<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/18/reddit-investors-use-gamestop-proceeds-adopt-thousands-gorillas-aoe>
"Gorillas, elephants, pangolins and sea turtles have been handed a lifeline by
amateur investors who played the stock market at its own game.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent helping endangered animals by
users of a Reddit trading tips community, giving conservation organisations
across the world a much-needed financial boost during a difficult year.
The money came from users of the WallStreetBets subreddit, who earlier this
year bought small volumes of shares in the retailer GameStop en masse. This
inflated the company’s share price, raising value for themselves and
deliberately withholding it from professional investors such as hedge funds and
big Wall Street firms that had hoped to profit from its failure.
Many of those small investors have spent their gains on animal conservation.
Gorillas have been the biggest beneficiaries, partly due to the sad story of
Harambe, which still persists as a meme. In a typical weekend, the Dian Fossey
Gorilla Fund gets 20 new gorilla adoptions. But since Saturday it has received
more than 3,500 adoptions worth $350,000 (£252,000). Many were made out to
fictional names including “Fuck Melvin capital” and “Jim Cramer’s Tears” that
took potshots at hedge fund managers."
Via Glyn Moody, who wrote "kudos to them all"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
