After the market closed, Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk appeared to be joining the pile with a tweet that sent GameStop stock shortly above $ 200. To be one word comment – “Gamestonk !!” – was all it took to cheer on the popular Reddit page that generated the most hype around the stock.
That was the second Musk tweet in 24 hours to cause a stir for an individual stock – Etsy shares spiked in premarket trading Tuesday after his statement that he likes the online craft market “a bit”.
GameStop is up more than 680% so far this year – an unlikely spike led by investors converging on the WallStreetBets subreddit. Those traders have essentially declared war on GameStop’s short sellers – investors who have placed bets that a stock would fall. The more GameStop climbs, the more money the short sellers lose.
The Reddit merchants are also piling on other struggling companies that short sellers often see as overvalued, including BlackBerry (BB), Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), Macy’s (M.) and AMC (AMC).