This smells like another 'happening' all over again.
Small group of people on the internet have stumbled on a fool proof get rich quick scheme while simultaneously sticking it to the man and causing a bunch of people billions.
Mainstream media jumps in and draw Streisand levels of exposure, all negative of course.
Cult level following of the happening.
This has all the ear marks of another psyop, and just like the last one, I don't think this ends they way the people think it will.
Nah, it is not a psy-op. It is just people banding together to extract value from the hedge funds who would normally be making the money. Also, it is not advertised or reported on as a quick way to get rich. The trick only works if they hold on to their stocks as they have been doing. They just had to wait long enough for the hedge fund to fail.
Of course, the value of the stock will sooner or later reflect the actual value of the stock, meaning most people engaging in this action will not become rich unless they sell now, but this is not the point of this thing. So in conclusion: A few may get rich, but most will sell too late and may end up losing a bit of money.
Of course, the media will spin it. Wallstreet will demand politicians do something against this. Of course they will spin it as something evil, but it is a lot like what hedge funds have been doing for many decades. Soros became famous for doing this to whole economies. He got rich by disrupting markets like this.
What did occupy wallstreet accomplish? Nothing. In a few weeks, these people hurt hedge funds more than anyone thought possible. Is it bad? Is it good? I don't know. I just know people in power will use it to do bad things, further exposing their true colors to the people.