Short Squeeze - 2025 - We Learned Something Today!

Today for us was a chill day, the first day of 2025 needed to be like that... it was grey and rainy, we were slightly hungover and it's nice to do nothing but watch TV once in a while!

Actually we did quite a bit more than that. First I did my core work out as I've been doing every other day. It helps keep the surgery I had on my lower back be worth the pain! I'm all good now, as long as I keep those muscles fit.

Then I made a big egg breakfast, fed the dog and got on my computer while we started watching TV.

I built a couple Etsy listings because a customer had asked me if I could make a poster out of the design of an elephant spirit animal shirt she had bought from me earlier.

Anyhow, one of the movies we watched was Dumb Money and I loved it! I was working on a film set when the real story was going down. I remember everyone was talking about the game stop short squeeze that had happened. I just never really looked into it.

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Here's what Chat GPT had to say about what short squeezing is when I asked it to teach it to me as if I was 10 years old:

Imagine a bunch of people borrow your toys because they think they can buy the same toys later for a lower price and give them back to you. But then, a lot of other kids decide they really want those toys and start buying them, which makes the toys more expensive. Now, the people who borrowed your toys get worried because they have to buy them back at a much higher price to return them to you. This rush to buy the toys back makes the price go even higher. That’s what a short squeeze is—when people who bet the price would go down are forced to buy, and it makes the price go up really fast!

And then it made me dream a little and feel really good for those who participated in this short squeeze! What a cool story...

This is the short version of what happened with GameStop:

Some big investors (hedge funds) thought GameStop stock was going to lose value because it was an old-fashioned video game store. They shorted the stock, which means they borrowed shares, sold them immediately, and planned to buy them back later at a lower price to make a profit.

But then, a lot of regular people on Reddit (WallStreetBets) noticed this and decided to team up. They started buying GameStop stock, driving the price up instead of down.

The hedge funds who shorted the stock were in trouble because they still had to buy back the shares to return them—but now the price was way higher than they expected. This created a short squeeze because the hedge funds had to rush to buy back shares to limit their losses. Their buying pushed the stock price even higher, making them lose billions of dollars while many regular people made big profits.

It was a rare moment where smaller investors outsmarted the big players, and it became a symbol of standing up to Wall Street.