The video game retailer GameStop has sent shockwaves through the financial world after its stock price quadrupled in just under a week. The volatility is the result of a group of individual investors — who organized on the online platform Reddit — buying up stocks that had been shorted by Wall Street hedge funds. With prices soaring, those hedge funds were forced to sell those stocks to avoid further losses, driving up prices even more.
As of Thursday morning, GameStop stock had dropped 24% after the trading app Robinhood and some brokerage firms, including Schwab and TD Ameritrade, restricted trading.
Now, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin is calling for a suspension of trading on GameStop for 30 days “until people get a chance to get a grip on what the reality is here,” he told host Joe Mathieu on Morning Edition today. “This puts the integrity of the entire marketplace at risk.”
The problem, Galvin said, is that as hedge funds sell off good stocks and take substantial losses, the soaring prices are artificially adding value, creating a “contrived” market. Just a week ago, GameStop's stock was worth around $40. Shares topped $400 today before falling again.
“The manipulation is on both sides,” Galvin said. “It’s clear that these stocks — GameStop and several others — do not have any value. The prices that are being offered and paid have no basis in reality.”
Listen: "It's quite obvious the price is contrived."
As secretary of the commonwealth, Galvin is charged with enforcing the state's securities laws to protect investors. Galvin said he is concerned that individual investors could get hurt, because they don’t have the substantial resources of a hedge fund behind them to make up the difference on big losses.
He said he is also concerned that the hedge fund losses indicate a “systemic problem” that could “destabilize” the marketplace.
“The national regulator — in this case, the Securities and Exchange Commission — should be addressing [the problem], which is short-selling when it's artificially contrived,” he said. “It's dishonest, and that should not be allowed.”
Many on social media are painting the story one of the haves versus the have-nots, but that misses the point, Galvin said. The story, as he sees it, is about fairness.
“The market should be an honest place,” he said. “It should be a place where, yes, you’re engaging in risk and you know you are, but it’s risk based upon some basis, as opposed to wild gambling.”
Last December, Galvin sued Robinhood for encouraging “unnecessary risky trading.”
For Massachusetts investors, Galvin had simple advice: “Be careful. Be very careful.”
This article has been updated.
