Wall Street just showed the Reddit crowd how to really make money In the early weeks of 2021, amateur traders backing meme stocks like GameStop, AMC Entertainment and BlackBerry captured the world’s attention. As spectacular gains triggered huge losses for hedge funds that bet the shares would fall, a David versus Goliath narrative took hold. Finally, the little guy was triumphing against The Man, which had been cashing in on a rigged system for decades. In the end, however, it turns out Goliath did pretty well. Global hedge funds reporting data to Eurekahedge, a research group, saw returns of nearly 5% in the first quarter, roughly on par with the broader market. It was the best start to the year for hedge funds since 2006.