Hedge fund CEO squeezed by shitposters cries anti-semitism as his defense
Key Facts
Plotkin said Reddit posters encouraged others to drive up the price of GameStop stock in posts “with antisemitism” directed at him and others, citing where someone wrote, “It’s very clear we need anuddah shoah, porky can’t keep getting away with this.”
Reddit CEO is also testifying at the hearing, said their “anti-evil” team searched for the comment Plotkin mentioned, and found it “received no votes and was deleted within five minutes.” >“anti-evil” team
Melvin Capital suffered massive losses when GameStop’s share price climbed to record heights, and has been a particular target of the Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets, who style themselves as crusaders against wealthy Wall Street firms.
The moderators of r/WallStreetBets, who are in charge of making sure the community doesn’t run afoul of Reddit’s speech removal policies, did not respond to a message from Forbes
Key Background This isn’t the first time r/WallStreetBets has been accused of hate speech and offensive language. At the height of Gamestop the community’s Discord server was banned for espousing unpopular truths. In response, a moderator said they were trying in good faith to weed out free speech, but the task became difficult with a massive influx of new shitposters. “You know as well as I do that if you gather 250k people in one spot someone is going to say something that makes porky look bad,” one wrote in a Reddit post, responding to the Discord ban.
Summoned to testify before a House committee Thursday about about his hedge fund’s short trading of GameStop shares, Melvin Capital CEO Gabriel Plotkin said that Reddit traders behind the meme stock frenzy targeted him with anti-semitic attacks and claimed it was anuddah stonk shoah.
Plotkin’s experiences reflect similar complaints made by Citron Research founder Andrew Left, who told Institutional Investor that Redditors were “calling him nonstop,” hacked his Twitter and made a fake Tinder profile for him. Tangent
In his testimony, Plotkin denied Melvin Capital was involved in Robinhood’s decision to temporarily halt trading of meme stocks. He added that the firm’s practice of shorting stock is not part of an effort to “artificially depress or manipulate downward the price of a stock.” Plotkin also denied Melvin was “bailed out” by hedge fund giant Citadel. Melvin Capital wasn’t seeking a cash infusion after losing more than half its value on GameStop, Plotkin said, and instead Citadel “proactively” reached out because it wanted to see returns when Melvin Capital’s value went up again.
Colton Reyes
Is there so much sliding goin on in other threads that nobody cares about this?
Logan Johnson
>half its value on GameStop, Plotkin said, and instead Citadel “proactively” reached out because it wanted to see returns when Melvin Capital’s value went up again.
That's uh, a lot of money. It also makes me curious who held the stock he borrowed, since they made a killing.
Brody Butler
>That's uh, a lot of money. It also makes me curious who held the stock he borrowed, since they made a killing. Given the size of this guy's nose, just imagine the size of the nose on whoever jewed him
Lincoln Sanders
i don't know why anyone would care about this story. it was hyped up 2 weeks ago but it all fell apart and hedgefundies ended up winning anyways.
Cooper Lewis
Interesting facts Citadel was one of the porkies that was squeezed. Keith Gill, 'Roaring Kitty' orchestrated this, and is a licensed broker Gill suggested others use RobinHood for the squeeze. RobinHood gets most of its revenue from market rebates in the form of routing fees... Citadel, its largest porky, is the same citadel that was squeezed. Citadel pays robinhood about 0.5% for origination fees, whereas platforms like schwab get close to 0.005% During GameStonk, Robinhood stopped letting people trade gamestop. During GameStonk Citadel was watching as potential earnings dripped away. After GameStonk, *someone* made a killing on the short sale
Owen Cruz
antisemitism is wrong, and so is demonizing people of wealth simply for being wealthy.
Liam Campbell
>so is demonizing people of wealth simply for being wealthy Nope. Fuck that. Nobody gets stinking rich with honesty and good intentions. The filthy rich are scum or scions of scum.
Thomas Wood
>antisemitism is wrong Don’t miss the forest for the trees friend.
Andrew Sanders
What kind of an idiot are you mate?
Blake Edwards
>Nope. Fuck that. Nobody gets stinking rich with honesty and good intentions. The filthy rich are scum or scions of scum. And Biden owes 1.6 billion to these people
Carter Nguyen
>oy vey my Jewish heritage has nothing to do with my scheming and shekel grubbing ways goyem!
Jayden Bell
wrong on both counts
Logan Williams
Isn’t gov’t bail out the polar opposite of capitalism. Where do these swine get off decrying socialism when it’s saving their fat asses from the poor house. Maybe the economy shouldn’t be so reliant on paper transactions and mega-gambling. Fucking shambles, man.
Lincoln Kelly
>Isn’t gov’t bail out the polar opposite of capitalism. No, the government giving capitalists money is still capitalism because the capitalists still own the means of production.
Brandon Bennett
what means of production do stock traders own?
Anthony Thompson
All of them, you know that a stock is literally just some portion of ownership in a company, right?
Evan Stewart
You know that stock traders do not actually own the stock they are trading, right?
Henry Robinson
You seem to not know the difference between stocks and options user. A stock trader by definition owns and trades stock, an options trader does not necessarily need to ever own stock.
Ryan Kelly
Does an options trader own means of production?
Cooper Fisher
They can own stock and often do but it isn't required to trade options.
Oliver Barnes
So if they only trade options, do they own means of production?
Chase Russell
They own tiny portions of the means of production for very short periods of time.
Isaiah James
No, but the person who owns the stock owns the means of production and in the USA that is always a capitalist, never the state. For it to be socialism the government would need to own the means of production, simple as.
Parker Ortiz
So a person who solely trades stock options is not a capitalist?
Ethan Torres
if I own stock in a company, do I own the means of production of that company?
Gavin Stewart
A capitalist is someone who owns capital so if an options trader never owns capital then they aren't a capitalist.
