A huge hedge fund "shorted" GameStop assuming it was gonna go out of business. Essentially they made a bet that GameStop would fail. And if it did, they'd make money. BUT, if GameStop stock goes up after they short it, they lose money. And like a lot of money. They made a huge bet GameStop (brick and mortar) would go under and in a week, it's gone up 600% thanks to reddit and the internet people. The hedge fund Melvin Capital is losing billions of dollars off of this bet.
I need a tl;dr on this situation. It sounds funny as hell but I don’t understand the implications.
A huge hedge fund "shorted" GameStop assuming it was gonna go out of business. Essentially they made a bet that GameStop would fail. And if it did, they'd make money. BUT, if GameStop stock goes up after they short it, they lose money. And like a lot of money. They made a huge bet GameStop (brick and mortar) would go under and in a week, it's gone up 600% thanks to reddit and the internet people. The hedge fund Melvin Capital is losing billions of dollars off of this bet.
Ah, okay. That’s great. Does Elon Musk have a particular issue with this hedge fund or is he just having fun?
Honestly no idea. It certainly seems like he’s just giving Wall Street the middle finger.
The same hedge fund has been shorting a Tesla for many years.