From Main Street to Wall Street: Analysis of Retail Trading Power After The GameStop Squeeze
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v12i4.5382Keywords:
Assets Pricing, Market Microstructure, Market Power, Market Manipulation, Pump-and-dump scheme, Retail Power, Sectors, Multi-Caped Stocks, Social Media, Reddit, Long Term Study, Security and Exchange Commission, GameStop, GMEAbstract
Social media can be used as a tool to help investors gather and disseminate information about the stock market. However, this tool also presents opportunities for market manipulation through mass coordination that many retail traders use to gain an advantage over more prominent market participants. Analyzing millions of mentions sent on the social media platform Reddit in r/WallStreetBets, we found that an abnormally higher number of mentions is associated with a price and volume increase of the security. Examining these dependent variables through a descriptive and correlational study through the years, along with mentions in various sized companies, we found that smaller to larger-sized companies retained and increased some retail influence through the evolution of the pump-and-dump tactics, while the general market (ETFs) had zero to no real longterm retail influence. Our findings indicate an evolution to modern-day market structure as retail traders have increased long-term power in the market, though limited in their effect on the whole market
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