Markets
The Crazy World of Stonks Explained
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The Crazy World of Stonks Explained
View the full-size version of this infographic here
You may have seen diamond hands, rockets, and r/wallstreetbets rallying cries in the past few weeks—but what does it all mean? In this graphic we explain the events that led to an explosive rise in GameStop’s share price, along with the Reddit revolution fueling it.
Gamestop’s stock has been on a wild roller coaster ride, rising by roughly 640% from the start of last week to its peak. After Robinhood and other brokers initializing trading restrictions due to the heightened market activity, the stock has since fallen more than 80% to $90 per share.
But the stock’s volatile price action doesn’t come close to telling the story of how this market frenzy began on the Reddit community r/wallstreetbets, the hedge funds that suffered when GameStop share price rose dramatically, and why Robinhood halted trading last week.
The Beginning of the GameStop Saga
While GameStop’s share price went higher than anyone expected this past week, the initial idea behind this rally was shared back in September 2019 by u/DeepFuckingValue, a frequent user in the r/wallstreetbets subreddit, a community where trade and investment ideas are shared.
The premise of his trade idea was simple: he saw unrecognized value and much more upside potential compared to the downside risk in GameStop.
While people were eager to proclaim the death of physical game sales, u/DeepFuckingValue noted the new generation of consoles on the horizon would bring gamers back to GameStop. Along with the company’s new board of directors and solid balance sheet, GameStop wasn’t as poorly positioned as many thought.
Among those betting against the company were a variety of hedge funds and other players who had an outstanding short interest against the stock. Just like the legendary investor Michael Burry proposed after him, u/DeepFuckingValue noted the possibility of a short squeeze if GameStop’s share price moved higher.
GameStop Rockets to the Moon
A collection of shorts had amassed on the game retailer’s stock, with hedge funds like Melvin Capital Management holding onto shorts for multiple years despite GME being at all-time lows. The r/wallstreetbets community caught onto this high short interest and wanted to “squeeze” them out of their positions.
In August and September of 2020, GameStop broke up from its lows around $4 a share, and returned 66% and 53% respectively, reaching new highs of $11 a share. Hedge funds piled in further as short interest on publicly traded shares reached 120%, yet GameStop’s uptrend continued, reaching more than $20 a share by the end of December.
Here’s what’s happened since:
Date | GameStop (GME) Share Price | DeepFuckingValue's Unrealized Profits |
---|---|---|
January 12 | $19.95 | $1.2M |
January 13 | $31.40 | $3.9M |
January 14 | $39.91 | $4.0M |
January 15 | $35.50 | |
January 19 | $39.36 | $3.9M |
January 20 | $39.12 | |
January 21 | $43.03 | |
January 22 | $65.01 | $7.8M |
January 25 | $76.79 | $8.3M |
January 26 | $147.98 | $17.2M |
January 27 | $347.51 | $33.4M |
January 28 | $193.60 | $18.6M |
January 29 | $325.00 | $31.6M |
February 1 | $225.00 | $21.2M |
February 2 | $90.21 | $7.6M |
Sources: TradingView, /u/DeepFuckingValue’s Reddit posts
As GameStop’s price ran into the triple digits by the end of January, Melvin Capital was forced to close their short position despite a $2.75B investment from Citadel and Point72. At the same time, in just a few weeks, the number of r/wallstreetbets subscribers shot up from 1.8M to 8.3M.
Robinhood Halts Trading and Institutes Position Limits
On January 28th, when GameStop shares reached highs above $460, Robinhood and other brokers halted purchases of GameStop shares and options along with the ability to purchase fractional shares of securities. The broker had received a bill from the NSCC (National Securities Clearing Corporation) of $3B, reflective of the high volatility and value at risk on the platform.
In an informal interview with Elon Musk on Clubhouse, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said that halting purchases and instituting position limits allowed the bill’s cost to ultimately drop to $700M. Before this interview, the company published a blog post of what happened on their end, along with an explainer of how trades are settled with clearinghouses.
While position limits which limited the amount of shares and options users could buy had originally been placed on 51 different securities, today only five have position limits. These include r/wallstreetbets favorites like GameStop (GME), AMC Entertainment (AMC), and Nokia (NOK).
Robinhood’s New Position Limits
Symbol | Shares | Options Contracts |
---|---|---|
AMC | 1,250 | 1,250 |
EXPR | 3,000 | 3,000 |
GME | 100 | 100 |
NAKD | 12,000 | N/A |
NOK | 2,000 | 2,000 |
You can see the latest position limits on Robinhood’s platform here.
Along with these position limits, Robinhood has instated further limitations related to pattern day traders. This limits users with less than $25,000 in their account to fewer than four trades over five business days.
r/wallstreetbets Discovers Dogecoin and Eyes Silver Shorts
As buying was halted for many of the preferred r/wallstreetbets stocks, the community shifted its attention to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Prior to the 28th, Dogecoin had been trading for $0.007 a coin, but in less than 24 hours the coin rose 1,000% to a high of $0.086.
Following this, the meme-based cryptocurrency has since levelled off around $0.033, which is still nearly a 350% return for anyone who had bought before the 28th.
Since their foray into cryptocurrency, some r/wallstreetbets users have now identified silver as a new opportunity with short squeeze potential. Since the 28th, silver has risen about 5%. Increased volumes for various silver brokers caused delays or resulted in the suspension of silver purchases over the weekend.
Despite the rally and growing excitement around the precious metal, there are those in the r/wallstreetbets community who consider this a distraction. Malicious players with a short interest in GameStop may be trying to draw attention away from the GameStop short squeeze.
What’s Next for Robinhood and r/wallstreetbets?
Since these unprecedented market events, Robinhood raised $3.4B in an investment round to further support their goal of “expanding everyday investors’ ability to invest”. Yet the company faces dozens of lawsuits for their halting of share purchases on the 28th of January, and will likely have to put its IPO on the backburner.
Their decision to halt purchases ultimately removed large amounts of buy pressure from GameStop and other securities, and its newly instated position limits and pattern day trader rule have driven many users away from the platform.
With their actions, Robinhood unwittingly spurred a deep divide between Main Street and Wall Street. Many r/wallstreetbets members now feel their trades and investments carry an idealistic importance worth more than potential profits or losses.
While there is still plenty of this story left to play out, last week saw an irreversible change in how many individual investors perceive the market, its participants, and its rules. While new rules and regulations will change shape going forward, one thing is clear: the rise of information sharing has changed how financial markets will be traded forever.
Markets
How Disinflation Could Affect Company Financing
History signals that after a period of slowing inflation—also known as disinflation—debt and equity issuance expands.


How Disinflation Could Affect Company Financing
The macroeconomic environment is shifting. Since the second half of 2022, the pace of U.S. inflation has been dropping.
We explore how this disinflation may affect company financing in Part 2 of our Understanding Market Trends series from Citizens.
Disinflation vs. Deflation
The last time inflation climbed above 9% and then dropped was in the early 1980’s.
Time Period | March 1980-July 1983 | June 2022-April 2023* |
---|---|---|
Inflation at Start of Cycle | 14.8% | 9.1% |
Inflation at End of Cycle | 2.5% | 4.9% |
* The June 2022-April 2023 cycle is ongoing. Source: Federal Reserve. Inflation is based on the Consumer Price Index.
A decrease in the rate of inflation is known as disinflation. It differs from deflation, which is a negative inflation rate like the U.S. experienced at the end of the Global Financial Crisis in 2009.
How might slowing inflation affect the amount of debt and equity available to companies?
Looking to History
There are many factors that influence capital markets, such as technological advances, monetary policy, and regulatory changes.
With this caveat in mind, history signals that both debt and equity issuance expand after a period of disinflation.
Equity Issuance
Companies issued low levels of stock during the ‘80s disinflation period, but issuance later rose nearly 300% in 1983.
Year | Deal Value |
---|---|
1980 | $2.6B |
1981 | $5.0B |
1982 | $3.6B |
1983 | $13.5B |
1984 | $2.5B |
1985 | $12.0B |
1986 | $24.2B |
1987 | $24.9B |
1988 | $16.9B |
1989 | $12.9B |
1990 | $13.4B |
1991 | $45.2B |
1992 | $50.3B |
1993 | $95.3B |
1994 | $63.7B |
1995 | $79.7B |
1996 | $108.7B |
1997 | $106.5B |
1998 | $97.0B |
1999 | $142.8B |
2000 | $156.5B |
Source: Bloomberg. U.S. public equity issuance dollar volume that includes both initial and follow-on offerings and excludes convertibles.
Issuance grew quickly in the years that followed. Other factors also influenced issuance, such as the macroeconomic expansion, productivity growth, and the dotcom boom of the ‘90s.
Debt Issuance
Similarly, companies issued low debt during the ‘80s disinflation, but levels began to increase substantially in later years.
Year | Deal Value | Interest Rate |
---|---|---|
1980 | $4.5B | 11.4% |
1981 | $6.7B | 13.9% |
1982 | $14.5B | 13.0% |
1983 | $8.1B | 11.1% |
1984 | $25.7B | 12.5% |
1985 | $46.4B | 10.6% |
1986 | $47.1B | 7.7% |
1987 | $26.4B | 8.4% |
1988 | $24.7B | 8.9% |
1989 | $29.9B | 8.5% |
1990 | $40.2B | 8.6% |
1991 | $41.6B | 7.9% |
1992 | $50.0B | 7.0% |
1993 | $487.8B | 5.9% |
1994 | $526.4B | 7.1% |
1995 | $632.7B | 6.6% |
1996 | $906.0B | 6.4% |
1997 | $1.3T | 6.4% |
1998 | $1.8T | 5.3% |
1999 | $1.8T | 5.7% |
2000 | $2.8T | 6.0% |
Source: Dealogic, Federal Reserve. Data reflects U.S. debt issuance dollar volume across several deal types including: Asset Backed Securities, U.S. Agency, Non-U.S. Agency, High Yield, Investment Grade, Government Backed, Mortgage Backed, Medium Term Notes, Covered Bonds, Preferreds, and Supranational. Interest Rate is the 10 Year Treasury Yield.
As interest rates dropped and debt capital markets matured, issuing debt became cheaper and corporations seized this opportunity.
It’s worth noting that debt issuance was also impacted by other factors, like the maturity of the high-yield debt market and growth in non-bank lenders such as hedge funds and pension funds.
Then vs. Now
Could the U.S. see levels of capital financing similar to what happened during the ‘80s disinflation? There are many economic differences between then and now.
Consider how various indicators differed 10 months into each disinflationary period.
January 1981 | April 2023* | |
---|---|---|
Inflation Rate Annual | 11.8% | 4.9% |
Inflation Expectations Next 12 Months | 9.5% | 4.5% |
Interest Rate 10-Yr Treasury Yield | 12.6% | 3.7% |
Unemployment Rate Seasonally Adjusted | 7.5% | 3.4% |
Nominal Wage Growth Annual, Seasonally Adjusted | 9.3% | 5.0% |
After-Tax Corporate Profits As Share of Gross Value Added | 9.1% | 13.8% |
* Data for inflation expectations and interest rate is as of May 2023, data for corporate profits is as of Q4 1980 and Q1 2023. Inflation is a year-over-year inflation rate based on the Consumer Price Index. Source: Federal Reserve.
The U.S. economy is in a better position when it comes to factors like inflation, unemployment, and corporate profits. On the other hand, fears of an upcoming recession and turmoil in the banking sector have led to volatility.
What to Consider During Disinflation
Amid uncertainty in financial markets, lenders and investors may be more cautious. Companies will need to be strategic about how they approach capital financing.
- High-quality, profitable companies could be well positioned for IPOs as investors are placing more focus on cash flow.
- High-growth companies could face fewer options as lenders become more selective and could consider alternative forms of equity and private debt.
- Companies with lower credit ratings could find debt more expensive as lenders charge higher rates to account for market volatility.
In uncertain times, it’s critical for businesses to work with the right advisor to find—and take advantage of—financing opportunities.

Learn more about working with Citizens.

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