> I don’t know how you can argue this in good faith
I'm not an expert and am rather dumb.
What do you think the differences are?
Differences:
* One hedge fund versus a multitude of investors
* Owning all the securities vs only a portion
The similarities are:
* Intentionally buying all the stock to cause a short squeeze
* Explicitly recalling borrowed shares to cause a short squeeze
To be clear, I'm not arguing that what wallstreetbets is doing is illegal but something fairly similar is. I thought an actual example of market manipulation was relevant to the conversation.
A short squeeze in and of itself is not illegal. The squeezers were not prosecuted in 2008 when they held onto VW even though it briefly became the most valuable stock in the world. Seeing an opportunity to advantage oneself of a bad short position is just trading, nothing fancier than that.
The Falcone case is much more complicated because it was a single person buying the entirety of the market. Much weirder mechanics at play. Squeezes are always carried out through the self-interest of uncoordinated parties, be they retail investors or firms.
I'm not an expert and am rather dumb.
What do you think the differences are?
Differences:
* One hedge fund versus a multitude of investors
* Owning all the securities vs only a portion
The similarities are:
* Intentionally buying all the stock to cause a short squeeze
* Explicitly recalling borrowed shares to cause a short squeeze
To be clear, I'm not arguing that what wallstreetbets is doing is illegal but something fairly similar is. I thought an actual example of market manipulation was relevant to the conversation.