petrol or diesel car, would you be prepared to swap it for a bike or take the bus instead 7 a scheme�*s begun in coventry where people can hand their vehicles over to be recycled — in exchange for credit to spend on more sustainable modes of transport. our business correspondent katy austin has the details. it's the end of the road for this car. it was sent here deliberately by its former owner. but why? let's reverse a few days. we met mohammed, who owned that 15—year—old diesel for four years. after, you know, the lockdown has kicked in, i have been mainly working from home, five days a week. so, i'm not using the car as much. he decided tojoin a trial in coventry. owners of cars over ten years old can give them up and get cash for other forms of travel. they are offering £3000 worth of credits, which you can use to travel by bus, train, taxi. authorities in the west midlands are behind this scheme, using funding from a government grant. the idea is to get 250 cars off the road and get their drivers onto more environmentally friendly transport. this is trying to address what you might call the behavioural choices of individuals. bear in mind we are investing hundreds of millions of pounds of the capital in the transport network, but we do need to know how we are actually going to encourage more people onto it. so it's all part of a wider scheme. the aa told us the timing was bizarre, and the money would be better spent on electric charging points. the walking and cycling charity sustrans, though, welcomed the trial, but said it wasn't a silver bullet. these schemes are more likely to work when you have got decent public transport provision already and safe walking and cycling routes. i think the challenge with schemes like this is obviously in rural areas, and in some suburban areas. there are not currently any plans for a national scheme, but traffic was increasing before the pandemic, and here, they hope to change at least some people's behaviour. katy austin, bbc news. now on bbc news it's time for our world. there's this narrative that this was a david and goliath story. it's all of these hedge funds, like yours, against the people — and the people won. i'll put it this way. if a 5—year—old walked into this room right now, i could probably kick his ass. if 1,000 5—year—olds walked in here, they could probably take me down. just being honest about it. is that a david versus goliath story? uh, you know — no! something happened this january that no—one expected. it was a little bit like an internet revolution. we were team human, team normal, regular guy. it's united capitalists... it's like this focal point, a paradigm shift for everything that's gone gone on for the last few hundred years on wall street. ..socialists. .. if there was a smaller chance that i could have a direct impact on ruining some billionaire's life, i wanted in on it. ..and youtubers. so how much did you make? um, $40,000-ish? the idea that an internet forum could take a failing company and by collectively investing in it, or to use the parlance, "taking it to the moon," take on hedge funds and win, seemed impossible. houston, if that's not the earth, we're in trouble! but was this really a people's revolution? this is not a david—versus—goliath story, but more of a goliath—versus—goliath story. the gamestop story is the story of its investors, and we'll be telling it through the experiences of three amateurs in california who all buy and sell their shares using trading apps. gavin may, a 19—year—old youtube star, parkour enthusiast and amateur online trading guru. do you sometimes wonder why people listen to a 19—year—old who's been trading for, like, six months? yeah, no, totally. that's definitely a very valid question. john motter, who works for a homeless charity. he blames big finance for some of la's housing problems. have you ever bought any shares before? no. first time? first time. and casper and matt who run a social media marketing company. i'm a gambling guy and i really believed in the power of memes and i put my money where my mouth is. a year ago, gamestop to many was a business slowly dying. it sells physical games at an actual shop, and many on wall street thought that that business model wasn'tjust outdated, it was prehistoric, a business doomed to fail. its share price this time last year was around the $3 mark. over the summer, though, a few investors began to proselytise about gamestop. people like the then—obscure youtuber, keith gill, roaringkitty. many think it's a foolish investment, but everyone�*s are wrong! they argued that far from being dead in the water, gamestop had potential. gamestop is an established, uniquely—positioned player in a thriving $150 billion gaming industry. one group in particular was listening. an internet message board called wallstreetbets. so could you just describe to someone who's never been on wallstreetbets, roughly what the culture is? yeah, i mean... it's hard to do it without, um, without using offensive terms, but it is veryjuvenile, very subconsciously absurdist. their favourite thing to do is something called "loss porn," where you share your biggest losses. and everyone will be like, "hey, man, goodjob!" like, "you lost $1 million, goodjob, man!" sort of the nature of the sub is, like, riskier bets. - i can't tell, like, what's| a meme and what isn't. but all those meme posts| are feeding into the larger goal of getting as many people to buy stocks as possible. - slowly, gamestop started to get a buzz, and gradually the share price began to tick up. this is the first official close above $14, so cheers to that shit! so i first read about gamestop through the subreddit, wallstreetbets. i think the first time i bought in was late november to early december. i think the stock price was around $16 back then. gamestop�*s share price had attracted the attention of another kind of investor — short sellers. hedge funds that thought gamestop was overpriced. hedge funds like citron capital, founded and run by this man, andrew left. i'd known gamestop for a long time. to me it looked like they were following the blockbuster video path. and then all of a sudden we found out in december, while the industry was actually up — the video game industry had their best month ever, december of 2020 — gamestop actually had a bad quarter, ora bad month. they were declining, and that was supposed to be their saviour month. and that's when i started to short the stock. left�*s hedge fund was now one of the many hedge funds that were shorting gamestop. essentially, they were betting that the share price would fall. if it did, they would make money. but that had also been noticed by people on wallstreetbets. gamestop happened to be one of the names that was most frequently shorted. they'd worked out that if gamestop�*s share price went up, hedge funds would lose money. and many users on the platform came up with a theory that went like this. if enough of us were to buy together, in conjunction, coule we create a short squeeze which would force some of these hedge funds who are betting against gamestop to close out their position by buying gamestop back, and therefore pushing the price of gamestop even higher? wallstreetbets is a forum on san francisco—based reddit, one of the biggest social media companies in the world. and watching on was its chief executive and founder, steve huffman. i've known about wallstreetbets for years. wallstreetbets is in fact one of my guilty pleasures on reddit. was there a point where you were like, huh, this is a bigger story than i thought? 0n wallstreetbets, there's often a couple of stocks or companies that have their attention. and so over the years, it's been tesla, it's been virgin galactic, it's been blackberry. and so in my mind i'm just browsing reddit, gamestop, 0k, gamestop�*s got their infatuation right now. so i was actually a little bit late to the party. i didn't realise reddit had leaked into the real world again. so it was really at the take—off of the mania, i was like, ok, this is a bigger one. by mid—january the price of gamestop shares was nearly $30, a tenfold increase from eight months before. it was about to go stratospheric. i got the champagne. cheers, congratulations, look at this shit! look at this shit, 60%! when did you start thinking, oh, dear — something's happening here? well, i was about to go do a twitter live feed. and i think like 150,000 people would sign on in the first few minutes. remember that line from jaws — "i think i need a bigger boat!" it's about this point when gamestop shares truly took off. ridiculous, ridiculous. ridiculous, argh! i remember that day. i think we opened at, like, $39 and at the peak of the day it was $76. watching this chart gives me heart problems, i swear to god. we both bought between, what, $70 or $80? around there. newsreel: gamestop had another wild day of trading. _ and it was ridiculous. we were texting each other all night. there was a couple of good mornings... a couple of really good mornings, yeah! newsreel: gamestop isn't stopping. - fuelled by social media, i the video game company... all the money you had in the world was doubled? yeah, crazy. in just a few hours? completely crazy. and that was only, like, the first of five days of craziness. gamestop was going to the moon. the price was going up and up and up. there's more and more activity, more and more news, more and more attention. newsreel: the video game retailer hit a high _ of $380 a share... gamestop was now in uncharted waters. its share price had increased by 100 times since march. we have gamestop hitting $300 and $350, and there was even an after hours session when the market was closed, but you know, especially large institutions can still trade, where it hit $450! i bought in at around $330, a first share. so i was a latecomer. weord got out there was a good chance the hedge funds and billionaires that got greedy, and bought those enormous short positions, were going to be completely ruined over this. and so, even if there was a smaller chance that i could have a direct impact on ruining some billionaire's life, i wanted in on it. steve huffman was looking on. he had the power to switch wallstreetbets off. was there any pressure on you to maybe lock down wallstreetbets? we faced that question, that literal question — is there pressure, should you do something? but our motivation, or what we were trying to do, our duty in the situation was actually the opposite, to keep wallstreetbets online. so we did take a closer look here, but really, we were making sure the community didn't break. because a lot of people were coming to reddit for that experience. with reddit keeping wallstreetbets up, it now seemed unstoppable. can i ask how much you lost in total? no, i mean... i think the fund was down approximately, i don't even know... 18%, 19% —18%, possibly. how much is that in cash terms? i won't discuss that. that figure is certainly in the millions, and likely the tens of millions. then one of the biggest investors called robin hood based in san francisco made a crucial decision. it was happy for them to sell gamestop shares. ., , for them to sell gamestop shares. ., , , shares. people cannot buy the stock and _ shares. people cannot buy the stock and people _ shares. people cannot buy the stock and people started - stock and people started freaking out a little bit. robin hood's reason? the chief executive _ robin hood's reason? the chief executive testified _ robin hood's reason? the chief executive testified to _ robin hood's reason? the chief executive testified to congress | executive testified to congress they had run out of capital to meet requirements. in other words, they ran out of money. if you don't answer the hedge funds, — if you don't answer the hedge funds, millions of small platforms invest every day. then — platforms invest every day. then it _ platforms invest every day. then it fell back down to earth _ then it fell back down to earth. . ., ., , then it fell back down to earth. . ., �*, earth. the clue to robin hood's brandin: earth. the clue to robin hood's branding is _ earth. the clue to robin hood's branding is in _ earth. the clue to robin hood's branding is in the _ earth. the clue to robin hood's branding is in the name. - earth. the clue to robin hood's branding is in the name. i- branding is in the name. i trading up his idea had protected the rich, to some? it happened right in front of your face, they blatantly did it and nobody could say anything. we give brands and companies are voice over time, let's try and give the little guy a voice for something they are passionate about. ., . ., , ., about. you decided to fly a lane about. you decided to fly a plane over _ about. you decided to fly a plane over robin _ about. you decided to fly a plane over robin hood's i about. you decided to fly a - plane over robin hood's offices in the bay area? we plane over robin hood's offices in the bay area?— in the bay area? we did. robin hood catching _ in the bay area? we did. robin hood catching the _ in the bay area? we did. robin hood catching the brunt - in the bay area? we did. robin hood catching the brunt of - hood catching the brunt of this, — hood catching the brunt of this, they created that irony for themselves. they cashed in on the — for themselves. they cashed in on the brand image of trading and made it so the average man can play— and made it so the average man can play in— and made it so the average man can play in this game that they have _ can play in this game that they have been closed out of. when the little — have been closed out of. when the little guy wins some chips of the — the little guy wins some chips of the table, they have to shut down — of the table, they have to shut down the — of the table, they have to shut down the game.— down the game. one of the thins down the game. one of the things that _ down the game. one of the things that came _ down the game. one of the things that came up - down the game. one of the things that came up time i down the game. one of the i things that came up time and time again by talking to amateur investors is how much they believe the financial systems were rigged to benefit the rich. much of that seem to stem from the 2008 financial crash. ., ., , ., ., crash. nothing was learned from 2008, no crash. nothing was learned from 2008. no one — crash. nothing was learned from 2008, no one was _ crash. nothing was learned from 2008, no one was held - 2008, no one was held accountable, the banks were bailed out. people couldn't get a job, bailed out. people couldn't get ajob, i couldn't bailed out. people couldn't get a job, i couldn't afford housing, i had to crash on a friend's carriage. you could see on the post, the difference between the memes and the jokes. between the memes and the 'okes. �* , ., , between the memes and the 'okes. �*, ., , ,, jokes. it's not 'ust socialists who think _ jokes. it's notjust socialists who think that. _ jokes. it's notjust socialists who think that. jordan - jokes. it's notjust socialists who think that. jordan was i jokes. it's notjust socialists| who think that. jordan was a vocal supporter of wallstreet. bets. is vocal supporter of wallstreet.bets. is that vocal supporter of wallstreet. bets. is that a vocal supporter of wallstreet.bets. is that a real wolf? it wallstreet.bets. is that a real wolf? , . . wallstreet.bets. is that a real wolf? , ., ., ., wallstreet.bets. is that a real wolf?_ he - wolf? it is a realwall. he went to _ wolf? it is a realwall. he went to prison _ wolf? it is a realwall. he went to prison but - wolf? it is a realwall. he went to prison but now . wolf? it is a realwall. he - went to prison but now claims to be reformed. i went to prison but now claims to be reformed.— to be reformed. i never felt like i to be reformed. i never felt like i was — to be reformed. i never felt like i was persecuted, - to be reformed. i never felt like i was persecuted, i- to be reformed. i never felt like i was persecuted, i got| like i was persecuted, i got what i deserved, i trusted the institutions that put me away institutions that put me away in jail. institutions that put me away injail. i did my time and i got outandi injail. i did my time and i got out and i rebuilt my life. most people don't trust the institutions that are giving out justice. institutions that are giving outjustice. they watched what happened in 2008 and we also the movie, and at the end there was a funny scene where they said all the bad guys went to jail. just kidding, no one went to jail. we all laugh and smirk. we know it, it erodes the trust of the people. i think you will find a lot of people right now, they know it is not right. bi; people right now, they know it is not right-— is not right. by early february. _ is not right. by early february, the - is not right. by early february, the share | is not right. by early - february, the share price of gamestop was about a tenth of its market high and on the way down, people lost a lot of money. casper�*s shares at one point were worth over $100,000. he sold a few but held on to most of them, he says, out of principle. 0n the way down, his shares decreased by more than $60,000. i shares decreased by more than $60,000. . ., shares decreased by more than $60,000. .., ., shares decreased by more than $60,000.— $60,000. i could have made a little bit of — $60,000. i could have made a little bit of money, _ $60,000. i could have made a little bit of money, but - $60,000. i could have made a little bit of money, but i - little bit of money, but i think the experience, some people would be mad i'm saying this, but i think the experience was worth it. i don't get too attached to the games until i sell.— don't get too attached to the games until i sell. john mortar but hiuh games until i sell. john mortar but high and — games until i sell. john mortar but high and said _ games until i sell. john mortar but high and said he _ games until i sell. john mortar but high and said he only - but high and said he only invested as much as he could afford to lose. but many but high thinking gamestop would go to the moon and they lost big. i do think there are many who believed — i do think there are many who believed they could drive the price — believed they could drive the price up— believed they could drive the price up and it would just stay there — price up and it would just stay there and _ price up and it would just stay there and it would stay up for ever~ — there and it would stay up for ever~ the _ there and it would stay up for ever. the only thing i can think— ever. the only thing i can think of— ever. the only thing i can think of that way has been bitcoin _ think of that way has been bitcoin. ,, ., , �* think of that way has been bitcoin. ,, .,, �* , ., bitcoin. gamestop didn't behave like ititcein _ bitcoin. gamestop didn't behave like bitcoin and _ bitcoin. gamestop didn't behave like bitcoin and many— bitcoin. gamestop didn't behave like bitcoin and many people - like bitcoin and many people holding onto their shares were being egged on by other users, whilst others were selling. those are definitely people trying to get everyone into a frenzy so they will cash out. you constantly say you have taking — you constantly say you have taking it _ you constantly say you have taking it to the morale at the same — taking it to the morale at the same time yourself, trying to divest — same time yourself, trying to divest |t— same time yourself, trying to divest. , . , same time yourself, trying to divest. , ., ,, ., ., divest. it is easy to forget millions — divest. it is easy to forget millions of _ divest. it is easy to forge