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Comment by batmenace | Hacker News Reader

It is a pump in the sense that none of the fundamentals of the company have changed between December and now, the main event has been people buying stock with the express purpose of enabling a short squeeze. Legally, there could be an argument for it being market manipulation.

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So nobody should ever buy a stock unless something material, as defined by you, has changed? Not because they think it'll go up in the future?

Sure they can. But coordinating multiple people to do that is a classic pump and dump, and is explicitly illegal.

Where's the coordination? People in subreddits are talking about what they are doing and others are choosing to do the same thing.

No different from somebody on CNBC providing stock picks.

Exactly. CNBC is the biggest market manipulator with a huge mouthpiece. Anytime Cramer mentions a stock in favorable terms it goes up, at least short term. Meanwhile we know that he is friends with hedge funds and at least part of time is probably taking positions before going on TV.

We give that a free pass but suddenly a loosely-organized internet forum is a problem.

There are two major differences...

1. If Cramer said "Hey, let's all buy this stock because there is a potential short squeeze.", then that would be illegal because it's attempting to create an artificial market pump through short squeezing.

2. Cramer is LICENSED to give investment advice. A licensed doctor can go on TV and make medical recommendations. Reddit specifically bans subs that try to do that.

It is the hedge funds that are inflating the stock price because they have to cover their short positions. This is a short squeeze.

It is clear from your comments you have no clue what you're talking about. Stop spreading misinformation.

Read matt levine's twitter: https://twitter.com/matt_levine/status/1354129838806872073

and newsletter if you want to inform yourself.

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