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GameStop share price – Rush Limbaugh compares ‘Wolves of Reddit’ to Trump after amateur traders stunned Wall Street
RUSH Limbaugh has praised the GameStop share scandal for angering "the elites" comparing it to political "disruptor" Donald Trump.
Reddit users have caused havoc on Wall Street after buying up shares in struggling retail businesses which investors had bet against.
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The so-called "Wolves of Reddit" cost hedge funds millions - prompting trading platforms such as Robinhood to halt buying on certain firms such as video game store GameStop.
Controversial radio host Rush has hit out at the intervention of the trading firms insisting the controversy has "the elites bent out of shape".
The broadcaster compared the crackdown on the Reddit movement to the supposed treatment of Donald Trump - who lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
He said: "I’ve been studying it all morning and the best thing I can tell you is… whatever you think is going on in politics, Washington establishment, the Deep State, what have you, it’s the same thing in finance.
"If you figure out how to make a lot of money, and if you’re like Donald Trump and you figure out how to get elected, you figure out how to beat the Deep State, they’re gonna come and they’re gonna wipe you out.
"They’re gonna destroy you, and that’s what’s happening with GameStop."
The crackdown on the trading of Reddit-targeted firms sparked protests on Wall Street yesterday.
A crowd gathered outside of the New York Stock Exchange shouting "F**k Robinhood" while holding signs reading "TAX WALL STREET" and "TAX THE RICH".
GameStop, which sells computer games and other electronics, was already struggling before the Covid pandemic due to the rise in online shopping.
It seems Reddit users, many of whom are avid video game enthusiasts, chose to inflate the firm's share price because of their affinity with the brand as well as a means of causing havoc on Wall Street.
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And by boosting the share prices of struggling bricks and mortar companies, the so-called "Reddit rally" movement cost investment funds - known as hedge funds - millions.
This is because investors on Wall Street had heavily "shorted" firms such as GameStop - which means they had bet against their stock rising.
But with the support of Reddit threads such WallStreetBets - which has more than five million subscribers - GameStop's stock this month traded between $112 and $480 a share.
That's up from around $18 a share at the start of the year.
The online movement worked for a time and also sent stock prices for companies such as cable TV channel AMC and beleaguered phone brand BlackBerry soaring.
However, several trading firms, including Robinhood, - sparking several lawsuits which accuse the trading platforms of .
The online movement then began , tanking its score in the Google Play store by filing hundreds of thousands of negative, 1-star reviews.
The app's rating was down to 1.1 out of five at one point on Thursday
Google that it stepped in and began removing some of the negative reviews, since it has a policy against manipulating ratings.
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As of Thursday night, the rating was hovering around 4 stars again.
The lawsuits starting rolling in after Robinhood blocked GameStop and AMC on Thursday, which caused shares to fall more than 50%.
Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev announced on yesterday evening that they would allow trading of the stocks they had blocked again today.
"Starting tomorrow, we plan to allow limited buys of these securities. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and make adjustments as needed," Tenev wrote on Twitter.
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Tenev told that the decision to stop trading on GameStop and AMC was to "protect the firm and protect our customers".
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"We absolutely did not do this at the direction of any market maker or hedge fund or anyone," he added.
Other platforms - like TD Ameritrade - halted trading on the Reddit-targeted companies as well.
YouTuber The Plain bagel explains how amateur traders make MILLIONS from GameStop as hedge funds lost money shorting stock