© Patrick T. Fallon—Bloomberg/Getty Images
The GameStop trade has been a disaster for short sellers: The stock has surged some 870% over the past week and was up as much as 11-fold compared to where it started last Friday.
Financial advisors push ‘responsible’ betting in bubble market. Broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Previous Post Trading sites restrict stock trading in GameStop. Sports betting sites without the gamestop block also offer this, meaning you can continue as you would prior to self-exclusion. Exchange betting – a relatively new concept, but an ever more popular one, exchange betting allows punters to trade, hedge their bets, and lock in a guaranteed profit regardless of the final result.
And while the traders on r/wallstreetbets—the Reddit forum that kicked off the unlikely rally for GameStop stock—may be racking up profits, the damage is accumulating for short sellers, the investors and hedge funds who bet against or “short” the stock. By Friday, short sellers had lost $19.75 billion on GameStop so far this month alone, according to S3 Partners, a New York-based firm that tracks short positions on U.S. stocks.
That’s an extraordinary bungle: By comparison, Tesla—a long hated stock that defied bears with its market-crushing performance last year—cost short sellers some $40.1 billion in all of 2020. (For context, Tesla’s market value is also 37 times that of GameStop.)
The losses have hit hedge funds shorting GameStop including Steve Cohen‘s Point72, as well as other high-profile short sellers like Andrew Left, who runs Citron Research, a firm that built a reputation for publishing reports on stocks he believed were destined to fall.
After announcing last week that he was shorting GameStop when the stock was trading around $40, Left said Wednesday that he had largely abandoned the trade “at a loss 100%,” covering the short—or buying back the stock—when it reached the $90 range. On Friday morning, Left said he would no longer publish short reports at all, seemingly marking a turning point for the short-selling industry. Instead, he will focus on long, or bullish, investments—stocks he believes will rise—and distribute his research to individual investors.
“We understand the changing dynamics in the market,” Left said in a video released on Twitter Wednesday. “So with that, we’ll become more judicious when it comes to shorting stocks.”
Still, an analysis of short stock positions by S3 Partners shows that short sellers aren’t done betting against GameStop—and many are just getting started.
“As soon as some shorts are covering there are a line of new short sellers looking to locate and short GME at these high stock price levels,” says Ihor Dusaniwsky, S3’s managing director of predictive analytics, citing his conversations with brokers. “Much like in trench warfare, after the first wave gets decimated, the second wave takes up the banner and marches onwards.”
Indeed, even as GameStop stock multiplied several times over this week, short positions remained “relatively stable,” with a slight 8% decline when a selloff in the stock Thursday (sparked by Robinhood and other brokerages limiting trades) allowed short sellers to buy back the stock at lower levels, Dusaniwsky says.
Still, GameStop shares sold short currently amount to more than 113% of the company’s total outstanding shares, making it the market’s most shorted stock by that measure, according to S3.
That’s also made shorting GameStop outrageously expensive, and yet investors are paying the price: The borrowing fee to short GameStop stock is now nearly 30%—with the fee rising to 50% for those making new short bets on GameStop. By contrast, the average borrowing fee for shorting U.S. stocks is under 1%, S3 says.
After all, despite the black eye many short sellers took on GameStop this week, others remain undaunted in making bearish calls.
Nathan Anderson, founder of Hindenburg Research—which made possibly the most famous short call of 2020 in his takedown of Nikola Corp., halving the market cap of the electric-vehicle maker with his report—falls in the latter camp.
“While the guns are turned on short-sellers at the moment,” says Anderson, “I’m encouraged that the right questions are finally being asked. It’s early, but I’m hopeful that it leads to a broader understanding of how the system is flawed. Because that’s the only way it will ever actually improve.”
Additional reporting by Bernhard Warner.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
While there are many gamblers in the UK, this is one of the most regulated markets across the globe. The gambling commission in the country is always hard at work coming up with ways to regulate the industry. As much as this protects the players, it can also be a source of frustration. One recent initiative from the commission is the introduction of Gamstop. A lot of misinformation surrounds this initiative, and this has caused a lot of worry in the industry. Here is what you need to know about it.
Gamstop does not apply to all players, but rather those in the UK who choose to exclude themselves from gambling. It is no secret that some people do not know when to stop gaming. They will play until they exhaust their resources only to do the same tomorrow.
Now, this initiative allows them to register accounts and thus bar themselves from accessing betting sites. This registration is possible in sites with active Gamstop memberships. Therefore, not all betting sites will allow you to register such an account.
If you feel that you have lost control over your gambling habits, this initiative is here to help. Responsible gambling is the goal in this case. As such, many betting sites have allowed for Gamstop registration in the hope of building their reputations.
There are two ways to do this. The first is to visit the site in question and look for the Gamstop logo. You can find this on the homepage, most likely at the bottom. Another way is by visiting the Gamstop website.
Here, you can go through the extensive list of registered sites. Studies show that people have found their way around this initiative. They create false profiles and place bets on betting sites with the initiative. However, for most people with gambling addiction, it has been of help.
First of all, using Gamstop is free, and all you need to do is register your details on the official website. From here, you can continue betting at will. If you feel that things are getting out of hand, you can activate the self-exclusion option. It allows you to choose how long you will stay out of the game. From the time of activation, you have twenty-four hours before the exclusion begins.
Note that getting back to betting after this is quite hard. You have to contact Gamstop to lift the exclusion. Also, you cannot opt-out before the time lapses. As such, you should think hard about your decision to exclude yourself. Once you make it, there is no going back for a long time. That is why people search for betting sites that do not include this feature. If you have found yourself in a fix, here are some websites you can use.
This site offers sign up bonuses to the tunes of one thousand dollars. It is US-based, and it accepts players from the UK. Games offered include tennis, golf, football, basketball, soccer, and hockey, among others. It also provides casino games, allowing for diversity. It has been in operation for almost two decades.
This site offers 100% matching on sign up deposits, terms, and conditions considered. It has been in operation for more than two decades. During this time, it has offered an array of options regarding games and tournaments. Additionally, it provides variation in deposit and withdrawal methods, allowing for fast access. It is American-owned and opens its doors to UK players.
This site offers a range of bonuses and promotions, such as the $25 risk-free bet. Moreover, it has many withdrawal and deposit methods, including electronic wallets, debit, and credit cards. There are several gaming options on this site, all aided by a competent customer service team. Like the other sites on this list, it allows UK players to register accounts.
The games offered on this site are quite diverse, with the inclusion of e-sports. The deal gets better, given that the site provides high odds and a range of promotions and bonuses. Additionally, there are numerous payment methods, allowing players some convenience. You can get up to 100% bonuses on deposits up to $100.
These sites and more are a few of the operational sites that allow UK players with Gamstop to keep playing.
If you’re still not interested, why don’t you consider betting on horse races and debrys like the Kentucky Horse Derby!