After finding out whether there was any illegal or market disruption in the’ant revolt’
Local media reports that the US Department of Justice, federal prosecutors and regulators are investigating whether or not stock prices have been manipulated in relation to the US’Game Stop Incident’ known as the’Rebellion of ants (individual investors)’.
On the 11th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the Ministry of Justice and the San Francisco Federal District Attorney’s Office were seeking information on related activities from stock exchanges and social media companies, which became the epicenter of the GameStop stock craze. According to the WSJ, the US Federal Prosecutors’ Office is looking into whether there have been any illegal or market disruptions in the face of a spike in stock prices such as Game Stop. The prosecution is reported to have sent subpoenas to several securities companies, including’Robin Hood’, a securities company that individual investors have used to trade stocks such as Gamestop, to request data submission.
◆World famous stock version’David and Goliath fight’… Stock price fluctuates
The GameStop incident was controversial in the U.S. stock market as the stock price of GameStop, a U.S. video game distribution chain, rose vertically from $20 to $483 in just two weeks last month and then fell back to $50 recently. it means.
It is known that individual investors who rebelled against the short selling of several hedge funds have gathered around the online community Reddit’s discussion room’Wall Street Betz’ to intensively purchase GameStop stocks, and this situation is globally under the name of’ant revolt’ Became famous. Online, etc., drew a lot of attention by evaluating that individual investors won the fight between’David and Goliath’ against large hedge funds over the game stop situation, but some investors’ share price through social media. There was a controversy over the suspicion that it could be floating.
◆Some people also raise the possibility of’share price manipulation’… “Gamestop is not included in the’Top 10 Stocks’ that many individual investors bought.”
According to WSJ, some experts argue that some individual investors have participated in a kind of price manipulation called’pump and dump’ through reddit bulletin boards. Pump and dump refers to an illegal transaction in which false information about a stock purchased at a bargain price is spread online to raise a stock price and then sells the stock to obtain a profit.
Earlier this month, CNBC broadcast cited JPMorgan data and reported that GameStop was not included in the top 10 stocks bought by individual investors in January. Contrary to the name’ant rebellion’, it was surprising that GameStop did not rank in the top 10 in the individual buying stock. Some raised the possibility that institutional investors could be the main driving force for Gamestop’s stock price spike based on data showing that there were more individual investors who sold rather than bought while GameStop’s stock price soared.
◆The evaluation of the’Game Stop Incident’ may vary depending on the results of the investigation by the US authorities.
The U.S. federal prosecution and regulatory authorities are expected to first determine who actually bought and sold GameStop stock through data used by securities companies to understand the reality of the situation. However, even if we understand the stock transaction history, it will not be easy to contrast it with the publisher who has posted a related article on social media. This is because most users post anonymously on Reddit.
If the investigation reveals that a small number of key figures instigated the purchase of the GameStop group, this situation may turn into a stock price manipulation case rather than a’ant revolt’. However, it seems difficult to prosecute and punish a large number of users who traded in small amounts or believed they were participating in the’war against hedge funds’.
Meanwhile, in addition to the U.S. Department of Justice and the prosecution, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also looking into whether there has been any illegal activities such as manipulating market prices in connection with GameStop. WSJ also said that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating the intensive buying of silver futures and silver ETFs (listed index funds) by individual investors through the Reddit discussion room.
Reporter Kang-jin Lee [email protected]
Photo = AFP Yonhap News
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