Comments by "Zach B" (@zachb1706) on "What Exactly Are Hedge Funds (And Why Are They Always Causing Problems)?" video.

Typical government, "protecting people" by making it harder for them to invest how they want. "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help"
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@imranarshad7302 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bearraid.asp Here's an article on what you are referring to. It is an extremely illegal activity, and although it probably does happen - for a company like Gamestop it is unlikely to have escaped the feds. A more plausible explanaition for the large 130% is that multiple short positions are being held for the same stock. If I shoert something, the stock is then purchased straight away by another investor can then loan that stock to another investor, meaning that 1 stock has been shorted twice.
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Shorting a company doesn't make them go bankrupt, bad fundamentals do. For example, gamestop is a terrilbe company that is falling behind it's digital competition.
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@imranarshad7302 They weren't trying to drive anything into the ground. They saw a bad business and pounced on the opportunity.
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Heavily shorted companies are failing because of their fundamentals, not the short positions. Companies like gamestop that were heavily shorted are companies that are leaking money while falling behind their competition.
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@r3zaful shorting 140% of a companies stock just means that a single share has been shorted multiple times. It's not usual, but it's completely normal and honestly only leads to more risk on the shorters end (as we saw with the huge short squeeze). I see no problem with large amounts of a stock being shorted by many different investors as long as they aren't working together (there was no evidence of collusion in the GME fiasco). At the end of the day, GME is a shitty company, you should expect investors to go short on them.
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@r3zaful Give the company a chance? If a company is successful, their share price will naturally go up. Companies dont deserve a growing share price - they have to work for it. Also, I couldn't care less if people lose their jobs. Sure, it's not desirable - but some companies fall behind and those people can be far more productive in other jobs.
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@r3zaful how is shorting gamestop immoral? They're a crap company that sells only AAA games at a heavy markup, and offers scraps when you trade things in.
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@Moocow9991703 would be tricky to pass up on a 20%+ annual return though.
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Huh?
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Pretty much. Any time the government tries to "protect" you, it simply means stopping you from doing things you might want to do.
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@flippatheshippa A million is close to what you will need to save for retirement. It's alot, but definitely not out of reach
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Stock prices go up, so companies sell a new batch of stocks and make extra profits. This goes into building a new factory, or developing a new product, ect.
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Shorting isn't just about the highs, but the lows. Without shorting, market volatility would become more detrimental. Shorts provide a necessary buying force during a market downturn. Let's say company A has a big controversy, which hurts investor confidence. All of a sudden, investors will start selling their positions and without any substantial buying force the price will continue to fall lower and lower. There are other benefits, but the essense behind it is making money off of bad companies. Gamestop doesn't deserve to survive, they are behind the times. That's why they were shorting so much.
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