in
the savings account.
Let me see what it can doon the market.
Maybe if I'm smart,pull a Warren Buffett move,
it'll take its timebut I'll get some winners.
You never know untilyou play the game, right?
MATT KELLY:We had $1,000 to our name.
We were behind on rent.
My car had justgotten repossessed.
I'm also working on
getting my VA disabilityback pay from 2015.
Literally, two weeksafter I did that,
$100,000 shows up in my bankaccount,
and my jaw hits the floor.
My wife and I are like,this is life-changing.
I'm already on Redditlooking at,
how do I invest a windfall?
You know, you read 50,100 comments
and you takelike the most common one--
"open a Roth IRA,""pay off your vehicles,"
"put the remainder of itin a Vanguard
total market fund," right?
At this point, I had neverinvested anything, ever.
- So I was spending every day
just kind oflooking at numbers
and seeing portfolioson the phone.
And it's like,OK, so Airbnb is, like, $176.
Under Armour is $17.
And I'm looking at thesethings and I'm like,
well, what can Istart investing in?
MATT KELLY:I was on Reddit
looking atall these different things,
and then I started comingacross WallStreetBets.
[TYPING NOISE]
- So I'm on Reddit and it'slike r/WallStreetBets,
like the slash.
And I'm like, well,what's WallStreetBets?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MAN:Dear viewer, do you money?
Do you like money?Does your money like money?
Does your money want to makesweet lovins with other money
and have beautifulmoney babies?
Do you haveinvestment accounts you don't
understand or pay attention
to becauseyour meaningless desk job
is all the excitementyou need?
Or are you atrader?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
MATT KELLY:I loved the sentiment
of WallStreetBets.I loved it.
I was like,these guys are fucking nuts.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MAN: In a small,exceptionally unhelpful,
and irreverent cornerof the internet,
therein lies a battalionof nihilistic
meme lords
who discuss their positionsand strategies,
speculate and argueover the markets moving,
and provide sage advice
to the humble stock trader
who just so happens to stumbleupon this fine community.
(SINGING) WallStreetBets.
- Hello.I am the Sir Jackalot.
I'm here wearing a maskbecause I'm a millionaire,
and I would like to stayanonymous.
MATT KELLY:I started telling my friends,
I'm like, dude,this is a crazy subreddit.
I mean, guys are making money.They're also
going broke.So if you like risk--[LAUGHS]
- I saw all the people postinglike million dollar gains
over the last year.I was like this sounds
like my kind of place.
CHRIS GARCIA: You would seethe success stories of dudes
who made a random call andthey came out with 100 grand.
- Nice. Well, he's goingto get fucked on taxes.
Have fun with that.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
WOMAN: A fucking bros' club,which was kind of fun.
- I said words on there thatI would never say in public.
- And I'm hearing about likeall these different lingos
that are kind of fun.
I'm like, ooh, diamond hands,
like paper hands.Like, I'm a bro now.
- The whole joke is, like,diamond hands.
You just have to notreally treat it like money.
And that's when I took350K,
and I just like YOLO'dthe fuck out of it.
SIR JACKALOT:If you're like me,
you're watching every minuteof your favorite stock
during the day.You want to be able to be
with your people,
all screaming in terrorif something falls.
The stocks are going to go up.
They're also going to go down.
The important thingis just hold on.
SIR JACKALOT:I got the memes.
I'm, like,put in rocket emojis
when you thinkyou're going to be rich.
Ape alone, weak.
Apetogether, strong.
[LAUGHS]It's so true.
MIKEYMILLIONS:The ape is
the unsophisticated investor.You can go to WallStreetBets,
tell them thatyou're going to buy shares
of a dying company,
and you willreceive accolades.
KIRSTEN:At this point, I really still
had not a single amountof technical analysis
or able to doanything like that
in the stock market.
But I knew, you know,buy low, sell high.
My name is Kirsten,and I am Stonk Queen.
WOMAN: So I'm learningall these different things,
and it's like, buy AMC.Buy BlackBerry.
Buy Bed, Bath, & Beyond.
And it's popping.
MATT KELLY: A lot of theseguys are investing in NEO,
and that wasthe first stock I bought,
and it went up to, like, $50.
AndI'm like, oh, shit.
I just made a bunchof money on that.
And then it went down.
And then I was, like, sick.
I was like, I don't knowwhat the fuck I'm doing.
I'm an idiot.And then it went back up.
I'm like, oh,I'm a genius.
- [ROARS]
SIR JACKALOT: Everywhere elseon the internet,
people are tryingto be their best self.
But on WallStreetBets,
we just acknowledge,like, we're just all idiots.
[TYPING]
STOCK EXPERT:WallStreetBets came
on our radar,
and we first startedto talk about it
with Teslain the summer of 2020.
WallStreetBets would makea meme or a joke
about somethingthat was happening.
Papa Elon on a rocketto the moon,
and Tesla's goingto $7,000 a share, right?
And the stockwould start to go up
as everyone jumped on board.
That was the first real sign
that the retail marketwas having impact in a stock.
- Well, thank youall very much.
It's a very important day.
I'll sign the single biggesteconomic relief package
in American history,
and I must say, or anyother package, by the way.
STOCK EXPERT:Back in March of 2020,
the market was crashing,and the amount of money
that the Federal Reservecame with
blew away anythingthat they had ever provided.
They gave more money in 2020than they had in 2008
all the way up to 2020.
They just floodedthe market with cash
and support to everybody.
[APPLAUSE]
REPORTER: The latest roundof stimulus checks
already starting to show upin bank accounts.
REPORTER: The stimulus checksare coming.
So the question now is, what'sthe best thing to do with it?
STOCK EXPERT: The idea wasthat the Federal Reserve
is providingso much stimulus.
There's these giantloan programs.
There's all of thismoney flooding in.
And a lot of peoplewere sitting at home
with nothing to do,
and the stock marketwas open.
They had a checkin their pocket,
and we're all backedby the Federal Reserve.
So you know,
let's invest.
Let's trade.
[LIGHTS TURNING ON]
- You ever thinkabout trading stocks?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Robinhood lets you tradestocks with zero commission.
That's right,commission-free.
- Robinhood, making it easy
for the average investorand stuff.
So cool, you know,because granted, like nothing
against Charles Schwabor any of these other ones,
but they just look likemy father should be there,
not me.
- It couldn't be easierto make a trade
using the Robinhood app.I just bought some stock.
[LIGHTS TURNING OFF]
- The user interfaceis idiot proof.
Example A right here.It makes it fun, too.
Like when you putmoney in or you
sell a stock, confetti falls.It feels you're at a casino.
- This is the first timein history
that somebody witha very small amount of money
can go get involved in thestock market,
however they want to.
No account minimums.There's no commissions.
You have absolutefreedom.
You can get approvedfor stock options
trading with $200in your account.
That is unheard of beforethings like Robinhood.
- You want to know whatdisruption really looks like?
Well, you're looking at it.As of today, 10 million people
have accounts at Robinhood.
REPORTER: The CEO ofRobinhood, Vlad Tenev.
- Vlad Tenev.
- Vlad Tenev, who's the coCEOof Robinhood.
STOCK EXPERT: In 90 days,they went from the 300
most downloaded app onthe App Store to number one.
- We believe that the morepeople that have access
to the markets and can startinvesting earlier,
the better offour economy will be.
- So suddenly, instead oflooking at TikTok and YouTube
and Instagram, people arelooking at Robinhood's
trading application.
- I have a little bitof addictive personality.
Sober-- we can go there.It's not a secret.
So it became, like,
my fucking thing.
CHRIS GARCIA:You start making money,
and all of a sudden,you start seeing your account
just boom,boom, boom, boom,
boom. And you get hooked,real quick and real fast.
- It did feel a little bitlike a game.
And again, I'm a gamer.
And when I started withRobinhood, the first stock--
they give you a free stock.
I guess, ironically,mine was GameStop,
which I was very, very upsetand offended by
at the time.
DIRECTOR: Scoot over 1 inchto your right, Alvan?
There you go.
And just real quick,tell me what is JeffAmazon?
What isthat name?
How did you come up with it?
- Yeah. JeffAmazon was reallyan experiment, for me,
to figure out if I couldcreate an online persona
that was sogood at trading
that it would be interviewedin a documentary.
And it turned out to be true.
[LAUGHS]
There are alwaysmany different forces
in the stock market.
So I guess if you couldimagine a boat in the ocean,
there's currents pushingagainst you.
There may be people paddling.Maybe if you have a sail,
the wind can helpyou out.
But whichever forceis the strongest,
that's the onethat matters the most.
[WAVES CRASHING]
My game is asymmetricbetting--
the ability to put ina small amount of capital
and to receive anextremely large return.
between 10 to 100to 1,000 times returns.
So what this meansis kind of spotting bubbles.
You have to basically assessevery single possible data
point that exists,everything from interest rates
to retail sentiment.
I was looking intothese opportunities,
and I thinkI had found one.
GameStop jumped double digit
percentages one random weekin September.
And I thought, wow,what's going on with GameStop?
GameStop is a brickand mortar retail store
that basically sellsconsole games.
It was a company that was runfairly poorly.
COMMENTATOR: It's kind ofa failing company.
It's like you canalmost compare it
to Blockbuster Video.
Their business model isnot really the best.
ALVAN CHOW: I still thoughtthat this was a dying
brick and mortar store.
People are definitelygoing to go digital.
But I looked into it
and looked at everything onthe internet about GameStop,
and Roaring Kittywas one of them.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Yo, what up, everybody?
This is going to be the firstvideo of the Kitty Corner.
And the market has kind offorced my hand on this one.
The first stock that I'm goingto talk about is GameStop.
And I know it's a polarizingstock.
Some people won't even tuneinto the stream right now
when they hear thatI'm bullish on GameStop.
ALVAN CHOW: I thought he wasone of these crazy guys,
with a cat as a logo,
and there's nothingabout his background.
But I figured out thathe was also
an extremely prudent,
responsible,knowledgeable investor.
- GameStop is the only brickand mortar store
dedicated to gaming.
Suppose over the next year,management
can craft a narrativethat carves out a 2%
share of that rapidly growing$150 billion gaming industry.
One of themost exciting--
KIRSTEN: I fully understoodwhere he was coming from,
because I mean, it wasactually technical analysis,
in my opinion,
but it was just totallydifferent type of analysis
on trades than the typicalsuits were looking at.
- I actually went on oneof Roaring Kitty's streams
and just started doinga lot more research.
And then Ryan Cohen
announced his stake of 9%.
Ryan Cohen isthe founder of Chewy.
It's the only companythat went head to
head with Amazonand just ate their lunch.
- This dude knows his shitin the e-commerce world.
He does kind of seem likehe's forward-thinking.
ALVAN CHOW:After that, I was
just in fullinformation-gathering mode.
KEITH GILL:Hey, JeffAmazon.
Welcome back, Jeff.Welcome back.
ALVAN CHOW:We were just getting to
really know the company.
- There's so muchnegative commentary.
I just thinkthat this sentiment
is so negativethat it's overdone.
That's what I'm trying
to get at in this section.
MATT KELLY:I saw a post
from Michael Burry.I knew who Michael Burry was.
I've seen "The Big Short."There was an article
about him investingin GameStop.
I can see whypeople think GameStop
is going to goout of business.
Like it makes sense
that they're goingout of business,
but they seemto be making some plays.
ALVAN CHOW:And then I just noticed
this extremelyastounding figure,
the 140%short interest figure.
SIR JACKALOT: 140% shortinterest ratio on one stock.
That means there are moreshorts than shares that exist.
[LAUGHS]
All the shares outstanding
for the companywere basically shorted,
which is absurdand unprecedented.
ALVAN CHOW:So I tried to look
for a historical precedenton what would happen
if somethingwas over 100% shorted,
but there was nothing.
STOCK EXPERT:When you sell stocks short,
you're betting that the marketis going to go down.
And if you're wrong,the stock
can go up against youvery sharply,
and you have to close thatposition, usually at a loss.
So you can see guyson WallStreetBets
who knew what they were doing.
These guys are smart.They understand,
OK, we can get leverageon this thing, right?
I know that if we gathertogether,
there's a point here at whichwe can really push
against hedge funds enoughto force them to cover.
We can force the market.
We can forcethis stock higher.
- All these short sellersbuying back their position
drives the stock higher
and squeezing outall the short players
from the market.That's a short squeeze.
- You've got to bereally greedy
to keep shorting GameStop
when it was at like $6a share or something.
Because that means if you'reshorting at $6 a share,
you're only profitingif it goes below $6.
It was a post by JeffAmazon,
where he kind of laid outthe GameStop thesis.
- I wrote this post called
"The Greatest Short Burnof the Century."
My brother, who's an actor,is going to come
and read it for me
because it's too cringyfor me to do it myself.
- What's up, gamblers?JeffAmazon here.
Feel bad about missingthe gain train on Tesla?
Fear not. Somethingmuch greater,
and stupider, is here.You know Citadel,
the market makerthat took all our money today?
Now we finally
won't be at the mercyof the market makers.
Instead, we're going totemporarily join forces
with the galactic empireand hijack the death star.
Our choice ofweapon, GameStop.
GameStop. Three big thingswill cause this--
Ryan Cohen,retail option buying,
and marketmakers like Citadel.
It looks like this.
Retail Robinhooders buya ton of call options.
This will force market makersto buy shares,
increasing the priceeven more.
Retail investors buyeven more options, again,
forcing the market makersto purchase more shares,
pressuring shorts to close.
Institutional investorswill catch wind and join in.
GME heads to $400
and we cash out.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This one is specialbecause we have math
and great underlying news.To be clear, this will happen
whether ornot we participate,
but I prefer usto be a part of history.
- It was a verycompelling thesis.
I had never seensomething like this before.
And you know,I'm no stranger to
something calleda short squeeze,
where all these shorts,
they've got to coveron top of each other,
and you know,
the price shoots to the moon.
But at the same time, it alsohad a huge downside, right?
- GameStop announced today
it's closinghundreds of stores.
REPORTER:GameStop, the biggest
video gameretailer in the world,
announced today that it willclose up to 200 stores
by the end of the year.
- That's pretty sad.- Like, it could go bankrupt.
That was alwayskind of the bear case.
MATT KELLY: My hunches keptgetting confirmed,
a little bit at a time.
Most of my friends I wastelling about it thought I was
crazy.I was telling my friends
who've been investedin a long time.
Like look, this is--I can barely explain it.
I sound like I'm some QAnoninsane person.
I'm like, yeah,there's this guy, Ryan Cohen,
who's like doing thisand that.
And the shorting, I don't evenknow if that means,
but that's what is happening.And they're like, dude,
you know.
I go to my wife and I'm like,
hey, I really think this couldgo up to like 50 bucks or so.
It's at like $13 now.
I thinkthat's like a given.
I think that will happenfor sure.
I mean, maybe even $100.That would be insane.
I think I'm
just going to put a halfof everything in it.
She's like, why don't youjust go all in?
I was like,what are you talking about?
She's like, well, if you feelthis
way, go all in, right?
-You really do only live once.
You only have one shot.
So like you might as well dosomething fucking crazy
and memorable,
because if it's crazyand memorable,
people remember that shit.
Because if you do stuff,the boring, bullshit,
stupid ass waythat everyone else does,
you're going to lose andyou're not going to make much
and noone's going to care about you.
- It felt risky.
I bought about2,300 shares of GameStop.
At $17 averageis about 45 grand.
- The stock was about $6to $8,
I believe,when I first bought in.
Ballpark, it wasaround $30,000.
- I started investinglast year with $40,000
and ended up putting itall in on GameStop.
- 88,000 sharesat November 2020 at $13.
I mean, you cando the math yourself.
I think that was close tolike $1.1 million.
So yeah, I was one ofthe first whales in GameStop.
MATT KELLY:I post my YOLO
to WallStreetBets.Man, did I get--
I mean, it was all like,you're a fucking idiot.
The fuck is wrongwith you?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MAN (ON TV): --analysts
in searchof asymmetric upside.
If it isn't clear,I'm not betting that GameStop
is going to stage the
most epic turnaroundof all time.
ALVAN CHOW: I was excitedwhen I first got the idea.
After that, I was kindof annoyed [LAUGHS]
for quite a while because it
didn't happen the wayI expected it to.
[SIGH]
[LAUGHS]
- Oh, then historyin the making.
There was a lot of hypeleading up
to their earnings reportand whether Ryan
Cohen was goingto make a move or not.
[MUSIC-"THE FINAL COUNTDOWN"]
MAN: Greetings, and welcometo the GameStop
third quarter2020 earnings call.
SIR JACKALOT: I rememberbeing the cocky asshole,
literally playing"The Final Countdown,"
the song, making sure I was
physically readyfor an earnings report.
MAN: The call will includeforward-looking statements,
which are subject to variousrisks and uncertainties
that couldcause actual results
to differ materiallyfrom expectations.
- You know, you havelegendary investors,
like Michael Burryand Bill Gross--
- God.
--watching the earnings call.
MAN: We continue toreduce expenses,
delivering over $315 millionin its expense reductions
so far this year.
And weare pleased to end the quarter
with almost $300 millionmore in cash
and restricted cashcompared to the end of
the prior year third quarter.
SIR JACKALOT:And GameStop,
it was shooting up.I was like, this is it.
This is the squeeze.This is finally happening.
I was, like,literally jumping up and down.
MAN: To summarizethe third quarter,
we believe the pandemic,and importantly the--
SIR JACKALOT: And a coupleof months afterwards,
it just starts tanking.
I was like, oh, no.Oh, no. What's this mean?
MAN: We have closedalmost 800 stores worldwide
since the beginning of 2019--
- And it started tankingeven more.
And I was like, oh, fuck.
MAN: --in an adjusted lossof $0.53 per share.
SIR JACKALOT:It crashed like--
I don't know--15% to 20% instantly.
I was like, whoa, I just lostsome serious money.
ALVAN CHOW: They didn't eventake a Q&A session.
George Sherman,kind of a boomer.
Just read off his script.
If they haddone anything,
[LAUGHS]I think it would be better.
MATT KELLY:I'm buying Christmas presents
and stuff for the kids.
And I'm kind ofgritting my teeth.
And at the same time,I'm having to
instill confidencein my wife,
that like this isgoing to work out.
I'm not going to sellfor a loss.
Stocks only goup, right?
- That's where I gota little cold feet.
Got some paper hands.
I sold my sharesprobably December, mid-
December. 88,000 GameStopshares at $15.
Yeah, I was off by a month.
[CHRISTMAS MUSIC]
Welcome, boys and girls,
to a Sir JackalotChristmas carol.
Gather around,my fellow degenerates.
Grab a mug ofeggnog
and find a cozy cornerof your mother's basement,
and enjoy this taleof Sir Jackalot.
This post here is
"My Magnum Dong Opus."
Now listen, "my convictionfor the GameStop
mother of all short squeezes."
The MOASS, it was insane.
I had over a million dollarsinvested in this.
That's all my net worth.
But that 20%earnings drop, oh, man.
Oh, man. It hurt.
It really hurton a spiritual level.
It gave me Taco Belllevels of stomach cramps.
I felt like I neededto cool down.
You know, it was goingthrough the holidays.
There was a Britishvirus mutation on the way.
You got hedge funds
manipulating stuff to gettheir holiday bonuses.
This all feltkind of dangerous.
So yes, I ended upselling all my
GameStop shares at $15.50.
Yes, I had a caseof paper hands, I admit it.
I was wallowing back and forth
in fetal position all day.Good fucking riddance, 2020.
Let's all hope2021 will be better, right?
[PROTESTING]
- USA. USA. USA. USA. USA.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
WOMAN: I think that usMillennials realize
that we were sold a narrativethat wasn't ours.
You know, they spoon-fedit to us.
Go to college.
Work. Do this.You'll have a great life.
You just put our assesin a debt system,
then wonderwhy we're not happy.
At 11, we had Columbine.Then we had September 11th.
Then we had like,what, Virginia Tech?
Then the stockmarket crash, the bubble.
We can't get jobs.A pandemic.
Black Lives Matterwas happening, too,
and everyone'schecking in on me.
Are you OK? Are you OK?Are you OK?
And I'm like, are you OK?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Like, this isn't new.It's new for you.
Then with the gaslightingfrom the last president
[LAUGHS]to the election.
It's been like 99 lifetimesin a year.
I just think that we're soldthese narratives about, like,
things that justaren't real.
CHRIS GARCIA:The other big thing, too,
was about this time,my fiancée was pregnant.
So that was oneof those things where it
was like, oh, man,this investing thing,
I got to be smart about it
because nowI got a baby coming.
So this could
be money to setaside for formula
or just doing the baby's room,doing the floor to the house--
all these smallthings you hear of, right?
A baby is goingto change your life.
You need all this moneyfor stuff.
And I had no idea.
I mean, I had a dog.
KIRSTEN: When COVID did hit,
my dad's bar and restauranthad to be shut down.
It was kind of scarybecause we had no
idea how longthis was going to last.
That's when I startedworking at a grocery store.
I was buying stocks duringthe lunch break.
I was like preparingfor the absolute worst.
And I was ableto help them out
and obviously just belike financially
stable on my ownat this point,
but I was down to $490in my account.
And I was like, shit.[LAUGHS]
I might notbe good at this.
MATT KELLY: The money, to me,isn't an end all, be all.
What money means to me is itmeans escaping the rat race.
It meansspending time with my kids.
I can not havethis constant anxiety
that I'm going to fail,
that if I start to have moreproblems with my brain,
where I can't work,that my kids will be OK,
that we'll have somethingto fall back on.
REPORTER: Let's talk aboutanother company, Jim,
and that's GameStop.Is it too late for GameStop?
JIM CRAMER:I hate these guys.
I've hated themfor a long time.
Can GameStop fail?I think it can.
I think it canfall that much,
and I wouldn't be around there
trying to makesome money with it.
MATT KELLY:I'm really starting
to doubt myself.I'm really starting to doubt
what I believedwas going to happen,
and theprice is falling.
- In the middle of January,my $30,000 investment
had dropped downto around $5,000.
It went down a lot, likebasically to $0.
- There are a lot of people
that are very bullishon this stock,
and the idea is thatit's a turnaround play.
- There are a lot of peoplethat were bullish
about the housing marketin 2006, 2007.
There were a lot of peoplethat were bullish about,
you know, tulips backin the 1600s.
I mean, just because--
ALVAN CHOW: I thought I wasjust going to lose it all
and just have to start overand keep [LAUGHS]
working at my company forlonger,
because I had been prolongingsome credit card debt,
and such, to play this.In fact, I thought this was
never going to happen.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
ANDREW LEFT:We are always told there's
only two things that arefor certain, death and taxes.
There are actuallythree things
that are for certain--death, taxes, and innovation,
and that's a good thing.When you do innovate,
there's someonewho has a business
who's being disrupted out.
Case in point, Netflix.Everybody remembers
when Netflix usedto send disks in the mail.
Netflix quickly realized,
and probably made one ofthe greatest pivots
in corporate history
and became this wonderfulstreaming service.
Then when they becamethe streaming service,
who suffered from it?
Blockbuster Video.They didn't do that.
Blockbuster Videocould have also done
what Netflix has done. And nowthey're out of business.
So if you were shortingBlockbuster Video,
doesn't mean you'rea bad person or you
hated on Blockbuster,but you understood innovation.
If every corporate CEO
right nowknew that they could do
nothing and their stockwould go a lot higher,
they could sell it,
they wouldn't do anything,right?
Most Wall Street researchwas tied to companies
that someone hada vested interest
in making relationships.
We're not Citibank.We're not Goldman Sachs.
You don't have to play nice.
In 2008,where was the research to
tell us stocks can go lower?
Wall Street doesn'tput out that research.
Short sellers do,activist short sellers.
DIRECTOR:Talk about--
- Hold on.Am I this boring to you?
I'd just love to know whatyou're doing on your phone.
- I'm just sending a text.- Really?
I'd just love to knowwho you're texting.
I'd just love to knowif I'm this boring to you.
- You're not boring.I'm listening.
- Fucking guy flies infrom New York.
I'm this boring to you.
- Dad.- OK, I'm just asking.
This should be a documentary.
A documentary really would be,how I could be--
- Oh, he's the Citron guy.
DIRECTOR: Yeah.
- Oh, yeah, yeah.I know exactly who he is.
Shitron, we call it.
The whole point of thatcompany is to make money
shorting stocks.
They'll short a stock, thenput out a hit piece on it,
hoping that the stock tanks
and they wereable to make money that way.
- Go to the mall today.
Walk into Banana Republic.Walk into Gap.
REPORTER: What's yourprice target, by the way?
- You could swing an umbrellaand not hit anyone.
I don't think investors
actually knowwhat they're buying.
- Whatever. Peloton.[SNORTS]
- Is thatyour entire business?
You are a short seller.
That's all you do?You bet against something?
- So I look to make moneyin the stock markets,
you know, any which way I can.My specialty is short selling.
Next thing I know this yearI put myself pretty much
in the middle of the wholeGameStop phenomenon,
unknowingly.So it is what it is.
- Andrew Left of Citron
wanted to do a littleresearch video on GameStop.
- Hey, this is AndrewLeft at Citron Research,
giving you five reasonswhy GameStop is going to $20.
- And so I was very curiousto watch it.
I wanted to learnhow I was wrong.
I was always lookingfor information to
prove my thesis wrongso that I could exit a trade.
- Numbers don't lie.People lie.
I know, everyone on Twitternever has a losing trade.
Everyone on Reddit is amarket genius.
I hear it all the time.
- He went through all ofhis talking points,
which were kind of bullshit.
- Your first question you haveto ask yourself is,
why is therehigh short interest?
This is a failing mall-basedretailer.
Their current businessis just drowning.
You cannot argue.
- And I've never seenany reaction like that.
All of a sudden, we're buyingGameStop because Andrew Left
posted this.
- You can get mad.You can hack my account.
You can go to Twitter.You can sign on.
You can call me everyname.
If you want to savethe company, take your energy,
go out there,and actually buy something
from GameStop.
- Andrew Leftof Citron Research.
Reactions, desk?
- [HUMMING "WOLF OF WALL STREET" MONEY CHANT]
[MUSIC - "WOLF OF WALL STREET" MONEY CHANT]
A day after Left postedthat video,
GameStop went from $43to $65 a share.
[MUSIC CONTINUNG]
In addition to that,Ryan Cohen joined the board.
REPORTER: Shares of GameStopsoaring after announcing
Chewy former CEO Ryan Cohen.
- Cheers to Ryan Cohen.This is sick.
REPORTER:Stock, an unbelievable
jump,60% high today.
REPORTER:Citron and Andrew Left,
those guys thinkit's going to $20.
- Pretty obvious whatthe price target
is right now, right?
I mean, it's almost certainlygoing to $420.69, right?
[LAUGHS] Kidding. Am I?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MATT KELLY:This is where stuff started
to shift for me, right?I'm not sleeping at all.
I can't focuson anything else.
I'm compulsivelylooking at my phone.
And I started buying intothe whole diamond hands thing.
I think luck is whenpreparation meets opportunity,
and this was an opportunity.
Monday morning rolls aroundand my friend, Theo,
he messaged me like,hey, man,
I don't think GameStop isgoing to do anything more.
I don't think anything'sgoing to hire.
I'm just going to sell.I was like, don't sell, dude.
You're an idiot.Like don't sell.
What the hell is wrongwith you? And he sold.
Literally, 10 minutes later,it starts going.
REPORTER: Stock for GameStopis up dramatically.
REPORTER: It's been justswinging wildly.
ALVAN CHOW:The week of the squeeze,
I was describing itto my girlfriend
as like I'm in the NBA Finalsright now.
I have to belike on all cylinders.
Like when I have to execute
is probably the mostimportant week of my life.
- I got my stimulus. [LAUGHS]
So I started throwingmy stimulus in it,
and I'm feeling cute,you know.
Then I'mwatching the numbers
and it just keeps,and I'm like, huh.
Maybe this is something.
REPORTER: GameStop is knownas the world's
largest video game retailer.
REPORTER:The stock is now at the center
of a Davidversus Goliath story.
Shares have soared,
driven by posts on theReddit forum WallStreetBets.
MATT KELLY:My wife and I
are drivingto meet our realtor,
and GameStop is moving.
REPORTER:There are potentially billions
of dollars of investor dollarson the line here.
MATT KELLY: We're supposed tobe looking at houses,
and I'm like,I can't look at--
I'm staring at my phone.She's looking at--
she's like, oh this is nice.
I'm like staring.I'm like, oh, that's great.
This is a great house.Let's just get this one.
REPORTER: The company surgedas much as 145% today.
REPORTER: But this increasewill not last.
- It's just lunacy.
[CHEERING]
CHRIS GARCIA:This is the week, right,
where I'm high and mighty.I feel great.
I'm making what's literallyalmost a year's worth
of salary in a month.
Everybody is, at this point,just sell, Chris.
You got $23,000.You have $24,000 in there.
But what if?
What if the charts are right,this $24,000 turns into
$60,000, $70,000,$80,000, $90,000.
You never know.
REPORTER:Hedge funds have lost billions
by betting against the stock.
Some little guys standto make millions.
- Fuck. [LAUGHS]
I missed it.The thesis was right.
The group was right.The apes are winning.
[ROARING]
REPORTER:Some breaking news
this morningon this GameStop story.
Gabe Plotkin saying thatMelvin Capital has been out,
closed out its position.
- The numbers and whathe's down is dramatic.
So the questionwill become there,
what is the futureof that firm?
Unclear.
STOCK EXPERT: Around 10:30or 11 o'clock in the morning,
it comes out that thisbig fund, Melvin Capital,
is short the stock andfeeling the pain,
and they are takingmassive losses.
This really emboldensthe WallStreetBets crowd.
They justtook down a hedge fund.
- Once people did find outthat Melvin
was probably one ofthe larger short parties,
there was a lot of hate
towards Melvin Capital,a lot of hate.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MAN: Once people realizedMelvin was losing money,
that Citron was losing money,this suddenly became
a whole movement.
MAN: We can change the biggesteconomy of the planet
and break Wall Street.
WOMAN: The number ofthe community keeps growing.
It's like 4 million people.
The next day it's like5 million people.
Next day, 6 million people.
And the news cyclestarts taking over.
REPORTER: The online armyof average investors
dealt a blow today
in their fight againstthe Wall Street--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
REPORTER: Thousands, if notmillions of them,
decided to buy up that stockthat used to be cheap.
REPORTER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
STOCK EXPERT:The media is talking
about this WallStreetBets.The forum is exploding.
Everybody wantsto get a piece of
this thing.
CAMERON PERRI:The swings were insane.
When it ran to the $150the first time,
I watched my account runinto the multimillion
period,
and then watchedit just plummet.
And you cancall it paper hands,
but I sold a decent chunk.
KIRSTEN: I was alsolike kind of unsure,
so I sold offabout half my shares.
I remember, like,not sleeping that entire week.
CAMERON PERRI:It was very, very hard
to make decisionsat that point in time.
STOCK EXPERT: You could seethe risk in this name.
The stock wentfrom $10 to $150.
You know,then everyone thinks, well,
it should go from $150
to $10,000, right?There is no limit.
ALVAN CHOW: Who knowshow high this could go?
If it goes to $1,000or $2,000.
You don't want to overreactor try to steal
a ball
and risk a foulin the key moments.
You want to beextremely disciplined.
And everything that you weretrained to do--
so I was training myself
to look for this momentof euphoria.
And then rightbefore after-hours,
Elon tweeted "Gamestonk!!"
REPORTER:The leader of this revolution?
Many of these small guysare pointing to Elon Musk.
MAN: The god, the king,the meme master himself,
Elon Musk has tweeted aboutGameStop and WallStreetBets.
We are on his map.
[LAUNCH SOUNDS]
MAN: If you happento be on social media
and you have a great reach,is that not power?
Is that not influence?
- Diamond hands, baby.Diamond hands.
Like, to the moon, boys.To the moon. GameStop at $420.
It did hit $420.
Ladies and gentlemen, themagic $420 has been achieved.
It has been achieved.Congratulations.
You were here.
When-- oh, $420.69.Take a screenshot.
Take a screenshot.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SIR JACKALOT:The esteemed $420.
People were saying $1,000is not a dream anymore.
$1,000 is not a meme.
It's been likethis fairy tale, this myth.
The motherof all short squeezes.
- Good evening, newly-mintedReddit millionaires.
I'm sure all of youare watching this
from the marble bathtubson your hovercraft.
- I didn't think I was oneto get swept up
by the greed and the ego,but I was.
Anyone who can stomach
$10 million swings in theirportfolio is sort of crazy.
- Has everybody been followingthis crazy GameStop--
- GameStop.
- GameStop is a storeat a mall.
It's between the Claire'sand the Orange Julius.
KIRSTEN: My parents hadcalled me and asked me
if I was in GameStopand how this was affecting me.
And I was like,
yeah, I'm making a shitton of money this week.
That's what's happeningwith GameStop.
I had made so much
money, I told my dad,let's go to Florida.
- I'm seeing $200,000,$300,000 in my Roth IRA,
$300,000in my TD Ameritrade account.
Like OK, we're taking
this money and buying cryptoand buying--
you I started investingin wine and stuff. [LAUGHS]
- You know, you're messingwith your boys.
Hey, man, what color Ferrariswe getting?
Like da, da, da.Because
I'm like,I'm not selling this.
I'm like, I want$15,000 a share.
- Surprise. [LAUGHS]
GameStop's up about 5X
from when I uploadedthose videos over the summer,
so that'sgreat to see.
When you have a thesisand, by and large,
it unfolds as you hopedthat it could, that's nice.
So it shouldn't
be taken for granted.It doesn't always happen.
So just to clear upsome potential misconceptions,
this was a true YOLO for me.
When I was buildingthis position
last year, we had nowhereclose to a million dollars.
I certainly do notdrive a Lambo.
We rent this housethat you see.
So it's been a wild ridefor us as a family.
And it has been just so muchfun to experience
that with you overthe past couple of months.
I hope you hadsome fun as well.
And yeah, that's all.Again, thank you to everybody.
I hope you've had a fun time,
and I'll seeyou around.
- All right.
DIRECTOR:All right, can you see?
- I can see.It's kind of freaky.
I figured you guyswould like the mushroom.
[LAUGHS]
This is a companyI invested in--
well, notthe sweatshirt company.
I was the first investorin psychedelics.
Andit's a billion
and a half dollarcompany today,
maybe $2 billion.I don't remember.
So gold, right,which is kind of
3,000 years old.
It's worth came from the gods.The Aztecs,
the Incas, the Egyptian,all that had value.
The total amount of goldon earth today,
that's the total amount that'sever been mined in history,
could fit in a cube55 feet across.
So think about it.
It could almost fitin this room, right?
That's it.That's all the gold.
You could put itin Central Park.
And people would be like,
that's all the gold in theworld ever.
It's worth $10 trillion.
Now, how in the hellis that worth $10 trillion?
It's a sculpture. I bought aLeBron James rookie card
for a million dollars.It's now worth $5 million.
My mom thought I was insane.
A million dollarson a basketball card?
Frickin' Pokemon cards.
If you had aCharizard,
it's worth like $600,000.It's a social construct.
It's got value becausewe say it has value.
That's it.
So you look at someonelike Elon Musk.
He's createda cult around him,
a religion around him.
And people, youcan't speak sense to them.
They have their own model,
even if the modeldoesn't make any sense.
They're goingto buy Elon stuff.
The thing withthe GameStop story,
we had a bunch of young kidswho were really savvy
who figured out, hm,
this stock's tradingfor very little.
There's a lotof short interest.
We can buy optionsand drive it up and squeeze
out the shorts.
Once it started going,it became a social phenomenon.
It became an F-uto the system.
Like therewas a nihilism to it.
Some guys were literallytweeting things like,
I don't care.I'm YOLO-ing my life savings.
And almost like a badge
of honor that they wouldlose their money.
I mean, there was a craziness.It can't last.
It's not the way the worldworks.
There's not a goodenough story,
not a good enough mytharound GameStop
that it will be a long-term,sustainable game.
And the original guys probablysold and made a lot of money.
What was so scary to me, thebulk of the people
that are participating in thisrevolution aren't investors.
They're along for the ride
and they'relistening to their friend.
In all likelihood,it will end ugly.
MATT KELLY:I talked with my wife
about like there's a reallystrong feeling
that this can goto $1,000 a share.
This whole thing,
we can go to $1,000 a share
and we'd havelike over $2 million.
$1 million doesn't seemenough for me
anymore, right?
The psychological impactthat this amount of money has,
you see moneyin a different way.
So I hold. I set my
limit sellon all my accounts to $800.
Wednesday nightis the first night
I went to sleep inlike fucking weeks.
I don't think
much is going to happenon Thursday.
Fucking I was wrong.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
WOMAN: So I'm at the gym,naturally-- all my stories.
And this is beforethe 9:30 market opens.
This is a Thursday.
And my portfolio is set.
It's cute.So I'm looking at it,
and every single numberis popping, popping, popping.
And Isee GameStop hit--
I think it was like $467,$497, something like that.
I'm going in there.
I'm like, oh, maybe I'llbuy one more AMC.
It's like, I'm sorry.
You already have a certainamount. You can't buy more.
And all of asudden you see a doom.
And I'm just like,what the fuck?
- We're seeing reportsthat Robinhood
is restricting purchasesof some of these stocks,
including GameStop andAMC.
CHRIS GARCIA:I wake up that morning, right?
One of my buddies hits me up,and he goes, hey, man.
You can't buy.I'm like,
what do you meanyou can't buy?
He goes, go on to Robinhood.
- Kelly, Robinhoodstopped trading.
Robinhood stopped trading.You need to sell.
You need to take profits.
REPORTER:Robinhood and other online
brokerages blocked usersfrom buying shares of GameStop
and other shortedstocks.
- That morning, I woke up tolike minus $10,000 or $15,000.
And I was like, yeah, this isthe toughest hit I've
ever had.
REPORTER: These sitessuddenly allowed users
only to sell their positions,not to get new ones.
REPORTER:Robinhood put out a statement,
quote, "in lightof recent volatility,
we are restrictingtransactions for certain
securitiesto position closing only,"
which meansyou can only sell it.
- If you can only sell stocks,
then those stocksonly go down.
MATT KELLY: I go to work.And I'm standing there.
I'm givinga presentation, right?
I'm on a Zoom meetingwith 100 people.
And the price drops to about120 bucks a share.
I'm like in the middleof a word.
And I look downand I see that
and I just went--I just freeze.
I stopped.I'm sick to my stomach.
I don't knowwhat the fuck I'm doing.
Like why?
A million dollarsis a million dollars.
Like what is wrong with me?
REPORTER:After surging yesterday,
the stock dropped 44%.
- Then it immediatelypops back up.
REPORTER: It hit an intradayhigh of $469.
- But the next thing you know,it's tumbling down.
You couldn't stop itfast enough.
You're watching it and it's bylike the minute.
You're like, oh, my--dude. I was like, oh.
REPORTER: The stock droppeda whopping 44%.
- It was soincredibly stressful.
REPORTER: Janet Yellen,Treasury Secretary.
The SEC saidthey are watching.
- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
- Dude, what the--- There it is,
and it is nowstarting to fall.
- I have never seen anythinglike this
in my three weeksof investing.
REPORTER: And GameStopgoes down 44% today
at the closing bell.
It shot back up duringafter hours trading.
The pricenow stands at $312 per share.
[POUNDING]
- Oh, my lord.
It was World War IIIat my home.
My fiancée was like,what is going on?
I am screaming.
I'm literally
on the vergeof breaking stuff.
I'm about to drive to MenloPark with big red paint
and just be like
"cheaters"right on their front door.
Like, you guys arescrewing us all over.
Like, Robinhoodis you take from the
rich and give to the poor.
Now Robinhood's changingthe rules of the game
so that they don't lose.
- The market will takecare of this.
The market will show thatGameStop is not a $500 stock
or a $1,000 stock.
It's a $5 stock.
- You'd see a slewof negative articles
or an analyst downgrade.
- Last week wasn'ta free market.
It was a free for all market.
- I think there is somethingobviously wrong,
and it's the gamificationof Wall Street.
- Jim Cramer,that dude from CNBC,
he's like, you guys won.You guys won. Take the money.
JIM CRAMER:Take the home run.
Don't go for the grand slam.Take the home run.
You've already won.
- You're putting a restrictionon a stock,
and it's causing that stockto lose value.
And I can't do anything aboutit.
Not only that,but the only thing to save it
is to buy more stockto make it--
to drive the pricethe other way.
I can't do that.
- If they hadn't cutthe supply of shares off
when they did,
the stock would have goneinto the thousands,
multiple thousands.As you can imagine,
that pisseda lot of people off.
- There's going to bea big fuck you
that you can't stop this.
It's coming.They want 1,000% worse.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- If you're interestedin pursuing
a lawsuit against Robinhood,TD Ameritrade.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
I didn't hear one personon TV complaining
about Wall Street tryingto crush GameStop.
140% short.
MATT KELLY: My wife's like,
we should just sell beforeclose of business on Friday.
We can always buy back inif it drops.
The price is good right now.It's still in the $300s.
We're still making outlike insane,
more than we ever dreamed,
more than we ever imagined.
And I'm like, no, fuck them.I'm holding my shares.
This is bullshit.They can't do this shit.
They can't rig the game.
They can't change the gamein the middle of it.
Like, are you kidding me?This is insane.
I'm stubborn, right?
Because now it triggeredthis other thing in me.
It's not about money anymore.
It's not just aboutthe money anymore.
It's about therevolutionary part of it,
the sticking it to the mantype of idea, right?
This is about thetime when Wall Street
starts postingall these billboards
up in fucking New York,like "GME Go Brrr,"
things like this.
And I am diamond-handingthe fuck out of this.
That's my mentality.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The writing was on the wallthat the rich and powerful
will do whatever they couldto prevent this from
happening.I'm not taking less than $450.
KIRSTEN:So I wasn't taking any losses.
I was going to hold any stockfor as long as I could.
CHRIS GARCIA:We're not going anywhere,
you know what I'm saying?We're not going.
MATT KELLY:7, 8 million more people
were joining the subreddit.
Psychologically,I'm jacked to the tits.
CHRIS GARCIA:Millions of people
in that thread, man,we were diamond hands.
And unfortunately, you know,it was one of those
situations that whenthe stock went down,
it kind of stayed down, right?
And literally,it was getting
so caught up in it
and then getting so stuck inthat diamond hands mentality,
like don't sell anything.And that's really
what was essentially almostlike the beginning of the end,
I guess you could say -
[SHUFFLING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MATT KELLY:It was a Tuesday.
And I'm just watchingthe price,
and it's kind of justslowly trickling downwards.
I'm holding,
but I'm startingto feel nervous.
I'm starting to feelthis anxiety.
I'm reading WallStreetBetsreligiously.
I'm seeingall of these posts about,
like, it's going to crash,you know, all of these things.
And so it's gettingin my head.
The psychology
is really fucking with me.
That's whereWallStreetBets is at.
So the sentiment has changed.
Now there's 8 millionpeople on there,
and all this shit's happening.And I'm like,
all right,is that the sentiment now?
Is our people just thinkingthat this is done?
It's over?
I felt like I fell into a
cult, right?That's what I felt in my head.
All this stuff, I felt likeI got this cult mentality.
It's like you've gotto be careful
about confirmation bias.You've
got to be carefulabout these things.
And I had beenpreaching that for years.
I'm like, how did this happen
to me?That's what I felt in my head.
I felt likeI had been lied to.
I felt like I bought intosomething that wasn't true.
CHRIS GARCIA: Once we startedlosing money, dude,
the margin calls werecoming in almost daily.
And for a while,it was daily.
It was like, hey, you owe us,like, $2,000.
Like, you need to clearthis up now. Shit.
Let me sell x amount of stockof this, right?
Because before all this,I was just using my cash.
So granted, as soonas they turned on margin,
I paid the 5
bucks a monthfor the Robinhood gold.
Seriously,once I got to there,
it was like, oh my god, dude.Like, they're
going to give me an extra,like, 8 grand
right now to play with?
I lost thousands uponthousands
over those next few days,and that was like, whoa.
OK, well, there goes Gigi'scrib.
There goes the carwe had planned.
All right, like,those thoughts are gone.
OK, don't worry about it.It went
from, oh, I'm going to makeso much money on this
to I got cheated out.I got cheated.
- A lot of angry customersout there
and a lot of questionsabout what took place
and the decisions that youmade.
- Some of your customers,Vlad, are enraged.
I mean, they say you're sidingwith Wall Street,
that this is a crime.
CHRIS GARCIA:It felt dirty.
It felt un-American.
- I don't want to getdeep with it,
but it feels very American.
- OK, Vlad, you knoweverybody here
that's watching ushates your guts, right?
- We were sold a narrativethat isn't real.
Like here's a history bookthat is not the truth.
So you're telling us, oh,
we want you to investin a free market.
That's a fucking lie, too.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHEERING]
MIKE HAUPT: There's alwaysbeen wealth inequality
in this country,but here is our moment.
This is our momentthat we came
into the public spotlight.The retail investor
has finally demonstratedtheir strength.
We've got enough peopleinvolved in the market
to be ableto make a huge play,
and for it to slapthat hard was huge.
And then it gottaken away from us.
And I felt cheatedon behalf of my community.
My name is Mike Haupt.I'm from Tampa, Florida.
And I make memeson WallStreetBets.
I make GIF memes,
all kinds of memes.
It's like the Dr. Seuss thing.I've made memes in the train.
I've made memes in my car.
I just did one
from the showfrom HBO "Chernobyl."
Where I mean, it's messed up,
but the guy that was suffering
from theradiation poisoning,
he's, like,slowly deteriorating.
I'm like, this isa person's account.
This is a perfect analogy
for like the averageWallStreetBets user's account.
And I feel likethe transient relationship
that my generation haswith money is not our fault,
to stick up for mypeople a little bit
in my communityand my generation.
We were born into the worldwhere we were encouraged
not to save,
where we were encouragedto think short-term.
My credit card rewards pointsgive me more money
than my savings account.What does that tell you to do?
The economy is telling youto spend your money as fast
as you get it,and that's what we're doing.
REPORTER:Who do you think has the power
right now in society?
- Who do I thinkhas the power in society?
REPORTER: Yeah.
- The rich.
REPORTER: Why so?
MAN: They have so muchinfluence over the laws,
the regulationsthat they impose upon us.
PROTESTOR:We're giving billions,
and almost a trillionto Wall Street,
just for bailouts.Something needs to change.
MIKE HAUPT: The rich haveinsulated themselves
from the consequencesof the economic system
that they've helpedproduce.
- There's no excusefor thinking
there's somethingfree in life.
You've got to go outand earn it,
and that's whatAmerica has always been.
REPORTER: Markets just openedand the GameStop surge
appears to be over,with the stock now down 60%,
well, as ofyesterday.
But it is morethan just numbers.
It is people's lives,their savings, their 401(k)s.
MATT KELLY: It drops to about100 bucks on Tuesday evening.
Oh, Jesus.
I start to get sickto my stomach
and I start to kind of panic.I'm having a panic attack.
I was like, we need to getout of this.
This is fucking insane.We're losing all our money.
Like, what is going on?So Wednesday morning,
it sold.
February 3rd, I think.
I sold all my sharesat 120 bucks a share.
I watched a million dollarsgo down the drain,
a million dollars, and that'swhat's going through my head,
a million dollars.
This is my family's future.This is my future.
This is time with my kids
that I could have boughtback.
I didn't feel likeI gained $350,000.
I felt like I lost a million.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
REPORTER: The trading frenzyaround GameStop
is the focuson Capitol Hill today.
The House FinancialServices Committee
will hold a virtual meetingasking who wins and loses
when short sellers,social media,
and retail investorscollide.
REPORTER:In the hot seat,
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev,Citadel CEO
Ken Griffin,Melvin Capital CEO
Gabe Plotkin, and
Roaring Kitty,the trader Keith Gill.
REPORTER:No doubt lawmakers are furious
and they want to havehearings about this.
The problem is goingto most likely
be that the systemis designed terribly.
The system gets abused.And they need to make changes.
- First of all, to me,
this was a whole dogand pony show.
- First, Robinhood Securitiesput the restrictions in place
in an effort to meet increasedregulatory deposit
requirements,not to help hedge funds.
- You can read body language.You can see the way
they're trying to weaselout of something.
- I understand that partof the focus of this hearing
is the decisionof stock trading platforms
to limit tradingGameStop.
I want to make clearat the outset
that Melvin Capitalplayed absolutely no role
in those tradingplatform decisions.
- They're not being honestand truthful about this.
- I want to beperfectly clear.
Citadel Securities had no rolein Robinhood's decision
to limit trading in GameStop.
- So Citadel is a realconglomerate.
They have a hedge fund.They have a broker.
And they have a marketmaker.
- Mr. Griffin,
why is this not consideredmanipulating a stock
whenever you can shortsell to 140%?
Don't youthink there should be a limit
on something like that?
KEN GRIFFIN:I'm not sure it's worth us
delvinginto legislative corrections
for a very unique situation,
in terms of the extremesize of the short interest.
- Why is it that a stockcan be shorted over 100%?
I don't even knowhow you're allowed to do that.
CONGRESSMAN: Mr. Plotkin,
you made the commentin your testimony a minute ago
that you were not tryingto manipulate stock.
Yet if you're shortselling a stock 140%,
explain to me why that'snot manipulating the stock.
- Any time we short a stock,
our systems actually force usto find a borrower.
So we alwaysshort stocks within
the context of all the rules.
- The fundamental reasonwhy this happened
isn't because we wanteda revolution
against hedge funds.It was
because there wasan opportunity out there
to form a short squeezeon a stock
and make some money off of it.
And until the rules changethat you cannot short a stock
above 100% short interest,then there's no reason why
there wouldn't beanother one of these.
- I just want to getto what happened
on that day in January.
So let's takea step back here.
That decision you made,
to restrict the buying
but not the sellingof GameStop, was based--
was it based on pressurefrom anyone
on the witness panelhere today?
VLAD TENEV:Not at all.
Zero pressure from anyone.It was a collateral depository
requirement decision madeby a Robinhood
securities president.
- Rather than sayingthat Robinhood was nefarious
or had an evilintention here,
it was colluding with somebodyelse,
they were probably negligentin their capital
and risk controls.
- The decision to restrictGameStop and other securities
was driven purely by depositand collateral
requirementsimposed by our clearinghouses.
- Well, when it comes to it,
they just literallyran out of money.
[LAUGHS]
If they knew that up front,you know,
be transparent.
MAN:The irony of this entire thing
is that Robinhoodprovided a platform
for all these investorsto pour into
the market,
and they added hundredsof thousands of new accounts.
People wanted to attackWall Street,
and thereality of the situation
is they broke Robin Hood.
Mr. Tenev, you took
from your customers in orderto minimize the $3 billion
from being largerthan it probably
would have been
because you wantedto protect your position,
and that is very troubling.
- They had to sacrificesomebody in order
to resolve this,
and they sacrificed the peoplethat wanted to diamond
hands their GameStop.
And a lot of peoplelost a lot of money.
ANDY BARR:So if anyone has a problem
with your decisionto halt trades,
it's fair to say thattheir frustration should be
directed towardfederal regulation.
VLAD TENEV:Congressman, you know,
I'm not trying to throwanyone under the bus
in direct frustrationanywhere.
All I cansay is Robinhood's security
played this by the booksand played it basically
the only waythat we could remain in
compliancewith our deposit requirements.
ANDY BARR:Mr. Tenev, I appreciate--
CHRIS GARCIA:Wall Street's got it
to where they have every card
and they knowevery rule of the game
to where we're going to
bend and bend those ruleswithout breaking them.
And the problemis what they do,
us typical little guys will
never be ableto do that stuff, right?
MAXINE WATERS:Mr. Gill,
you are now recognizedfor five minutes
to presentyour oral testimony.
CHRIS GARCIA: And then lookwhat's happening, right?
You got Roaring Kitty out herewho's getting called in front
of anOversight Committee.
Hey, you did bad.
You led a group of peopleto do this.
KEITH GILL: Thank you,Chairwoman Waters,
members of the Committee.
I'm happy to discusswith the committee
my purchases ofGameStop shares
and my discussions of theirfair value on social media.
I also believe the currentprice of the shares
demonstrates that I've beenright about the company.
A few things I am not.I'm not a cat.
I am notan institutional investor.
And I do notprovide personalized
investment advice for feesor commissions.
The idea that I use socialmedia to promote GameStop
stock tounwitting investors
and influencethe market is preposterous.
I'm just an individualwhose investment in
GameStop and postson social media
were based upon my ownresearch and analysis.
I want to say that I supportretail investors'
right to invest in whatthey want when they want
and to send amessage
based on how they invest.
As for what happenedin January,
others will haveto explain it.
It's alarminghow little we know
about the inner workingsof the market.
As for me, I like the stock.
(DISTORTED LOW VOICE)I like the stock.
- Keith Gill, the legendthat he is,
says he likes the stock.
[ROARING]
The next day, sure enough,
he fucking doubled downon his position.
And I'm like, Jen.I'm going back in.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) 1, 2. 1, 2. 0, 2.1, open. 3.
MATT KELLY:It was the end of February.
I just told my jobI'm leaving.
We're goingand we're moving the Texas.
We're buyinga new house.
And it shoots back up.
So literally, the same day,like 20 minutes before--
it starts going up from--
it starts going $40, $50,$60, $70.
It goes up to like $180that day.
I'm sitting therewatching the ticker,
and I'm like,I need to do this now.
I need tosell out,
because I was in other stuff.And I was like,
I need to sell for a lossand get back in right now.
And Ifucking do it.
And I'm holding 2,000 sharesagain of GameStop.
I'm not selling it for lessthan what I think it's worth,
and whatI think it's worth is way more
than what they wantto pay for it.
So I'm holding fora million dollars a share.
I'm holding for the MOASS,the squeeze.
Nobody knowswhat it can go to.
This has neverhappened before, and
it probably will neverhappen again.
It could come now.
It could come infive years from now.
It's turned into along-term investment for me.
[EXPLOSION]
I'm hoping this is the biggesttransfer of wealth
that's ever happenedin history.
(SINGING) 1, 2.
I'm still holding.[LAUGHS]
And then from there,it ran up to $180.
It went up to $350.Back down to $100.
Back, you know, because of thefuckery that's happening
and the manipulationthat's happening.
It's not followingany tradition.
So in the lastthree months,
I've just been doing research,
learning abouthow the market works,
how often are they doingthis?
And is GameStop specialin a way
that this is the first timethey've ever done it?
Or is it specialin the way that
they've done this forever?So people say,
oh, they haven't learnedfrom the financial crisis.
They haven't learnedfrom 2008. But they did learn.
They learned that there'sno consequences
for their actions.
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH][MUSIC PLAYING]
ALVAN CHOW:When Elon tweeted after-hours,
I remember texting my dad.
I was like, OK,this is the top for sure.
So I soldeverything after he did that.
So by the skin of my teeth,I escaped that.
I mean, this $8 millionis kind of like--
I'mlike just eating scraps
that are left overfrom a massive battle.
I think I'm a really smallfish in a very crazy event.
I'm just opportunistic.
- I put $40,000 in and walkedaway with over $1.6 million.
My last day at workwas on Friday.
- OK, so after a few weeks,I was just like, fuck it.
And I cashed out and I wentstraight into crypto.
So that's all Ido now is crypto.
- I lost money.
DIRECTOR: Say more. Say more.
- Nothing. I lost money.
There's nothingmore to be said.
It's a stock. You lose moneyand you move on. That's it.
I didn't lose a child.
I didn't lose a wife.I lost money.
If you want to do thisfor a living,
you're going to losemoney.
You want to be a Kung Fufighter and not get hit?
Don't be a Kung Fu fighter,or go play on video games.
- Did you know that you canstart making passive income
just for holdingsome of your favorite stocks?
I start trading and don't knowhow to start?
I got you. You're not going toget rich overnight doing this
and the market's
not alwaysgoing to be nice to you.
When I started all of this,I'd never even had any idea
that, one,it would really be an income.
Now I can be aninfluencer
and be a fin influencer.
The finance influencers isthe new term people call it.
And that's where we'reat now.
MAN: The whole premiseof WallStreetBets
is to make money quickly
and do it in a waythat's not healthy.
And whenyou do make all that money,
you don't even know whatto fucking do with all of it.
Honestly, that's why I likeyou'll YOLO'd it away.
Because I wasn'treally happier.
I wasn't happier at all.
[FIREWORKS]
CHRIS GARCIA:The one thing
that I've noticedfrom the people
that have gotten rich quickis they're never here a year
afterwards. You know,they'll make the news today.
They might do some fun stuff.
But if you don't learn how tomanage your money
or learn how to manage wealth,you won't keep that wealth.
Be Warren Buffett, dude.Make your money in your 60s.
Who cares?Like age isn't a thing,
and enjoy the 20years
it'll take you to becomean overnight success
because when you'rean overnight success,
what happensafter that?
- Mmm. This might soundreally, really crazy,
but what I've donewith my portfolio
in crypto these past fivemonths,
I know I'm set for life.I just have to hold. Dead ass.
SIR JACKALOT:Who says a stock price
has to be calculatedbased off cash flow?
I mean, it's just what peopleare willing to pay
for it.
And again, what's morallyor ethically wrong with that?
That's just the game.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING)
There once was a stockthat put to sea.
The name of the stock was GME.
The price blew up and theshorts dipped down.
Hold my bully boys, hold.
[GRUNTS]
Soon may the Tendieman
come to send a rocketinto the sun.
One day whenthe trading is done,
we'll take ourgains and go.
She had not beentwo weeks from shore
when Ryan Cohenjoined the board.
The captain called "allhands"
and swore he'd takehis shares and hold.
[GRUNTS]
Soon may the Tendieman
come to send a rocketinto the sun.
One day whenthe trading is done,
we'll take ourgains and go.
Before the newshad hit the market,
WallStreetBets came upand bought it.
With diamond hands
they knew they'd profit,if they could only hold.
[GRUNTS]
- Is there anything in therethat could get me canceled?
DIRECTOR: Huh?
- Is there anything in therethat could get me canceled
or fired from my job?
[MUSIC PLAYING]