Eating the rich can now with a Netflix subscription – or at least relive it.
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Netflix released a series on Wednesday called Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga about the online move that propelled the video game retailer’s stock price and left Wall Street in awe forever.
Here’s what you need to know about the new series.
How did the GameStop saga begin?
According to the BBCthe retailer had struggled during the pandemic, and its Dec. 31, 2020 stock price — before all the controversy — was $4.71 a share.
Hedge funds and other investors can sometimes bet against a company when it goes bad to make money, which is exactly what they did with GameStop.
Amateur traders active on Reddit noticed that Wall Street was selling the stock short and they decided to flip the script. The millions of active users in the r/wallstreetbets channel were encouraged to buy stocks in order to drive up the stock’s price in order to increase personal profits and “squeeze out hedge funds’ short positions”. according to The Trade.
Because of an online frenzy, massive coordination, influencers and even Elon Musk tweets “Gamestonk!”retailers bought up tons of GameStop stock, pushing the price up.
This meant that the people betting that the stock would fall – mainly larger, more traditional investors – lost a lot of money. Guy Warren, chief executive officer of FinTech ITRS Group, told The Trade that what happened”[exposed] the fragility of the market and the weaknesses in companies’ trading systems.”
“Until now, retail activity has never been able to move the market in any way… the power dynamics have shifted,” he added.
Robinhood restricted trading in the stock on January 28, 2021, when GameStop’s price was approximately $80 per share. That is an increase of 1,598.51 % compared to a month earlier.
The entire saga cost hedge funds about $20 billion, according to the Sun-Times.
Since then, there have been other potential meme stock moments, including AMTD Digital, Bed Bath & Beyond, and AMC.
What’s Netflix’s New GameStop Documentary?
Netflix unpacks the situation in three episodes of about 40 minutes each and features original interviews with Redditors and traders. Jim Cramer, the host of “Mad Money” at CNBC, whose sarcastic comments about the saga made him a host of brutal meme-eryis also discussed.
“I don’t even understand what I’ve done!” he says in the first episode. “What is their mission? What are they determined to do? To change the face of capitalism?”
So far the reviews have been mixed.
The Chicago Sun Times wrote: that it has “an uncomplicated and straightforward and amusingly light-hearted approach that traces the rising stock prices in one of the most bizarre financial stories of our time.”
The edge ripped both the Netflix documentary and an MSNBC movie about May’s meme stock saga called Diamond Hands: The Legend of Wall Street Bets in an online review, in which they said they relied too much on stock images and felt “rushed”.
There will also be a film about the saga with Pete Davidson, which will start filming this month. according to Variety.
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