do you haveinvestment accounts you don't understand or pay attention to becauseyour meaningless desk job is all the excitementyou need? or are you atrader? [interposing voices] matt kelly:i loved the sentiment of wallstreetbets.i loved it. i was like,these guys are fucking nuts. [music playing] man: in a small,exceptionally unhelpful, and irreverent cornerof the internet, therein lies a battalionof nihilistic meme lords who discuss their positionsand strategies, speculate and argueover the markets moving, and provide sage advice to the humble stock trader who just so happens to stumbleupon this fine community. (singing) wallstreetbets. - hello.i am the sir jackalot. i'm here wearing a maskbecause i'm a millionaire, and i would like to stayanonymous. matt kelly:i started telling my friends,
and it went up to, like, $50. andi'm like, oh, shit. i just made a bunchof money on that. and then it went down. and then i was, like, sick. i was like, i don't knowwhat the fuck i'm doing. i'm an idiot.and then it went back up. i'm like, oh,i'm a genius. - [roars] sir jackalot: everywhere elseon the internet, people are tryingto be their best self. but on wallstreetbets, we just acknowledge,like, we're just all idiots. [typing] stock expert:wallstreetbets came on our radar, and we first startedto talk about it with teslain the summer of 2020. wallstreetbets would makea meme or a joke
or death with jak inhibitors. it's time to get out in front of eczema. ask your doctor about once-daily cibinqo. [christmas music] welcome, boys and girls, to a sir jackalotchristmas carol. gather around,my fellow degenerates. grab a mug ofeggnog and find a cozy cornerof your mother's basement, and enjoy this taleof sir jackalot. this post here is "my magnum dong opus." now listen, "my convictionfor the gamestop mother of all short squeezes." the moass, it was insane. i had over a million dollarsinvested in this. that's all my net worth. but that 20%earnings drop, oh, man. oh, man. it hurt. it really hurton a spiritual level.
like it makes sense that they're goingout of business, but they seemto be making some plays. alvan chow:and then i just noticed this extremelyastounding figure, the 140%short interest figure. sir jackalot: 140% shortinterest ratio on one stock. that means there are moreshorts than shares that exist. [laughs] all the shares outstanding for the companywere basically shorted, which is absurdand unprecedented. alvan chow:so i tried to look for a historical precedenton what would happen if somethingwas over 100% shorted, but there was nothing. stock expert:when you sell stocks short, you're betting that the marketis going to go down. and if you're wrong,the stock can go up against youvery sharply, and you have to close thatposition, usually at a loss. so you can see guyson wallstreetbets who knew what they were doing. these guys are smart.they understand, ok, we can get leverageon this thing, right?
third quarter2020 earnings call. sir jackalot: i rememberbeing the cocky asshole, literally playing"the final countdown," the song, making sure i was physically readyfor an earnings report. man: the call will includeforward-looking statements, which are subject to variousrisks and uncertainties that couldcause actual results to differ materiallyfrom expectations. - you know, you havelegendary investors, like michael burryand bill gross-- - god. --watching the earnings call. man: we continue toreduce expenses, delivering over $315 millionin its expense reductions so far this year. and weare pleased to end the quarter with almost $300 millionmore in cash and restricted cashcompared to the end of the prior year third quarter. sir jackalot:and gamestop, it was shooting up.i was like, this is it. this is the squeeze.this is finally happening. i was, like,literally jumping up and down. man: to summarizethe third quarter, we believe the pandemic,and importantly the--
sir jackalot: and a coupleof months afterwards, it just starts tanking. i was like, oh, no.oh, no. what's this mean? what's this mean? man: we have closedalmost 800 stores worldwide since the beginning of 2019-- - and it started tankingeven more. and i was like, oh, fuck. man: --in an adjusted lossof $0.53 per share. sir jackalot:it crashed like-- i don't know--15% to 20% instantly. i was like, whoa, i just lostsome serious money. alvan chow: they didn't eventake a q&a session. george sherman,kind of a boomer. just read off his script. if they haddone anything, [laughs]i think it would be better. matt kelly:i'm buying christmas presents and stuff for the kids. and i'm kind ofgritting my teeth. and at the same time,i'm having to instill confidencein my wife, that like this isgoing to work out. i'm not going to sellfor a loss. stocks only goup, right? - that's where i gota little cold feet. got some paper hands. i sold my sharesprobably december, mid- december. 88,000 gamestopshares at $15.
i'm like, dude,this is a crazy subreddit. i mean, guys are making money.they're also going broke.so if you like risk--[laughs] - i saw all the people postinglike million dollar gains over the last year.i was like this sounds like my kind of place. chris garcia: you would seethe success stories of dudes who made a random call andthey came out with 100 grand. - nice. well, he's goingto get fucked on taxes. have fun with that. [music playing] woman: a fucking bros' club,which was kind of fun. - i said words on there thati would never say in public. - and i'm hearing about likeall these different lingos that are kind of fun. i'm like, ooh, diamond hands, like paper hands.like, i'm a bro now. - the whole joke is, like,diamond hands. you just have to notreally treat it like money. and that's when i took350k, and i just like yolo'dthe fuck out of it. sir jackalot:if you're like me, you're watching every minuteof your favorite stock during the day.you want to be able to be
man: if you happento be on social media and you have a great reach,is that not power? is that not influence? - diamond hands, baby.diamond hands. like, to the moon, boys.to the moon. gamestop at $420. it did hit $420. ladies and gentlemen, themagic $420 has been achieved. it has been achieved.congratulations. you were here. when-- oh, $420.69.take a screenshot. take a screenshot. [music playing] sir jackalot:the esteemed $420. people were saying $1,000is not a dream anymore. $1,000 is not a meme. it's been likethis fairy tale, this myth.
with your people, all screaming in terrorif something falls. the stocks are going to go up. they're also going to go down. the important thingis just hold on. sir jackalot:i got the memes. i'm, like,put in rocket emojis when you thinkyou're going to be rich. ape alone, weak. apetogether, strong. [laughs]it's so true. mikeymillions:the ape is the unsophisticated investor.you can go to wallstreetbets, tell them thatyou're going to buy shares of a dying company, and you willreceive accolades. kirsten:at this point, i really still had not a single amountof technical analysis or able to doanything like that in the stock market. but i knew, you know,buy low, sell high. my name is kirsten,and i am stonk queen. woman: so i'm learningall these different things, and it's like, buy amc.buy blackberry. buy bed, bath, & beyond. and it's popping. matt kelly: a lot of theseguys are investing in neo, and that wasthe first stock i bought,
if it isn't clear,i'm not betting that gamestop is going to stage the most epic turnaroundof all time. alvan chow: i was excitedwhen i first got the idea. after that, i was kindof annoyed [laughs] for quite a while because it didn't happen the wayi expected it to. [sigh] [laughs] - oh, then historyin the making. there was a lot of hypeleading up to their earnings reportand whether ryan cohen was goingto make a move or not. [music-"the final countdown"] man: greetings, and welcometo the gamestop third quarter2020 earnings call. sir jackalot: i rememberbeing the cocky asshole, literally playing"the final countdown," the song, making sure i was physically readyfor an earnings report. man: the call will includeforward-looking statements, which are subject to variousrisks and uncertainties that couldcause actual results to differ materiallyfrom expectations. - you know, you havelegendary investors,