About this episode
GameStop and AMC made national headlines for unexpected reasons as retail investors from social media website Reddit began feverishly scooping up shares in each company. While the resulting drama caused wild swings in stock prices and scrutiny against some online trading platforms, the long term impacts remain to be seen. Did "Redditors" usher in a new era of retail stock trading? Or are these so-called meme stocks just another example of financial history repeating itself?
Featured Guests
Garrett Cummings - President, UCF Young Investors Club
Kevin Mullally, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor of Finance, UCF College of Business
Episode Highlights
1:04 - Introduction
2:48 - Why would anyone invest in GameStop?
7:22 - What led to the media spotlight on $GME?
12:37 - Who is the group driving the run on GameStop stock?
14:27 - Is this a legitimate area of finance research?
16:37 - Historical similarities
20:12 - How is this run on $GME going to end?
22:08 - What's the future for meme stocks as a whole?
28:27 - Will this still be a story a year from now?
31:33 - Dean Jarley's final thoughts
Episode Transcription
Paul Jarley: Remember the E-Trade Baby?
E-Trade Baby: A lot of people are like, "Isn't it difficult to invest in the markets?" And I'm like, "Not if you're using E-trade. Making a big investment is as easy as a single click." Boom. I just bought some stocks.
Paul Jarley: I think he was the first meme investor. He didn't last long.
E-Trade Baby: Wait, why is this line going down? Oh God, it just dropped 400 points. This is not happening. Dear Lord, I made a horrible, horrible mistake. ****
Paul Jarley: Or maybe he just moved onto the social media site, Reddit [crosstalk 00:00:31] and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars trading stock in GameStop. Turns out he's just one of many.
E-Trade Baby: Take it back. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. Too late. It's all gone.
Paul Jarley: This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?" Onto our show.
Paul Jarley: So GameStop has obviously been in the news a lot over the last week, and to help me understand what's going on here, I've convened a panel of experts. Kevin Mullally is an assistant professor in our finance department. Garrett Cummings is the president of our student investment club and a finance major. And I pulled in our own Josh Miranda, who knows a little bit about viral marketing and maybe viral finance to have a conversation about GameStop and its short-term and long-term implications. But I want to start out with a story. When I first came t
