All language subtitles for gamestop.rise.of.the.players.2022.720p.web.h264-kdoc.[eng]

(fluorescent sign buzzing)

(frenetic electronic music)

(intense orchestral music)

- [Announcer] The stock
market is in turmoil today.

- This GameStop
situation is the craziest

I think I've ever seen.

- I want to talk about GameStop.

- GameStop.
- GameStop.

- GameStop!

- GameStop.
- GameStop.

- GameStop.
- GameStop.

- GameStop.
- GameStop.

- This crazy GameStop
stock market story.

- I was like, oh my God,

we actually can use
shares as our weapons

against Wall Street,

so hit 'em where it hurts

and take their money
away from them.

- It's interesting, isn't it?

- Everyone is talking
about GameStop.

- It's absolute insanity.

Even looking back, it
doesn't even make sense.

- It is the story that
doesn't seem to die.

- [Male Speaker] Literally,
I think the entire world
is talking about it.

(speaking in foreign language)

- It was like an out
of body experience.

(speaking in foreign language)

I can't really explain it.

- [Announcer] Wall Street

has been turned
upside down this week.

- [Announcer] Shaken
by thousands of
small time investors

taking on the big guys.

- At one point,

I'm just like there might be
a financial crisis developing.

- It's like the villagers
storming the castle.

- [Male Speaker]
Frenzied buying,

the likes of which
we have never seen.

- GameStop!
- I'll be quite honest,

that whole week was
just a complete blur.

- GameStop at the center of
this pretty extraordinary

David and Goliath story
where individual investors

are short squeezing some
pretty massive hedge funds.

- [Male Speaker] We
have the most amazing

short squeeze going on.

- [Male Speaker] It seems
to be the short squeeze
of all short squeezes.

- [Announcer] Forcing
those Wall Street giants

to lose billions.

- Oh, that's terrible, those
poor hedge fund managers.

Now might be a
good time to invest

in whoever manufacturers
the world's tiniest violins.

- I was like, these
guys are wrong.

It's kind of weird
saying that, right?

Like, hey, these multi-billion
dollar hedge funds are wrong.

This is gonna be the biggest
short squeeze in history.

- That's pretty game-changing.

My friends created a
revolution from their research.

- Let's go, go!

Let's go, you know what I mean?

- People are coming
to us saying, hey,

you're the reason I held on.

Your research is what led
me to this opportunity.

- [Male Speaker] Joining as
the original participants

in the GameStop trade.

- What's going on, everybody?

Hopefully, you can
all hear me all right.

I've never done one
of these before.

We had the vision to see
what was going to happen

before it happened.

- What was it about it
that made you believe

that there was a growth story
there that no one else saw?

- I've been in the
thing for years.

I've lived it, I've watched
the company's evolution.

- Rod, you've been in GameStop

waiting for this
moment since 2017.

- It sure felt like I was
wrong for a long time.

- To me, it just
represented an opportunity

to prove to everybody that I
was right and they were wrong.

(intense orchestral music)

(cow mooing)

- I grew up in
Mukwonago, Wisconsin.

It's very rural, a lot of land.

- Justin Dopierala.

(audience applauding)

- I was the first one of my
family to graduate from college.

At one point, I contacted
several financial firms

and no one would even
give me an internship.

So I decided that,
you know what?

I'm just gonna do it myself.

I'm gonna go out on my own.

I became DOMO
Capital Management.

A lot of my clients were just
every day blue collar people,

nurses, truck
drivers, electricians.

(sparks crackling)

(pensive electronic music)

GameStop came up on
my screens in 2018,

and it was clear to
me that the market

had this huge misperception
about GameStop.

- GameStop plunging after hours

after a disappointing quarter.

- GameStop, yes, you
heard me right, GameStop,

that store that you haven't
been to in like a decade.

- Yeah, GameStop,

you know that money
losing video game store?

- For years, this stock
has been absolutely hated

because the whole
industry is moving online.

- It's a dog shit company, okay?

It's shocking that
they haven't filed

for bankruptcy protection yet.

- So in May of 2019,

I wrote an article, GameStop,
time to use the Konami Code,

a famous cheat that most
gamers know from Contra.

- [Male Speaker]
Up, up, down, down,

left, right, left,
right, B, A, start.

30 lives.

- I was really the
first one to come out

and have a strong
conviction in GameStop.

- Investing, it's a
combination of engineering,

and I would say, art,

even though that sounds a
little bit too pretentious.

Originally, I'm from Russia.

Russia is not a country

where there was a
lot of opportunity.

And just generally
speaking, of course,

it is way better here.

I'm not a financial
professional.

My profession is really
I'm a software architect,

but a few years ago,

I got really interested
in investing.

- So let's examine the structure
of American capitalism.

- Investing has several
different layers
to it, if you will.

- The first rule of
investment is don't lose.

And the second
rule of investment

is don't forget the first rule.

- [Dmitriy] Frequently,
people rely on their emotions.

- Which is terrible news

for the company's only
stockholder, Homer Simpson.

- Oh!

- But you have to
be dispassionate

if you are to make
money, of course.

You don't want to become
emotionally attached.

You have to be interested
in what you're doing,

not just in it to make money.

You have to really care.

That makes you a
better investor.

And one of my
investments was GameStop.

- If you have GameStop
stock, sell it now.

- You know, every
once in a while,

I'll just poke my head
in there, check it out,

be like, yeah, yeah, this
still looks like shit.

- If you hate GameStop,

well, you can just feel free
to give this video a like,

share with your friends.

- People were just
roasting the company.

Hey, GameStop is tanking.

Nobody goes to GameStop.

Who goes to GameStop?

(pensive orchestral music)

I was born in
Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

So my mom and my
dad are both Syrian.

One thing that my father
told me all the time was,

hey, you're never gonna
live a comfortable life

doing a 9:00 to 5:00,
doing an office job.

You need to learn how
to manage your money.

When I was around 15,

my father passed away
and I thought about life.

And I realized he was prepping
me to take care of my family.

So my mom has absolutely no idea

that I drove up to
Alabama last night.

I'm about to surprise
the hell out of her.

(speaking in foreign language)

Don't say that.

I started getting
into misunderstood,

underappreciated type companies

that could potentially
make a comeback.

Yo, when somebody tells
you not to do something,

you do it.

So I started getting
into GameStop

and I started writing
about it on StockTwits.

- It's like Twitter for
financial markets exclusively.

- I was GMEshortsqueeze.

I have a little logo
with a green arrow.

This whole GameStop story

started on Seeking
Alpha and StockTwits.

I have a data
visualization background

and my philosophy is a
picture can say 1,000 words.

If you can put a small
graphic that gives insights,

that can inspire people
to do more research.

- [Male Speaker]
Screw this shit, man.

GameStop frickin' sucks.

Don't go there.

(pensive orchestral music)

- I wanted a sanity check.

I wanted to understand,
what was I missing?

I was a self-confessed
GameStop fanatic by then.

I was reading every bit
of content I could scrape

anywhere across the internet.

- I first came across Rod

when he reached out to
me through my website.

He wasn't looking to
invest with DOMO Capital,

but he just wanted to
talk about GameStop.

- Exactly.

He had an intake
form on his website.

I said, I've read a lot of
your stories about GameStop.

I'm an investor

and I would love to have
a discussion with you.

- Rod and I would
exchange texts.

We've never met in person.

For me personally, Rod
Alzmann was always Uberkikz.

- That was my AOL instant
messenger name from fifth grade.

I made it up because
I played soccer

and 11 was my favorite number.

And I've just used that as
kind of my username ever since.

My job is in competitive
intelligence corporate strategy.

At lunch at work for years,

we'd be talking about stocks,

and GameStop, for me, was
always the largest position.

- They are the world's
greatest optimists, I guess.

- Yes.

Or they know something we don't.

- My coworkers, they were like,

"Why are you doing
this to yourself, Rod?

Why are you still in GameStop?"

- [Female Speaker]
Internet trolls are people

lurking in cyberspace
who launch attacks.

- They're these losers
who don't have a job

and they're in the basement
of their parents' house.

- [Male Speaker] They feed
off of negative reactions.

- The majority of the
trolls would post,

this is Blockbuster.

- GameStop is a brick and
mortar video game retailer

at a time when
people increasingly
download their games

off the internet.

- [Announcer] A lot of people
are buying their
video games online

instead of going
into the stores.

- Brick and mortar stores
have been under pressure

for some time.

- In a few weeks,
stores like this

will simply be a
memory of Americana.

- [Announcer] The company
filed for bankruptcy

six months ago.

- Blockbuster.

- [Male Speaker] Is GameStop
the next Blockbuster?

- This is the next Blockbuster.

They're going out of business.

- GameStop, it's a
company of the past.

- Are they Blockbuster two?

Hell yes.

They're Blockbuster two, man,

the much deadlier sequel.

(merchandise crashing)

- Hey, this is irrelevant
because the PS5

and the Xbox series X
are coming out next year.

- So let's talk about
our next console.

- The biggest risk was
that the new consoles

wouldn't have disk drives.

- [Male Speaker] You know,
very few people are going

and buying video games
in malls anymore.

- If you ask any
10 to 15 year old,

they're downloading
games, right?

They're not going
to these stores.

- If everything
goes all digital,

why the hell would I
ever go into a GameStop?

- [Justin] I had a thesis.

I didn't think the new
consoles would be digital only.

- [Dmitriy] And
Justin was correct.

- I was digging
into the financials

and all I got was made
fun of, all right?

I'm telling you, it's not over.

- Even if they were to
go bankrupt immediately,

there was more money there

than what the stock
was selling for.

- The price had
gotten down below $4.

It just made no sense.

And if we're specifically
talking about video games,

they are who you think of.

Clearly, this brand is not dead.

It's vibrant.

And this cycle is about
to reinvigorate it.

- It's like when you're
playing Texas Hold'em,

you know if you
have a certain hand

and you know you
have a lot of outs.

And with GameStop,
there was so many outs.

- Investing is
almost like a game.

It's like a game

where you are competing
against other people

whom you don't know.

I was really interested
who those people are

on the other side of my trade.

- There aren't too
many jobs, professions,

or even inventions that would
make someone a billionaire,

but hedge funds created
by industry pioneers

such as Steven A.
Cohen did just that.

- [Announcer] Cohen was
actually the inspiration

for the fictitional
character Bobby Axelrod

on the Showtime
drama, "Billions."

- I am a monster.

- It's been a big month
for Citadel's Ken Griffin

in real estate,

the hedge fund
manager purchasing

the most expensive home
ever sold in the U.S.

- [Announcer] Hedge funds

use sophisticated
investment techniques

that enable them to make money
when the markets are rising

and falling.

- The stock market's
just a rigged game

where the top 1%
make out like bandits

and regular people get hurt.

- Justin mentioned
that some hedge funds

were heavily short GameStop.

- [Male Speaker] Hedge
fund managers bet money

that a specific stock
will decline in value.

That's called short selling.

- [Female Speaker]
The trader bets

that has stock
price will go down.

And when it does,
they make money.

But if it goes up, they
lose a lot of money.

- [Male Speaker] There
are those big institutions

and hedge funds that
love to short stocks,

in other words, to bet on
their price collapsing.

- Short sellers crash
companies and profit from that.

- They go, uh-oh, that
company's not doing well,

so I'm gonna make it do worse.

- It's the joy and revelment
of seeing somebody else fail.

- [Male Speaker] These are
nasty, ruthless motherfuckers

who will stop at
nothing to make a buck.

- Wall Street's been
manipulating the
market for years.

This isn't new news.

Like, it's been going on.

They're gonna hurt
the little guy

because that's what
always happens,

they go after the little guy.

I was staying at a job
that I was only staying at

because of financial security.

And it was eating my soul alive.

I always had a passion for
being in the music industry.

My parents were so
against the music business

because it wasn't their
traditional lifestyle

that they had planned for me.

Straight away, I'd be
like this demon child.

And then I finally just
had a breaking point,

so I left my job.

I actually got a tattoo
the day before I quit

saying come as you are,
which is my favorite,

one of my favorite
Nirvana lyrics.

And it's my favorite
band of all time

to remind me that I
wasn't gonna back out

of going into his
office and quitting.

I had no idea when I
was gonna work next,

but I ultimately knew that
it was the right decision.

I was in a lot of debt,

but I took all of my savings

and put it into
the stock market,

and just kind of
hoped for the best.

- So I've always been
like a casual investor,

nothing serious.

I wanted to invest in what
I knew, which was gaming.

(cart whooshing)
- Hee hee!

- My first job
was a game tester.

- A, A!

- I can fix you?

- [Child] Yes!

- I didn't know that.

But then I took a
position as a game master,

which was basically the god
of the world in EverQuest.

(thunder clapping)

When you work in the
video game industry,

unfortunately, it
doesn't pay great.

Ouch!

So I ended up
moving away from it.

I made it a new
year's resolution,

I said, I'm gonna start
a YouTube channel.

I'm doing this.

What's going on, guys?

Welcome to another
episode of Smash JT,

- Smash!
- JT.

- Thank you so
much for watching.

And as always,
you stay smashing.

You stay smashing.

You stay smashing.

You stay smashing.

You stay smashing.

GameStop was hated among
gamers, like hated.

- Every time I go into GameStop,

I'm like, who's buying
any of this shit?

I'm betting against
this horrible company.

- Hell, even I
trashed it sometimes.

There are typos on the website.

Yikes.

But I saw a tweet from GameStop.

- There are a few GameStops,

particularly up in
Tulsa, Oklahoma,

where they are starting
to change things around.

- It got my brain
running wild, like whoa,

what could happen
to this company

that's been beaten
into the dirt?

I bought stock in GameStop.

So my initial
investment in GameStop

was wholly based off
of, oh, they're trying.

Maybe, I'm crazy.

Maybe, I have
completely lost my mind,

or maybe I'm just
onto something here.

I saw so much potential,
so much possibility,

and then some might say
the world started ending

a month later.

- Scientists in China
are trying to determine

if a new virus strain
is responsible for
pneumonia outbreak

in the city of Wuhan.

- [Announcer] The CDC says
the mysterious coronavirus.

- Coronavirus.
- Coronavirus.

- The nation's retailers are
going to be absolutely hammered

by the coronavirus.

- COVID hit and things
changed quite a bit.

- With millions of Americans
under lockdown right now,

some cabin fever is
starting to set in.

- Yeah, I thought you liked me.

I never said I liked you.

- I think (indistinct)
into Spider song.

- We're done with that song.

We are basically stuck at home.

It's like Groundhog Day,

but at least GameStop
was exciting.

- [Rod] No social life.

I was gaining weight.

- The kids became virtual
and they're home every day.

- [Announcer] The coronavirus
pandemic, as you know,

is dramatically changing
our everyday lives.

- Right about now, for many,
it means working from home.

That is the new normal.

- I was working at a tiny
kitchen table as my work set up

with my girlfriend working
six feet away from me

in this little living room space

where we're both doing our jobs.

- I had been living by myself
for a month and a half.

I wasn't working.

I felt like I didn't
have a purpose in life.

So I went to New
Jersey for the summer

to be with my parents.

I surprised them.

I was drunk shopping

and I got delivered
to the wrong location.

My dad thought I was the Amazon
delivery driver at first.

- It should be delivered.

She got her luggage.

I just said my daughter's
on the thing inside.

- I would wake up,
I would do yoga,

and then I would start learning

how to trade in
the stock market.

It was a lot of Googling.

Very basic.

- [Announcer] The weapon of
choice for these new traders

are platforms like Robinhood.

- It feels like monopoly
money sometimes.

It feels like it's
not real money.

Five clicks and I buy a stock.

- The Robinhood revolution.

They used a terrific app

and commission free trading to
attract 70 million investors.

♪ Hallelujah ♪

- Back in the day, you
had a call your broker.

- (indistinct) Cola at
eight and a quarter.

- Now, times have changed.

- Today, we're lucky to
be joined by Vlad Tenev,

who's the co-CEO of Robinhood.

We're proud of the fact

that we've enabled so
many younger investors

and first time investors to
have access to the markets.

- Joining us now is
Davey Day Trader himself.

- Sports are gone, so
I've moved to day trading.

- Barstool Sports
Founder, Dave Portnoy,

took to the Robinhood app
and started a revolution.

- From like where
my parents are from,

it's a very conservative people.

So investing, risking
money isn't really a thing

that you're taught to do.

You're taught hard work

to get to where you
want to be in life.

You know, I'm a college student,

so right now, I don't
have money saved up.

So I decided, okay,

what's a good company to
park my money for a year

that I know can at
least double or triple?

I saw the name GameStop

and it automatically
got my attention.

(screaming)

Was I getting ripped off
from GameStop sometimes?

Yeah.

- Say you have a game worth $50,

well, we can take that
off your hands right now

and give you $6 in store credit.

- [Rigo] But I love GameStop,

and that's why I
bought the stock.

- [Female Speaker] GameStop,
which sells video games

and consoles is not doing well.

- GameStop had
certain things going

which made it appear

as it was doing worse
than it really was doing.

- It's game over for hundreds
of GameStop locations.

- Closing hundreds of stores.

- That's pretty sad.

- [Justin] It was publicized
as this negative thing.

- At some point,
you're gonna be like,

how are they still in business?

- And it was so funny

because we wanted
GameStop to close stores.

- You don't need to have these
stores all over one another.

They had over 6,000 stores.

- And there's just no need to
have stores on every corner.

- [Male Speaker]
May be game over
for major retailer GameStop.

- That was a big disconnect
because on its face,

if a company's
shuttering stores,

that's a bad thing.

And it wasn't in
GameStop's case.

- I was like, hey, how can
I turn this into a graphic

so other people will understand
what store closings mean.

So I went, I scraped all
the locations for GameStop,

and you're seeing more
GameStops out there

than fast food companies.

It doesn't make sense.

There doesn't need to
be that many GameStops.

- You're seeing investors flee

because they're concerned

if you don't have
people in your stores,

you don't have cash
coming into the registers.

Your short-term outlook
could get very ugly.

- There was not a good thing

to be seen online
about GameStop.

- Smash JT, you're
so full of shit.

- God!

- [Male Speaker]
This guy is a madman.
He is a crazed lunatic.

We've seen his videos

of him walking around doing
his stupid GameStop videos.

- That's what I've been
saying about GameStop

since I started covering them.

- [Male Speaker] Troll JT.

- I will always be a gamer.

- What a fuckin' weirdo.

(laughing)

- I remember thinking

if I didn't make a
YouTube video on this,

I would probably
sell out right now.

I don't mean to be
turning this channel

into like a
GameStop-centric channel.

Damn it, I believe
in this company.

I believe in the turnaround.

And we don't know the
extent of this COVID thing.

We don't know how
bad it's gonna be.

I finally feel like GameStop
is onto something here.

I need to find someone

to reinforce my feelings
on this company.

So I started looking online,

but most weren't covering
it in a positive light

except Roaring Kitty.

- Hey, what's up, everybody?

Welcome to Roaring Kitty.

This channel revolves
around live streams

where I share my daily
routine of tracking stocks,

performing investment research,

and a whole bunch of
boring stuff like that.

- It's this dude
with a headband,

has a beer in his hand,

and he's like GameStop,
guys, GameStop.

Cheers.

- Oh, JT Smash, JT Smash.

Shout out to JT Smash.

JT, terrific, terrific video
that you uploaded on GameStop.

- So I was just
like, man, finally,

someone as crazy as me.

- We would all join
Monday, Wednesday,

Friday night at
7:00 p.m. Eastern.

- His streams would be like
six, seven, eight hours.

- I mean, there was
like 10, 15, 20 people.

- Justin, cheers,
cheers, cheers.

Great week for GameStop indeed.

- I was like, no way!

He's like, Justin.

He's like, hey, cheers.

- So this is DOMO Capital
Management's website here.

You want to check this out.

And then you can see,

look at the returns of
a long ass time too.

Dmitriy had some solid
articles out there too.

There was a whole bunch of them.

- He was like, oh,
cheers, Dmitriy!

- Cheers to all y'all.

- This is Dmitriy.

- Cheers, cheers!

Cheers!

Cheers, everybody.

Cheers, cheers, cheers.

Cheers, everybody.

We gotta have fun with it here.

- Roaring Kitty
would shout me out.

- Jenn says, catching
up on the comments

are gonna be rough today.

I know, I gotta keep
going, I gotta keep going.
My bad, my bad.

- And frankly, this obsession
with cats was kind of funny.

(cat meowing)

- I had explained my
mom and dad about,

hey, we're talking
about GameStop.

My dad thought he was crazy.

- Let me just dip,

just one dip, just
one quick dip.

- Roaring Kitty's stream
almost was like a support group

and it was just like a
place where we'd go and just
like vent to each other.

- This is sick.

We've got the usual
crew on a Friday,

on an exciting,
fun Friday night.

- [Rod] People just
hung out, you know?

- I made every single stream.

I planned my night around it.

It was crazy.

- 'Cause I want people to share.

We're doing research,

we're doing research
collectively here.

- Well, you can't really
go out on a Monday,

Wednesday, or Friday
night anymore,

so I'm stuck inside.

Let me jump on the
Roaring Kitty stream

and talk about GameStop.

What else is there to do?

- This is my thesis.

You're welcome to
tear it to shreds.

Feel free.

I encourage you to, please.

- You know, it's
like cotton candy.

We have this thesis,
this cotton candy stick,

and then we would
just all add to it.

- We're all drinking
from the punchbowl

in the cult of this is GameStop.

We're all crazy.

We all know it,

but we're all accepting that
because maybe we're not.

- Oh jeez.

Shift command T to open
up a tab you just closed.

(rhythmic drumming music)
(cats meowing)

- Roaring Kitty had
this extensive "Star
Wars-esque" intro

where he said, don't take
me for financial advice.

And that fascinated me

because this guy was
streaming to like 10 people.

- I'm taking a video of you.

- [Female Speaker]
Joseph Fonicello!

- I grew up in a small
town in Connecticut.

- [Female Speaker] Joseph.

- My parents owned a farm.

- Joe's parents are
very, very traditional.

Think 1920's farmer.

- Still to this day,

if my parents have
to read their emails,

I gotta help them out.

- Joe's dad is the type
of guy who gets mad

if a package comes in
with Joe's name on it.

Like, why are you ordering
things on the internet?

- [Joe] When I was in
middle-school, I bought Bitcoin.
- Bitcoin.

- And that was kind of
my first investment.

- [Announcer] Digital
money called Bitcoin.

- The kid bought Bitcoin when
he was 12 or 13 years old.

I mean, and he still has it.

- And then when I turned 18,

I decided to divert
from crypto a bit

into the real stock market.

- So, we have this van.

- It's become our home.

We took the opportunity
COVID granted us to travel.

Let me just put my mask on.

We figured, what
are we gonna do,

stay locked in our
homes doing Zoom calls?

No, we can do Zoom
with a hotspot.

And it wasn't until Abbe and
I lived on the road in the van

when I started to
think of Reddit

more as a place for
investment opportunities.

- [Male Speaker] Now, if you've
never heard of reddit.com,

it was nicknamed the front
page of the internet.

- There came this
point in our trip

where he was just totally
absorbed in something,

like, absolutely non-stop.

Well, he had just discovered
the GameStop thesis

on Wall Street Bets.

♪ Diamond Hands ♪

(upbeat electronic music)

- I would go to Wall Street Bets

to look at funny
memes and videos.

(upbeat electronic music)

- The community is largely guys.

(upbeat electronic music)

Everybody's very broey.

It feels like it's a frat house.

- [Male Speaker] Most stocks
that are in an uptrend

go like this.

- The Wall Street bets community

calls themselves degenerates.

- Hello, my fellow degenerates.

- [Male Speaker] The
price is wrong, bitch.

- [Male Speaker] Stonks.

- It's like a casino,
Wall Street Bets.

Guys are saying, hey, you guys,

I think this stock can
like double, triple.

Buy some call options on this.

- They're options, but really
not worth talking about today.

The important point is that--
- You can make a lot of
money and get rich quick.

- [Male Speaker] High
risk, high reward.

- You're in for a wild ride.

Very volatile, big
highs, big lows.

- When Wall Street Bets
really became mainstream,

you saw a shift from
the word autist to ape.

- [Male Speaker] If you think
you might be autistic enough
to hang out with us,

head on over to Wall
Street Bets on Reddit.

- 'Cause they felt like
they were like autistic kids

living in their basements of
their parents' house, you know,

eating chicken tendies and
making stupid decisions,

investing in stupid stocks.

- [Male Speaker] The infamous
Wall Street Bets user

who posted a live
screen recording

showing him lose $50,000
in just a few minutes.

- People just spewing
memes, and gifs,

and I like to
shitpost personally,

so it was a nice platform
for me to just do that.

- [Jenn] The Wall Street
Bets lingo is diamond hands.

You hold it, you don't let go.

- Diamond hands means that
you never sell a stock,

even if it goes down.

- [Male Speaker] I live in a car

and I'm diamond
hands to the moon.

- Paper hands means that you
sell when a stock goes down.

You've got tendies.

That means profits.

(laughing)

YOLO means that you're
gonna risk money

and there's a good chance
it's not gonna come back.

- Wall Street Bets
hated GameStop.

- [Male Speaker] I was
banned from Wall Street Bets.

- [Farris] I got banned from
posting on Wall Street Bets.

I haven't been blocked by anyone

other than Wall Street Bets.

- Farris tried to post
on Wall Street Bets

and got laughed at,

wasn't allowed to post
about GameStop because,

you know, it's GameStop.

It's going bankrupt, of course.

- They weren't allowing
any posts on GameStop,

which is funny

because they were allowing
people to roast GameStop.

- People were only
following GameStop

because DeepFuckingValue,
the Reddit user,

posted his position.

- He YOLO'd his life
savings, it seemed like,

into calls on GameStop.

- [Male Speaker] YOLO,
you only live once.

- Everyone on Wall Street Bets

thought DeepFuckingValue
was crazy.

- Everyone made fun of him.

- People were
saying, he's an idiot

and he's gonna
lose all his money.

- My dad had been
trying to get me

to go see a financial
advisor for years,

and it's his financial advisor,

so he's like telling me to sell

because GameStop's
business model sucks

and he doesn't like the company.

And I was like, no, no, no.

You're not gonna want to listen

to why I think that
GameStop's a good investment,

but like I'm only here

because my dad told me I
had to be here to meet you,

and so we're just
gonna leave it at that,

but I'm not selling
my GameStop shares.

- I definitely second
guessed myself plenty,

but I think we were
very, very thoughtful

in how we approached it.

- I think if you take the
best of amateur investors,

that content could be way
better than what you see

with Wall Street
research analyst reports.

- No one person can do
all of the research,

so everybody in my group
had something to offer.

We weren't just alone wolf
investing in the stock market,

like how normal Wall Street is.

We were all in it together.

- Yeah, GameStop definitely
became an obsession.

As I invested in GameStop, I
frequented the stores often.

- Why are we at GameStop?

- I would go and buy Chipotle

and I'd sit in the
GameStop parking lot.

You guys ready to
go to GameStop?

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- I was probably sitting
the GameStop parking lot

at least once a week.

(sneezing)
God bless you.

- I went to GameStop all
the time when I was a kid.

And I understood despite
all the good memories,

why it ended up being
a hated company.

- [Male Speaker] It is
miserable to shop at GameStop.

- It's a horrible
customer experience.

So I thought to myself,
if they redeem themselves,

there could be tremendous
reward potential here.

- I was like, okay,

this is starting to
get really interesting.

They were trying to make changes

so that they could build
their company back up again.

- The video game
business is booming

as Americans spend
more time at home.

- Gaming interest
has skyrocketed

as a result of the pandemic.

- The gaming industry
is flourishing.

- More people are gaming
now than pre-pandemic.

- Yeah, that's right, and
it's largely due to boredom.

- And still, I felt like the
stock price was being subdued.

I can't help but think

that there's some sort of
higher power intervening,

saying, keep this
price down low.

- There was a very
actively involved campaign

on behalf of those who
were short the stock

to hammer the price,

bots spamming negative messages
and negative sentiment.

- If you start seeing
that over, and over,

and over, and over again,

it makes you think
there's someone

that has a vested interest
in forgetting GameStop.

- [Male Speaker] Here's what
makes the hedge fund managers

different from you.

They have a lot
more power than you.

They control the game.

- [Male Speaker] Like
Maplelane Capital.

- [Announcer] D1 now
manages over $20 billion.

- [Female Speaker] Gabe
Plotkin formed his own firm,

Melvin Capital Management.

- [Male Speaker] Gabe Plotkin,

who manages billions
of dollars of assets,

he was the top trader
for Steve Cohen's fund.

- [Female Speaker]
What does Gabe know

that the rest of
Wall Street doesn't?

- I think overall in society,

there is this thought
that hedge funds

have some kind of
special insight

or better knowledge
and understanding.

I was not necessarily
of that view,

but I wanted to know
what they were thinking.

Why are they shorting GameStop?

(upbeat whimsical music)

- Great short sellers
don't deal in gray areas.

They deal in black and white.

I never shorted a stock

that I wasn't certain
was going to zero.

- Tom Barton has a reputation

and a history of
selling stocks short.

- It's a lot of math,

a lot of adding and
a lot of subtracting.

- It was a really good time to
be a short seller, the '80s.

It was a really good time.

(people yelling)

We would short stocks
to make a living

because it's a better
place to put your money.

- [Male Speaker]
Hedge funds gang up

and literally will short
a stock out of business.

- Two and eights sold,
two times at six.

- Well, GameStop I'd heard
about because I'm a Dallas guy,

it's a Dallas company.

- [Announcer] A
touchdown, Dallas!

- You gotta be a man
to play in my league.

- When somebody calls me and
tells me (indistinct) nothing

and the short
position's outrageous,

two lights go on.

- At this point, I would
say GameStop is over.

- There was no chance it
was gonna go bankrupt.

Zero.

- GameStop is super,

it's so nice to be there.

- I wouldn't be shorting
this in a million years.

- It was good seeing

that there was a professional
short seller out there

that's saying that these
short sellers are dumb.

- Frankly, I was short
Tesla for a little bit.

- [Male Speaker]
Tesla's wild ride

has left many of the analyst
community in the dust.

- [Dmitriy] So I
know what it's like
to be on the other side of it.

- If you bet against
Tesla, you shorted.

A lot of people have done
that and lost their shirts.

- Tesla has listed quote
limited edition short shorts

for sale on its website,

mocking short sellers.

- [Male Speaker] You guys
remember what happened at Tesla,
the short shorts?

- You learn your best
lessons the hard way.

And those are the
lessons you really absorb

when it hurts.

- People sometimes get
carried away with our stock,

you know?

- I still believe that Tesla
is structurally unprofitable.

The lesson was, you can be
right in the underlying issue,

but be wrong in the
ultimate outcome.

- I just can't believe
this fricking stock.

It's insane.

- But the more local sort of
lesson is don't short stocks.

- This is a nightmare
for short sellers.

This morning, we got news
that Ryan Cohen of chewy.com

has a 12.9% stake
in the company now.

- This guy, Ryan Cohen,
chewy.com founder,

he just bought a lot
of shares of GameStop.

What is happening?

- When Ryan Cohen popped
up in late August,

that was fate.

- I am joined now by the founder

and former CEO of
Chewy, Ryan Cohen.

Ryan, thanks so much
for being with us.

- Thank you for having me.

- Honestly, I didn't
know who he was.

- I didn't know who
he was at first.

- Well, I didn't know
that much about him.

- The phenomenally successful
online pet food retailer.

- I'm figuring out what's next

and maybe I'll start
another business.
Who knows?

- I think I had a weapon
that nobody else had

because I worked for Chewy.

- I love shopping for
my pets at chewy.com

because I know I'll
be saving money.

- Once customers shop at Chewy,

they continue shopping at Chewy

and they tell all their
friends and family

about this incredible
experience.

- Chewy is really a perfection
of taking something local

and making it successful
in e-commerce.

- [Female Speaker] Consumers
spend a lot of money

on their pets.

- The business model of GameStop
is very similar to Chewy.

Gaming is just as a
memorable type experience

as having a pet, in my opinion.

I was like, all right, this
is Chewification at GameStop.

Ryan is getting ready
to turn GameStop

into the Chewy of gaming.

Boom, we got something.

GameStop could be
the next big stock.

- You know, anybody could
sell physical things.

- Thanks for calling GameStop

where we buy and
sell used games.

This is Steven,
how may I help you?

- There's nothing
unique about GameStop.

- Thank you for calling GameStop
where we buy and
sell used games.

- The unique thing has to be
the way that the customer walks
away from that interaction.

- At the end of the day,

we just happen to
sell pet products.

I think we would've
been successful,

frankly, in any category.

- Something big's
going on a GameStop.

Their stock price
absolutely exploded.

It's on fire quite literally.

So Ryan Cohen, Ryan
Cohen, this is the guy.

He's kind of attractive.

This guy is going to make
a change at GameStop.

- Now, if you buy
the stock here,

you're betting that
Ryan Cohen's plan

will be wildly successful,

which seems like a stretch

given that we don't even
know what the plan is yet.

- Ryan Cohen and I connected

and we ended up having a
one-on-one Zoom meeting.

He literally just peppered
me with questions.

What do you see in GameStop?

What about this?

Isn't this a concern?

So you could just see that

he's just looking to
confirm his thesis.

- At first, I thought he
was acquiring GameStop

maybe because he thought
it was undervalued,

but then he kept
accumulating more and more

and it was getting more
and more interesting.

- News flash to all
these GameStop investors,

GameStop is not Chewy.

They do not serve
products to adorable,

cute puppies and cats.

Wake up, GameStop investors.
This is absurd.

- When Ryan Cohen
became part of GameStop,

the stock was
insanely over shorted.

- Right now, an astounding
144% of the GameStop shares

have been sold short.

- Honestly, I've
never seen that.

And I picked up the phone

and called all my
short-selling buddies.

I said, you ever seen this?

They go, no, we've
never seen this.

We've never seen 100%
of these so-called

outstanding shares short.

Never seen it.

It was spring loaded to go up.

And that's when I
looked at it and I said,

oh, this is gonna
be a real problem

for these guys that are short.

This is gonna be a
major short squeeze.

- What's known as
a short squeeze.

- Short squeeze is a term

that sounds really
hard to understand,

but it's not that complicated.

It's basically when a share
price of a certain stock

skyrockets very fast

and it causes the
people who were betting

that that stock will go down
in price tons of losses.

- I kept on at GMEshortsqueeze
because I knew the story.

- And I'm like, that guy
feels so strong about it,

he named himself
GMEshortsqueeze.

- Hey, I gotta say,

you know I've been kind of like,

is that squeeze gonna happen?

Is this squeeze coming?

But today, I mean,

I think most people would agree

that felt a little bit
squeezy today, right?

- [Dmitriy] I frankly
thought that the probability

of the real short
squeeze was very low.

- GameStop, I don't know.

We just gotta to
see what happens,

but it would be nice if
it goes up really quickly.

- Wait, if this is
true, then this is true.

And if that's true,

then it's gonna set off
this chain of events

where this firestorm of
buying will just happen

and shoot this
thing to the moon.

- That always had me motivated

and like excited for the future.

Like, oh man, something
cool might happen here.

- The allure of a short squeeze

was kind of just
a cherry on top.

It gave GameStop sex appeal.

- Joe sends out a tweet,

literally saying the
squeeze is coming next week,

trust me, mark my word.

- Wall Street Bets picked it up

and you start seeing all this
crazy short squeeze rhetoric.

- The last article I wrote,
I concluded it as following,

almost anything is
possible except bankruptcy.

Even bond holders currently
ascribe zero chance

of GameStop going
bankrupt by 2023.

The short seller thesis is dead.

GameStop is not Blockbuster.

Get your popcorn ready.

This story isn't over yet.

- [Male Speaker] Holy shit.

GameStop's website just crashed

'cause everybody's
trying to order the PS5.

The stock is gonna
skyrocket tomorrow.

- GameStop just did
all of their pre-sales

for the PlayStation
5 and the new Xbox.

And Rod is like, send
me your order numbers.

- I placed a bunch of
orders on GameStop.com

and I was looking
at my order numbers,

and I'm like,

this really looks like it's
just going up sequentially.

- So if you place an order,

and then someone places
an order right after you,

their order number's one higher.

And you could use
that to analyze,

well, how many sales
did GameStop get today?

- All of a sudden,

everyone just
started providing Rod

with all these order numbers.

- They are all out of
PlayStation 5's already.

It goes to show you the demand.

- It tells me the
brand's not dead

and it tells me there's
still a rabid consumer base

that wants their products.

- I personally bought a
lot more GameStop products

just to see what the
order number was.

- I went into GameStop today
to pick up some more boxes.

- I never go to GameStop.

- Who shops there anymore?

- They're dead.

There's no one shopping there.

- I'm just like, that's
complete bullshit

because people are Googling it.

- [Justin] Farris had discovered

the number one search
on Google was GameStop.

(laughing)

- Ryan Cohen sent an insane
letter to the company.

- The guy clearly has a
vision now in this letter.

- It highlights what he
wants to do with the company.

He was basically
doing all the things

I feel like we've
been talking about

in this Roaring Kitty chat.

- He actually might be thinking

about taking over
the company himself.

- That's something, huh?

- The kids are gonna lose it

when they open these
gifts from GameStop.

(upbeat electronic music)

- Breaking freaking news,

Microsoft has entered a
multi-year strategic partnership

with GameStop.

What?

- The Microsoft deal came out

and that's something
that Justin uncovered.

- Justin did some serious
due diligence here

trying to pick apart
what the hell they meant

in this press release,

kind of tearing it to shreds.

- I was able to confirm it
was a revenue share agreement.

I put that out as a tweet.

- That means that GameStop

is gonna be getting a
huge chunk of money.

- If they signed up for
Game Pass through GameStop,

does that mean
that you got a cut?

Yeah, that's what it means.

- It's basically pure
profit to GameStop.

- This is a major
multi-year deal.

- [Male Speaker] DOMO
Capital Management President,

Justin Dopierala.

- Just look at this.

Justin, 300 likes,
61 quote tweets.

He's a celebrity.

- There's some times
I have some reaction

when good news comes
out, like, yeah!

- We got a famous person
on the stream here tonight,

so props to Justin,

Justin getting the
word out right.

- [Jenn] Everyone
on Wall Street Bets

started going
crazy for GameStop.

- On my desk right now

is perhaps the best thing I've
seen in the last six months.

- And wanted to be a part of it.

- It's called GameStop.

- Things started
blowing up on Reddit.

- Hey, everyone's
talking about GameStop.

Should we buy?

- This stock could run to $50,
$100, or even to the moon.

(monkey vocalizing)

- Now that people started seeing

the Chewification of gaming,

my graphics started popping
up on Wall Street Bets

and going viral.

People would start
mentioning rhetoric

and content in the same
way that I would phrase it.

It was too much
of a coincidence.

And it was my graphic in
someone else's Reddit article.

- Have you heard of GameStop?

- [Male Speaker]
GameStop surges 44%.

- [Male Speaker] Their stock
did kind of go up quite a bit.

- GameStop ascended
to meme stock status

after the brilliant, amazing,
incredible Ryan Cohen,

the co-founder of Chewy,

bought a big chunk of stock

and joined the
board of directors.

- Today, they
announced Ryan Cohen

is going to be a board member.

- Hey, finally, guys,
you finally woke up.

I've been posting
about this for a year.

You guys blocked me.

- I was really
struggling financially

because I wasn't selling
like I needed to sell

to pay off debt, and I didn't.

it was more than just a share.

It was more than just money.

I also needed to get a job

and that was also
stressing me out.

But then Christmas Eve in 2020,

I found out that I
had breast cancer.

I wasn't even on health
insurance at the time

because I was unemployed.

It wasn't an expense that I
had planned for, obviously.

Like, no one plans to
have breast cancer.

I ended up crying
every single day,

not knowing how I'm going
to afford chemotherapy,

like a lifesaving, a
lifesaving treatment.

I was using GameStop
to distract myself

from this really dark time.

All day, it was like,

I was going to
doctor's appointments

and I was checking the
GameStop stock chart

at my doctor's appointments.

Is this price going up?

Like, is it time to sell?

Should I wait, should I
hold, should I buy more,

or like, just see
what's gonna happen?

And then like also,

like making all these
life changing decisions.

It was like an emotion
I couldn't even process.

I'm getting a lot
of messages today

about GameStop share
price going to $20.

I've been in this company
since the beginning.

I don't know what's
gonna happen next,

but I'm not selling.

- Meanwhile, the stock,

it was just kind of hovering
around like 24, $22.

♪ DeepFuckingValue ♪

♪ Goddamn Deep
Motherfucking Value ♪

- On Christmas,

DeepFuckingValue shared his
portfolio like he always does,

but stamped into it was a
picture of Roaring Kitty.

- Surprise.

- It was him saying that
he was DeepFuckingValue

without him explicitly saying
that he was DeepFuckingValue.

- This was a true YOLO for me.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa.

This is insane.

This is nutty.

- When I was building
this position last year,

we had nowhere close
to a million dollars.

- All of this adoration
I had for Roaring Kitty,

when I found out that
he was DeepFuckingValue,

that just intensified
everything.

You know, we started
looking up to him

like this Messiah or something.

(engine roaring)

♪ DeepFuckingValue ♪

♪ Is coming to
make some tendies ♪

♪ Not selling GME 'til we
finish this short squeeze ♪

♪ Woohoo! ♪

♪ DeepFuckingValue ♪

♪ Is holding on to them calls ♪

♪ He's got diamond hands and
he's got big brass balls ♪

(upbeat rock music)

- [Male Speaker] His
channel just blew up.

- [Jenn] There were thousands
of people in the stream.

I mean, it was crazy.

(upbeat rock music)

We couldn't have an
intellectual conversation

because it was just
getting blown up

with like rocket emojis.

- It just king of
destroyed the community

that had been built up.

- I just messaged on there
one day and was like,

hey, like, anyone from
the previous people here?

And then Jenn reached out
to me like, hey, Rigo.

- We created our
own like side chat,

so I started to know the
people behind the username.

♪ Don't understand how
the last card is played ♪

♪ But somehow, a vital
connection is made ♪

- Now, if you check out Reddit,

there's a fricking
cult on there.

It's hilarious.

- [Dmitriy] There was
a lot of enthusiasm.

- I could get used to that.

- They were believing

that the short squeeze
was almost inevitable.

- Do you want to see what
a short squeeze looks like?

(explosion blasting)
♪ A connection is made ♪

- When Melvin
Capital got found out

that they were shorting this
to the point that they did,

Reddit saw that happening,

and they said, whoa, whoa,
whoa, we can stop this.

- My friends were
starting to be like,

oh, well, maybe she had a point.

And this is where
my dad was like,

oh, maybe you're not crazy.

And my mom was like,

should we invest in GameStop?

No longer was I
this crazy person.

- Yo, a bunch of people
online just realized

if they buy a bunch of stock
that hedge funds are shorting,

they can actually force
the hedge fund's position

and take a bunch of their money.

Isn't that cool?

- Oh, we're bad people.

I hear that all the time.

- The worst of the worst,
the worst of the worst.

- First of all, I'm
not a short seller.

I'm an investor.

I'm an investor whose specialty
happens to be short-selling.

- Andrew Left, you are
shorting Tesla, I understand.

- I have a small short
position, yes, I do.

So when people
dislike short sellers,

it's just misinformed.

The short sellers come in

and give you another
side of the story.

Short sellers actually
help regulate the market.

(intense orchestral music)

When the stock in
January hit 40,

it was at all time highs.

Next, let's move on
to their business.

- Yes, let's move on
to their business.

- Their business trajectory
was at all time lows.

Traditionally, that would be
a good time to short a stock.

- Andrew Left (indistinct)

I was gonna have
these five reasons

of why GameStop was a
horrible investment.

I thought, oh, maybe he's
discovered something.

- Justin,

I mean, when he spoke,
we listened, you know?

- Knowing Justin's reputation,
I was getting scared.

I was like, oh, you know,

if this guy is
thinking about selling,

why am I not thinking
about selling?

- I was getting really scared.

- It was constant monitoring.

And you're like, oh man,
this could tank any day.

- I play the ball, not the man.

I looked at the business itself

and it wasn't making
the progress they
would have desired.

- There we go,

Andrew Left live
on the Power Hour.

- Andrew is brilliant.

The difference between Andrew

and a lot of other short sellers

is that he generally
gets on companies

that are really disasters.

- Please, sue me.

Let's go.

I will take your whole
company from top-down.

- Most of my clients
are not very wealthy.

They're just everyday people.

It wasn't worth the risk.

- Justin Dopierala gets on
our group chat being like,

hey, guys, I just
want to let you know

that I sold all of
DOMO's shares in GameStop

a little bit above 40.

What?

Is this something that
we should be doing?

Like, why are you selling?

- He's like,

maybe you should think about
getting out of GameStop.

- I just didn't want to
see anyone get burned.

- I thought about it
multiple times to sell.

- [Male Speaker] I
completely understand

where DOMO's coming
from with this.

- I didn't intend to
sell all the shares,

but as I started
selling more and more,

there just was almost like
a weight off my shoulders

and it just became evident to me

that this was the
right thing to do.

- It's hard to buy things
that everyone hates

and it's hard to sell
things that everyone loves,

but you should buy them
when people hate them

and you should sell
when people love them.

- Okay, if you bought at four,

now, you're up almost 1,000%.

Amazing.
You should sell, right?

No, not if it's worth
a lot more than that.

You should be buying
more actually.

Look, we need to put
something together

as a counter to what Andrew
puts out with Citron.

We compiled all of that
industry information,

he made it all open source
that people could access.

- We wanted the media to have
a place they could turn to

and be like, well,
GMEdd says differently.

I had seen Rod's
postings for months

and I saw he was creating GMEdd.

- [Abbe] Rod sort of
took Joe under his wing.

- Rod and I get along like
Jesse Pinkman and Walter White.

He understands the financials

and I understand the
social side of it.

- Rod is the cook,
Joe is the peddler.

- $40,000.

- Hey, you said,
raise the prices.

- It's really a great
relationship they have.

(cheering)

- Yes!

- And they have a van.

- Nobody knows what the
price should be precisely,

but we could at least
paint a picture.

And I thought we
painted a damn good one.

- And 69 was, you know.

- So, let's talk stocks, people.

I'm gonna put out a presentation
today about my thesis,

five reasons why GameStop
is going back to $20

and it's going
there pretty fast.

- When Andrew makes a
comment about something,

people take it pretty serious

because he's a very serious
guy who does very serious work.

- Hey, this is Andrew
Left at Citron Research

giving you five reasons why
GameStop is going to 20.

- [Farris] His web stream died.

- And it kept doing
the wheel of death.

- You have this
big, bad boogeyman

that's gonna put out a
research report this week.

Then he postpones
it to the next week.

So obviously, you
have all these people

that are scared of
what he's gonna say.

And people are gonna
sell beforehand.

- One, this is a failing
mall-based retailer.

- Less than 10%
Of the U.S. stores

are in traditional malls.

- Number two, numbers don't lie.

People lie.

- He's not saying anything
that we don't know.

- Number three,
valuations matter.

There were down
17% year over year.

I was just bringing
out hard data,

which traditionally,
stocks trade on.

- He didn't dive deep into
GameStop's fundamentals.

- Number four,

there's no short squeeze that
is happening as we speak.

- Everything that he said
was complete bullshit.

- And last thing

is the company could
be Blockbuster video

that never adapted
to technology.

- It's Blockbuster 2.0.

I'm like, really, dude?

- I know who's long
GameStop right now,

the people who are
ordering pizzas to my house

or signing me up for Tinder.

In retrospect, I probably
should not have done a video,

but maybe I thought at the
time it is a bit of hubris.

Everyone started calling me
a boomer, a loser, old man.

And I'm like, then I realized
something's bigger here.

I didn't realize
it was gonna become

some form of default
religion or something.

- The stock was
bubbling by that time,

it's just ready to explode.

(intense orchestral music)

- Whether you are in
the stock market or not,

you have probably heard in the
last 24 hours about GameStop.

(upbeat electronic music)

- GameStop is killing it!

- The game retailer GameStop

has set to continue their
head-spinning ascent today.

- Whoa!
- Whoa!

- (indistinct) $15,000!

- [Female Speaker]
This involves a firm

called Melvin Capital.

- Melvin Capital.
- Melvin Capital.

- The ploy to wipe out
Gabe Plotkin's firm

surfaced on the subreddit forum
known as Wall Street Bets.

- A bunch of crazy
white boys on Reddit

have driven the
price up to $123.

(upbeat electronic music)

- Yeah, I was maybe
a little concerned

for the people that
were still in it.

- Are you guys
watching GameStop?

It just hit 200 a
couple of minutes ago.

It's crazy!

- It was just GameStop
day and night.

And while I'm preparing
myself for chemo,

it was just too much going on.

- Huge blow,

Melvin suffering losses
upwards of 30% in a year.

- I'm Tyrone and I'm here to
fuck Melvin's Capital's wife,
GameStop style.

- [Male Speaker] Cohen and
Griffin of hedge fund fame

have come in and bailed
out a hedge fund.

- [Male Speaker] Citadel's
all over this thing.

- Citadel gave Melvin a
$2.75 billion cash infusion.

(vehicle crashing)

- Mr. Griffin, let me
tell you something,

there's only one Kenny
G and it ain't you.

- [Male Speaker] Elon Musk
jumping into the action,

tweeting gamestonk.

(sobbing)

- Fuck Wall Street.

- Fuck Wall Street.

- Fuck Wall Street.

- They go after the ones
that are heavily shorted

in order to come up
with the short squeeze.

- [Female Speaker] And
it raised the price,

forcing these major hedge
funds to lose a ton of dough.

(man yelling)

- [Female Speaker] Those
betting against GameStop

lost $14.3 billion today alone.

- I was on a golf course.

I wasn't checking my
emails or my messages.

And then I went home that day

and I'm like, oh my God.

- People lost their minds.

The interesting thing is
there were other hedge funds

who were investing in GameStop.

- I think the hedge funds
saw blood in the water.

- If you don't think a hedge
fund would buy this stock at 70

thinking it was going to 350,

you're wrong.

Everyone would do it.

- There will be carnage,
I can guarantee you.

- It was a little bit too crazy.

I started taking profits.

- I just thought, okay, I'm out.

- You want to take
profits when you can.

- Keep moving, keep ahead!

- My wife,

I was like, babe, I
don't know what to do.

She's like, don't look at me.

I don't know anything about it.

I was like, should I sell it?

She was like, I don't know.

(people cheering)

- I was just like,
loving the chaos.

- My parents found
out about GameStop

when the New York Times
put out its cover story

with me in it.

- Joe's face is right
there with Ryan Cohen,

Roaring Kitty, and Rod Alzmann.

- What was it about it
that made you believe

that there was a
growth story there

that no one else saw?

- It sure felt like I was
wrong for a long time.

- This picture is
just hilarious to me

because it was just something

I never even could
have dreamed of.

- [Male Speaker] The
Roaring Kitty on YouTube,

DFV on Reddit.

And of course, now we all
know his name is Keith Gill.

- What?

- [Male Speaker] Melvin Capital
is now out of the stock.

They've taken a
rather huge loss.

- It was the perfect storm
to destroy a hedge fund.

- [Male Speaker] This is the
Citadel headquarter in Chicago,

the center of this
GameStop drama.

They're the biggest market maker

and hedge fund in the world.

- So when Citadel got involved,

I called my brother who
worked in the financial world.

He's like, dude, Citadel's
getting involved?

Whoa, Citadel like
runs the world, man.

That doesn't bode well for
the future of GameStop.

- GameStop shares tanking today.

- GameStop shares
have been tumbling

as a growing number of
firms move to halt trading.

- The action is so
wild that TD Ameritrade

and Robinhood have restricted
trading of these stocks.

- [Female Speaker] Forcing
GameStop's shares to drop

like a ton of bricks.

- The stocks just plummeted.

- Now, if you can
only sell stocks,

those stocks only go down.

- They said, well, the
crazies can't buy it anymore.

Well, the only reason it's
up is because of the crazies.

- I am beyond frustrated.

My portfolio is getting
absolutely obliterated today.

- [Female Speaker] A class
action complaint was just filed

in the Southern District of
New York against Robinhood.

- Why?

Why?

Explain why you had to do it

if it wasn't to protect
the big hedge funds.

- They sell information they
gather from their customers

to the hedge funds who use
it for their advantage,

and most customers
don't even know.

- Robinhood trades are not free.

When you pay for order flow,

you're probably charging
your customers more

and pretending to be free.

- Citadel is actually
Robinhood's biggest customer.

So when Citadel tells Robinhood
to stop trades on GameStop,

Robinhood's gonna listen.

- And that looks like
a stinky conflict

that you didn't come out
straight on from the start.

- [Male Speaker] This
is a (beeping) crime

what Robinhood app is doing.

Do not sell, hold the line.

(beeping)

- [Female Speaker] Somewhat
allegedly threw dog feces

at the front door.

- [Male Speaker] One
investor chartered a plane

to fly a banner over the
company's headquarters saying,

suck my nuts, Robinhood.

- I don't think there's
anything nefarious

behind the scenes as
you hear people say,

oh, 'cause Ken Griffin
owns a piece of Robinhood.

No, I don't believe any of that.

- There's a lot to unpack

with what happened
with Robinhood

because that has led to a
lot of conspiracy theories.

- It's just a little
bit too convenient

that you got Melvin Capital
losing billions of dollars,

Citadel backing them.

And then two days later,

Robinhood stopping
people from buying it.

If that's what's happening,

they all are in bed with
each other, which is scary.

- But there will never
be any proof, right?

'Cause no one's gonna
own up to a hedge fund

colluding with another company.

- I don't think
that's what happened.

I think what happened is
they just got stretched.

- Tenev effectively argued

that if he didn't
take any action,

the company would have likely
faced a liquidity issue.

- I don't believe
it was nefarious,

but the fact that it was
so poorly communicated

to the public really
fed into this narrative

that this was all some
sort of big collusion

by these hedge funds
that were losing money.

And when they were
losing the game,

they were able to just
shut the game off.

- [Male Speaker] And it's gone!

- And it has kind of fostered
this whole ape movement.

- What do we make of this,

what do we make of the apes?

- [Rod] The apes have
Robinhood accounts

and their form of
sticking it to the man

is buying more of the stocks

that they were not
allowed to buy.

- It's hard to tell how
high it would have gone

if they didn't implement
these restrictions.

Who knows if there
is a practical limit?

- Robinhood's decision
and what they did

absolutely transferred wealth
from the small retail investor

into the hands of
the big hedge funds

that were short GameStop.

- When you have AOC
and Donald Trump Jr.

both on the same
side of an issue,

you know something's
dramatically wrong.

- It is the warning bell
that we have a stock market

that is subject to manipulation.

- There are people
buying digital assets
that have no value

just to make a joke
about it on Twitter.

- The 99% to 1% meme.

- What's a meme?

- I'm so sorry.

- Meme stocks are
generating so much buzz

that institutional investors

and financial institutions are
now generating watch lists.

AMC, Blackberry has moved for
some reason, and Dogecoin.

- Which is a cryptocurrency

that was originally
started off as a joke

and it is up over 800%.

The cryptocurrency
equivalent of GameStop.

- The trading frenzy
around GameStop

is the focus on
Capitol Hill today.

- This hearing is
entitled GameStopped:

Who Wins and Loses
when Short Sellers,

Social Media, and Retail
Investors Collide.

I want to know how each of
the witnesses here today

contributed to the
historic trading events.

Mr. Plotkin.

Mr. Plotkin?

- I was muted.
I apologize, I do.

- [Maxine] Thank you.

- There are laws
governing shorting stock,

and of course, we
always follow them.

We have been short GameStop

since Melvin's inception
six years earlier

because we believed

and still believe that
its business model

is being overtaken
by digital downloads

through the internet.

In addition.

- In addition, I am a robot.

- Mr. Vlad Tenev.

- Thank you for the invitation
to speak about Robinhood

and the millions
of people we serve.

The financial system should
be built to work for everyone,

not just a select few,

but only half of U.S.
households participate in.

- [Maxine] Mr. Tenev,

I would like you to
use your limited time

to talk directly to what
happened January 28.

- Certainly.

- A lot of attention
on Vlad Tenev.

He seems to be getting
most of the airtime here

and most of the questions
are being fielded to him.

- Mr. Tenev,

isn't it true that there
was a liquidity problem?

Could you just answer yes or no?

- We always felt comfortable
with our liquidity.

- [Maxine] Please
answer yes or no.

- We always felt comfortable--

- I don't have time.

I just need a yes or no answer.

- I think that, thank
you for the question.

It's an important question.

- Yes or no!

Yes or no!

Yes or no!

- Mr. Griffin, if I could just
ask you the first question,

how many people are
in the room with you?

If you can just count

how many people are
in the room with you.

- There are five people,
including myself,

in this room, sir.

- Awesome.

- Mr. Gill, my first
question for you

is how many people are in
the room with you right now?

- Zero, congressmen.

- So proud of Roaring Kitty.

- Roaring Kitty was great.

- Roaring Kitty was
the most wholesome face

GameStop could have asked for.

- Mr. Gill, you are now
recognized for five minutes--

- There we go!

- To present your
oral testimony.

- The guy we all came here for.

- A few things I am not.

I am not a cat, I am not
an institutional investor.

- I love that he started
by saying, I am not a cat.

- My favorite line of the
day was from Roaring Kitty.

And he said, I am not a cat.

- There was a reference
to a Zoom call

where somebody in court
was looking like a cat

with a filter.

- I'm here live.

I'm not a cat.

- As for me, I liked the stock.

- He liked the stock.

- I would be the
first to acknowledge

that investing in stocks and
options is incredibly risky.

And it's so important for people

to do their own thorough
research before investing.

- He was more professional
than these billionaires.

- Yes, yes or no?

Yes or no, Lizzie,
are you gonna do this?

- There's an actually
more complicated answer--

- Yes or no?!

- It's a more complicated
answer than that.

- Yes or no, yes or no!

- Are you a cat, Joe?
Are you a cat?

- So yes or no, are
you buying the stock?

- For me personally, yes.

- He is literally moving
the needle right now

like straight up.

It's crazy.

- Roaring Kitty, Keith Gill,

made it publicly known

that he doubled down
his position that day.

- [Male Speaker] The
congresspeople all thought

this was over.

I knew it wasn't over.

That was just the first inning.

- The battle between
GameStop investors

and the short
sellers is raging on.

And this week, the short
sellers are losing again.

- We can't have anyone
freak out out there, okay?!

We've gotta keep our composure!

We've gone too far!

There's too much to lose!

♪ We want the stock ♪

♪ We want the stock ♪

♪ Yes, we want the stock ♪

♪ We want GameStop ♪

- Actually, we've
got it right here,

the original OGs, right?

Look at us.

Roaring Kitty had
made this poster

using "Avengers: Endgame."

He photoshopped all the OG's
photos into the characters.

And so it turns out that it
ended up being his endgame.

- Keith Gill, otherwise
known as Roaring Kitty

and another name online,

he did increase his
stake in the company

by out to 50,000 shares.

He's now up to 200,000
shares of GameStop,

and that is valued at
33 million dollars now.

- DeepFuckingValue
makes his final post.

- He likes the stock.

- Cheers, everyone.

- Ryan Cohen tweeted out fist
bump after his final post.

- I have not heard from
Roaring kitty since the squeeze

and I don't know anyone who has.

- He does post cat
pictures on Twitter.

- I'd love to talk about
other prospective investments,

and see what he's
thinking about markets,

and just shoot the shit
with my friend again.

(upbeat electronic music)

(rocket exploding)

- Wall Street Bets never
stopped talking about GameStop.

After the squeeze,
people are like,

oh, there's gonna
be another squeeze.

I want to see the
price keep going up.

- Is that possible?
Sure, it's possible.

Bad bet.

Could happen.

Not a great bet.

I thumb that one down.

- Now, some believe
that all the juice

has not been squeezed,

but they use the term squoze.

Has the squeeze been squozed?

- My point when I say
squeeze has been squozed is,

let's look at the data.

- Is the squeeze squozed?

- The squeeze has squozed.

- Is the squeezed squozed?

- It's turned into a
gigantic cult almost online.

- Had the squeeze been
squozed and the answer is no.

- The current data
show massively reduced
short interest.

What's funny is when
I voice an opinion,

I am called out as a
quote hedgie shill.

The big issue is the people

that are putting massive
sums of their wealth,

money they've earned,

in the hopes of
just making it rich,

and that's not investing.

- There are many reasons

why the squeeze has
not been squozed yet.

- The game of squeeze
hasn't happened.

It could be valued
at $7 trillion.
- Whew.

- What's unique about
GameStop for me personally

is it evolved from a deep value
and loved physical retailer

to a potential
e-commerce growth story.

- To see GameStop run up
to such incredible levels,

it makes you start to
wonder what comes next.

- Let's put it this way.

If GameStop is successful
at making a turnaround,

and the stock ends up having
a valuation of $10 billion,

$7 billion,

let's call it
double where it was,

that puts the stock
significantly lower

than where it is today.

And that's with the
successful turnaround.

- We'll know within
the next year

if GameStop can
be the next Chewy,

and I think it will be.

- Ryan Chewy.

- You've got it.

Yes.

You've gotta bet on him, right?

And you gotta bet on
the Chewy.com model.

- People are basing daily trades

off of whether Ryan
Cohen tweets or not.

- And what's funny about it
is if you're a short seller,

you don't know
what the hell like,

what does a poop emoji mean?

- Oh, so it's like a, what,

like some form of
a Rosetta stone.

He's gonna put this
out and that out,

and then it's gonna be
the great plan, right?

It's Professor Plum with the
wrench in the conservatory.

Oh, that's great!

The company is going to 500.

Whatever.

- It's a McDonald's
ice cream cone.

- [Male Speaker] Just like that,

GameStop after hours
absolutely fucking crushes it.

- Ryan Cohen voted
in as chairman.

That's a big step
for the company.

- They've been
making a lot of hires

of technology oriented bets

ever since the agreement

between Ryan and the
company was reached.

- His vision is
to fire everybody

and bring in buddies
from various websites.

- He's bringing in an
all star cast of players

that don't need jobs.

These people are
doing it for passion.

They don't need the money.

They do it because
they want to win.

- This team is a dream team!

- And you just have to wonder,

what is he pitching these people

where they're leaving
these high paying jobs

at some of the biggest
firms in the world?

- They hired a few
Amazon executives

and everyone thinks
that's great,

to which I say,

if you want to find a company

that has some Amazon executives,

buy Amazon.

They have all Amazon executives.

- I am impressed, Paul,
with the GameStop team.

I really am.

They're good.

- You always follow
the man with a plan.

- We're going to bring
back in GMEdd.com

co-proprietor Rod Alzmann

who's been a long time
GameStop investor.

- From Rod's perspective,
it's vindicated.

He's been screaming into
the abyss for how long?

- A GameStop bull since 2017,

one of the originals.

- How's life in the
fast lane these days?

- Life's been pretty crazy.

I'm not gonna lie.

- Happy birthday, by the way,
if that balloon is for
your birthday, Rod.

- Belatedly one day, thank you.

- Finally, we get to the point

where the actual
reputable professional

covering the stock
is agreeing with him.

- [Male Speaker] Jefferies
analyst, Stephanie Wissink,

ups her price target for
GameStop's stock to $175

late on Wednesday morning.

- It's pretty clear
there's a very euphoric,

excited investor base.

- What's happening with GameStop

isn't just about this company

and it's not just
about the stock market.

It's a much bigger reaction

to what is happening in
our society as a whole.

Think populism comes
to Wall Street.

- Occupy Wall Street!

- I was at Occupy Wall Street.

- And today, we are at the
Reoccupy Wall Street event.

- So when this was
happening again,

I was like, oh my God,

I cannot believe
this is going on.

- This is class warfare.

I'm going to call this
Occupy Wall Street 2.0.

- This is everything we had
hoped for actually happening,

which is rare.

- Everyone who's participated
in this in one way or another

isn't just gonna forget.

- That shit was historic.

(laughing)

(rocket exploding)
- Five!

- Us, the StockTwits
is seeking alpha OGs.

We were the original
diamond hands.

We just diamond handed
through all the chaos.

- AMC, GME, CBD.

- STD, ODB, Blackberry,
raspberry, pump it, pump it!

- Everybody that came later

and they're diamond handing now,

they're just copycats, man.

They just picked
up on our movement.

- GameStop is one
of several stocks

at the center of this
pretty extraordinary

David and Goliath story.

- The David versus Goliath
brawl on Wall Street.

- [Female Speaker] It's like
a David versus Goliath story.

- And David won.

- They played the game better
than I played the game.

That's it.

This one particular stock.

♪ Pray help from above because ♪

- Individual day traders
are cashing in tonight

after taking on big
investment companies.

- One Reddit user even posting

that he paid off his
student loan debt

thanks for the money he
made off of GameStop.

- Robinhood is planning to
list its shares next week.

In its IPO, the company
is asking for market cap

as high as $35 billion.

- I mean, it's a very
special moment for me

and for my co-founder.

- A lot of kids
are investing now.

I think kids are gonna
dress up as astronauts now

for Halloween because they
want to go to the moon.

(rocket exploding)

- I do think this
is a seminal moment.

I don't think we go back.

- It felt like
almost the first time

that anybody was holding
these folks accountable.

- Do you believe there
could ever really be a free
and fair market?

It's a good question.

- Rival movies about the
GameStop stock market events

are being rushed
into production.

Ooh, the minute we find out

which one Hollywood thinks is
the most likely to succeed,

let's all buy tickets
to the other one.

- You don't have to
be a financial expert

to be a good investor,
to be a good trader.

Anybody can analyze a company.

Nowadays, you can just
go onto the internet

and start reading.

- I think if I see another GME,

I'll buy more and
hold it longer.

That's everybody's
dream mistake.

Oh, can I find the next one?

You know, probably not.

♪ More, more, more ♪

♪ With the rebel yell,
more, more, more ♪

- [Male Speaker] We were
all just sharing stories

about how this
changed our lives.

- There's this one nurse
who ended up calling me

and I'm like, hey, have you
logged into your account at all?

She said, no, I'm terrified,
I don't want to look.

I haven't looked at
any of your emails.

So she logged in, she
looked at her account,

and now, she's a millionaire.

That's why I do what I do.

- This is not just
a one-time thing.

This isn't a snow leopard.

This is something
where we're seeing more

and more of this happening.

- I think if you
take the best amateur

and you toss them up on
somewhere on Wall Street,

you won't tell the difference.

- What I underestimated was the
size of the retail investor.

As of today,

Citron Research will
no longer be publishing

short selling reports.

I mean, everywhere I went,
people were like, hey,
you're the GameStop guy.

I'm like, oh God.

All these years of work
to be a GameStop guy.

We've actually become
the establishment.

- I created an LLC
called Kruza Capital

that I'm trading in full time,

but I'm still gonna work
in the music business.

I mean, everything is
pretty much on hold

until I'm done
with chemotherapy.

- I'm a college student, I
need money, I need to move out.

You know, I have to
move out of the house.

Hey, you guys.

This is my new apartment.

GameStop just accelerated
all that stuff for me.

I mean, a couple years ago,

I was a broke college student.

I don't think it's
easy for the parents.

They act like it's
okay, but I don't know,

I think they're crying inside.

- We're trying to think of
a business we could start.

We're thinking we could build
more vans and rent them out.

- I've always been
driven to win.

I want to make money, I
want to be self-sufficient.

I don't want to work
for anybody else.

I want to be
financially independent.

♪ She cried more, more, more ♪

- All of us who participated
in this GameStop saga

learned quite a bit
from that experience.

GameStop is something that
I considered initially

a boring deep volume investment
become this phenomenon.

- Truthfully, the first stock
I ever bought in real life

was GameStop in
like the mid 2000's.

- How often do you make
big trades like this

or get so passionate
about a trade?

Have you ever like
created a website

and done this before in other?

- No.

- This will be a business
school case study

at some point down the road.

- You're witnessing the
French Revolution of finance.

- My father, I think he
would be pretty proud, man.

I hope so.

(upbeat rock music)

I would love to have that
conversation with him someday.

Who knows?

Hereafter.

(whimsical orchestral music)

(people cheering)

(whimsical orchestral music)