How do you know a rich nation? Sure, there are many ways. But there is one addition, if you permit me: a Reddit thread playing stock games. Reddit is a social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website which is not very popular in Africa. But in America, it has a potent force to possibly push some men and women into early retirement.
Yes, some money men and women are shorting some stocks (you make money when the stocks go down) and some people are not happy with them. So, on Reddit, the unhappy guys banded together to ensure the shorters loose. Yes, provided the value of the stocks keeps going up, the shorters will have to cover their exposures, and whenever that happens, they lose money. Technically, their loss is infinite even though their gain is bounded by zero since the lowest a stock can go is zero. (This is a brute-force explanation of shorting!)
Video-game seller GameStop is the site of a dramatic clash in the stock market that has seen the retailer’s stock soar by more than 1,600% this month. The company has one of the highest levels of so-called short interest, or financial bets against the stock’s rise — and those professional investors are getting crushed by the flood of mom-and-pop traders piling in. Interest in the stock has climbed rapidly due to a popular forum on Reddit, where a “cult” following has developed in support of the company. The showdown reveals the rising power of individual investors, who historically haven’t influenced stock prices on their own.
Pardon that introduction. I am trying to introduce Gameshop – a yoyo kind of company which has received new vaccines during the lockdown, and it is doing fairly well now. The company’s stock has gone parabolic because of one thing: some users on Reddit are betting to keep buying it to make sure Wall Street money people who shorted the company’s stock keep losing money.
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And you know what? They are actually spending money and buying real stocks, not the video game types. People, stock buying now is a fun game. Yes, if you are bored, launch the app and hit buy. But that that happens is a validation that America is indeed a rich nation; these young people are playing dollars as though they are in the village square sandy game.
Egwu oma si na chukwu [Good music comes from God]. Imagine if you are buying a company’s stocks and the owners are listening to the sound of clicks. Is there any better sound in business? Gameshop is listening to the right music now.
Can I give you stock to start?
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Both cats and dogs are seen as ‘pets’ in one clime, but they are seen as meats in another. Until you are extricated from excruciating poverty, many things won’t make sense to you.
It is not easy to think of certain things, when you are still struggling to meet the basics.
Enough said.