Our View of Volatile Stocks and the Message of Markets
Markets took a dizzying wobble this past week as lots of micro news assaulted a market which had become accustomed to a pretty consistent macro narrative of ‘TINA’ (there is no alternative) to stocks.
Specifically, the NYSE set new all-time highs in volume (shares traded) as a frenzy of individual investors, fueled by stock tips on public social media platforms like Reddit, dramatically bid up shares of beleaguered retailer GameStop (GME) and other companies where bearish institutional investors had accumulated large ‘short’ positions. A short is a bet that a stock will go down… and when that stock rises, a short seller is forced to post collateral to cover any losses or close out their positions. Short sellers make money when a stock falls; however, when a stock rises, their losses can be unlimited.