Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Benzinga
Benzinga
Politics
Madhukumar Warrier

GameStop Chairman Ryan Cohen Says Government Crackdowns On Short Sellers Would Be A Good Use Of Taxpayer Money

GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) chairman and Chewy Inc. (NYSE: CHWY) co-founder Ryan Cohen said that the government should crack down on hedge fund short sellers to make good use of taxpayer money.

What Happened: Cohen made the comment on Twitter, after having earlier called short sellers “the dumb stormtroopers of the investing galaxy.”

See Also: Forget AMC And GameStop: Could Shorts Get Smoked On Cinemark Stock?

Why It Matters: It was reported in February that federal prosecutors have ramped up a probe into the activities of short-sellers, focusing on their potential use of illegal market manipulation such as “spoofing” and “scalping.”

GameStop was among the most heavily shorted stocks last year. The stock — a darling of the Reddit investor forum r/WallStreetBets — spiked in January 2021 as a wave of buying by bullish retail traders created a short squeeze. This resulted in huge losses for hedge fund short-sellers who had bet against these stocks.

GameStop continues to see high interest from retail investors ahead of the announcement of its fourth-quarter results on Thursday.

Its short percent of float has risen 8.53% since its last quarterly earnings report. The company said it has 11.94 million shares sold short, which is 18.95% of all its regular shares that are available for trading.

Price Action: GameStop closed 5.8% higher in Tuesday’s regular trading session at $82.64, but lost almost 1% in the after-hours session to $81.85.

Read Next: AMC 'Playing On Offense Again,' Picks Up 22% Stake In Gold And Silver Miner Hycroft: What Investors Should Know

Photo by Bill Jerome on Wikimedia

 

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.