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US Representative Alexandria "AOC" Ocasio-Cortez decided to stream on Twitch and drew in a massive audience while discussing the recent stock market events centered around GameStop.
AOC started her stream and wasted no time talking about the GameStop stocks that have been all over the media for the last few days. As an advocate for equality and closing the gap between social classes, it's no surprise that AOC discussed recent developments and had a large audience.
"It's been a pretty major week, hasn't it. We basically saw a huge amount of developments and kind of a weird collision of all different social forces, factors, economic factors. Inequality, a kind of spontaneous digital community action. Pairing that with what's happening in the stock market."
One of the largest aspects of the stock market right now is the increase in everyday people, or retail traders. The stockbroker app, Robinhood, has made it possible for anyone to make their own investments, and it's what has been the vehicle for so much community action.
AOC acknowledged that, and part of her discussion was about that changing mentality in the stock market.
She said:
"Increasingly, the stock market is to everyday people, feeling kind of less and less tethered to everyday life."
What has led to AOC speaking about the GameStop stock market news?
AOC streamed a discussion as a lot has happened over the past week to cause such a wave in the stock market world. Everything started when a subreddit called r/wallstreetbets began to pump money into the GameStop stocks and drove the prices up.
The goal was to create a short-squeeze, which essentially means pushing short stock traders into a corner. A hedge fund run by Melvin Capital Management had shorted a large amount of stocks from GameStop. It means they are borrowing stocks at the given price, and they will eventually need to pay for those stocks at a price set in the future.
The bet is that the stock will go down, and they can pay for the borrowed stocks at a cheaper price, thus keeping a profit.
Wallstreetbets figured out that Melvin Capital had over-shorted the stocks, likely meant to continue driving the price down.
However, the Redditors continued to invest in GameStop and drive the prices up. The company was at $20 per stock just a week ago, and it soared to over $400 as retail investors bought and held their stock.
The United States government, like AOC, is now monitoring the situation, and Robinhood, a financial services company, has limited purchasing, which has become controversial as it limits retail investors.
Redditors have also moved on to other stock market options such as AMC.
