Money & the World
Data: Who Really Traded GME? And What Happened to Them?
We dig into our own Wealthsimple Trade data to find out how traders behaved in the midst of the meme stock feeding frenzy. TL;DR: yes, meme stocks are kind of a bro-fest. But weirdly no, most people did not throw caution to the wind.
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There’s been no shortage of takes about what the GME/meme stock phenomenon was, how it happened, and what it means. People were lemmings and flung themselves into the abyss and lost their life savings! Millionaires were minted! Everyone who jumped onto the bandwagon was a novice who just downloaded a trading app out of a desperate sense of FOMO!
Since we happen to run the largest (and only) no-commission stock trading app in Canada, it turns out we have a lot of data about who the GME traders were and what happened to them. So we looked into it. Herewith, the story of GME trading in five graphs:
Toronto Star: “Millions of amateur investors took part in a trading frenzy that sent the stock prices of several unsuspecting companies soaring.”
New York Times: “Amateur traders egging on one another on Reddit bet heavily on shares of the company in January.”
Business Insider: “GameStop, AMC, and other Reddit darlings rebounded on Wednesday as retail investors banded together to "hold the line." The phrase has become a popular rallying cry on the Wall Street Bets subreddit among day traders hoping to preserve recent gains."
Washington Post: “As GameStop stock crumbles, newbie traders reckon with heavy losses.“
Yahoo! Finance: “In two short weeks, GameStop and AMC stock investors have gone from the new Wall Street kingmakers to naïve newbies. As Reddit-fueled stocks fell back to earth, young Reddit investors watched in dismay as their heat-seeking investments turned to dust.”
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All data is aggregated and anonymous Wealthsimple Trade user data, from the time period January 15, 2021 to February 12, 2021. Investment experience is self-reported by Trade users.
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