GameStop and other stocks targeted by Reddit users plummet

BY: Tory Newmyer, Hannah Denham

Shares of GameStop and other companies plummeted in regular trading yesterday even as leading brokerages moved to limit trading in the stocks – a decision that infuriated lawmakers and the ordinary retail investors who had used those stocks to wage a populist war against big Wall Street hedge funds.

Those investors had been coordinating on a Reddit message board to send the prices of those stocks soaring for most of this week, inflicting painful losses on hedge funds that bet the shares would drop. The mobilization has transfixed Wall Street this week.

But on Thursday, many of those stocks were sold, despite some users of the Reddit message board pleading with people to hold their investments. GameStop stock closed down 44%. Other stocks boosted by investors on the Reddit message board also cratered, with movie theater giant AMC Entertainment dropping 57%; BlackBerry shedding 42%; and Nokia falling 29%.

As the trading frenzy continued, Robinhood and Interactive Brokers, two of the most popular online trading apps for retail investors, announced they would restrict users’ trading in the stocks seeing the most action. Those moves came after TD Ameritrade earlier in the week said it would impose restrictions.