couldn't said it better myself. you just did. unbeatable internet from xfinity. made to do anything so you can do anything. whoa. this? this is supersonic wifi from xfinity. it's fast. like, ready-for- major-gig-speeds fast. like riding-a-cheetah fast. isn't that right, girl? whoa! it can connect hundreds of devices at once. [ in unison ] that's powerful. couldn't have said it better myself. and with three times the bandwidth, the gaming never has to end. slaying is our business. and business is good. unbeatable internet from xfinity. made to do anything so you can do anything. [digital sounds] director:all right, sir jackalot, if you are making a film about if you were making a filmabout wallstreetbets,

wallstreetbets, what's the story to you? marie >> i think the story is about a group of idiots. a very large group of idiots. who just got fed up with the world. got fed up with being told go to college, get a job, make a living. frankly, that's not just realistic for our generation. it is really frustrating, the rumors. i think we're lazy. you know the term, pull up your boot straps and work hard? you get the same life as they had? no! the world is very, very different he stays. next pandemic in 2025 my wipe

us all out anyways. i don't have time to wait for retirement. you've got to will it into existence. life is just not fair. the world is a harsh place, and a stock market was just the purest form of yolo. >> this is populism coming for capitalism for gamestop. on surface, i could be pretty scattered. in the water, though, it's calming for me.

you are seeing out of a little hole and everything is quiet. you hear bubbles, you hear breathing. you just hear the water around you. i don't give a shout about risk. i was deployed to the middle east. we were doing anti-terrorism force protection. i was looking for underwater ideas, the in things like that. i found out a brain injury. so basically i have assist in my brain. it was expanding and contracting. i did not know that. nobody knew it. until i lost consciousness and things kind of started to go south for me after that. like kind of deteriorating mentally. i was having trouble doing anything. i was drinking like a fish to kind of -- it doesn't make it better or worse. >> -- a new coronavirus that traces

back to the outbreak that you see in wuhan -- >> it just actually bought the family business for my dad. i purchased a gsp studio, which is garcia school and sports cutoff photography. i was looking -- our spring season was just about to kick off. school pictures. baseball picture day, softball picture day. and march hits. >> there are fears that the dow will drop. we are already seeing -- >> i remember literally on a friday night, i am preparing for a baseball shoot the next morning. 8:00 at night i get the phone call. hey, we got a cancel the shoot. a domino effect. the next day, my entire screen is gone. >> america has passed a grim milestone. >> we are on the verge of a medical disaster. >> the nation's economy at a standstill. >> my mother was a tax

accountant, so my whole life, you gotta save money, that is save money, you gotta save money, which means, i did it. i don't have the savings account. i have a little bit, but for all the years i've been alive, i should have done more. so i had to make enough money to pay my rent, but whenever they went away, my rent still is due, but i'm on unemployment, and the numbers just don't add up. reality hit a little bit. i was like, okay. we need to figure out a way to save money, make some money, and that's when i got into investing, because i was trying to figure out how to make some money back. so -- >> late last night, a two trillion dollar stimulus package -- >> i got really good at call of duty. i even caught myself watching novellas that wouldn't point

just past the time, dude. oh my god, katrina, where did you do? i didn't know what to do. i went from working, owning a business, working 60 to 80 hours a week to i can't do anything. that every tell you that savings account, so i thought it's just sitting there the savings account, we can do on the market? maybe if i'm smart, it will pull a oren buffett move. you never know until you play the game. >> we had $1,000. to our name. we were behind on rent. my car was repossessed. i was also working on getting my -- disability. two weeks after rated that, literally, $100,000 in my bank account. my jaw hits the floor. this is life-changing. i'm already on reddit looking at, how do i invest windfall? you read 50, 100 comments. you take the most common one.

open a referee. put the remainder of hidden event guard. total market fund. at this point, i had never invested anything ever. >> i was spending every day, just kind of looking at numbers and seeing portfolios on the phone. okay, so airbnb is that 176. under armor is $17. i'm looking at these things and where can i start investing? >> i was on reddit looking at all these different things. i start coming across wallstreetbets. >> >> >> man:dear viewer, do you money? do you like money?does your money like money? does your money want to makesweet lovins with other money and have beautifulmoney babies? 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, 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 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, 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 about somethingthat was happening.

papa elon on a rocketto the moon, and tesla's goingto $7,000 a share, right? and the stockwould start to go up as everyone jumped on board. that was the first real sign that the retail marketwas having impact in a stock. - well, thank youall very much. it's a very important day. i'll sign the single biggesteconomic relief package in american history, and i must say, or anyother package, by the way. stock expert:back in march of 2020, the market was crashing,and the amount of money that the federal reservecame with blew away anythingthat they had ever provided. they gave more money in 2020than they had in 2008 all the way up to 2020. they just floodedthe market with cash and support to everybody. [applause] reporter: the latest roundof stimulus checks already starting to show upin bank accounts. reporter: the stimulus checksare coming. so the question now is, what'sthe best thing to do with it? stock expert: the idea wasthat the federal reserve

is providingso much stimulus. there's these giantloan programs. there's all of thismoney flooding in. and a lot of peoplewere sitting at home with nothing to do, and the stock marketwas open. they had a checkin their pocket, and we're all backedby the federal reserve. so you know, let's invest. let's trade. [lights turning on] - you ever thinkabout trading stocks? [music playing] robinhood lets you tradestocks with zero commission. that's right,commission-free. - robinhood, making it easy for the average investorand stuff. so cool, you know,because granted, like nothing against charles schwabor any of these other ones, but they just look likemy father should be there, not me. - it couldn't be easierto make a trade using the robinhood app.i just bought some stock. [lights turning off] - the user interfaceis idiot proof. example a right here.it makes it fun, too. like when you putmoney in or you sell a stock, confetti falls.it feels you're at a casino.

- this is the first timein history that somebody witha very small amount of money can go get involved in thestock market, however they want to. no account minimums.there's no commissions. you have absolutefreedom. you can get approvedfor stock options trading with $200in your account. that is unheard of beforethings like robinhood. - you want to know whatdisruption really looks like? well, you're looking at it.as of today, 10 million people have accounts at robinhood. reporter: the ceo ofrobinhood, vlad tenev. - vlad tenev. - vlad tenev, who's the coceoof robinhood. stock expert: in 90 days,they went from the 300 most downloaded app onthe app store to number one. - we believe that the morepeople that have access to the markets and can startinvesting earlier, the better offour economy will be. - so suddenly, instead oflooking at tiktok and youtube and instagram, people arelooking at robinhood's trading application. - i have a little bitof addictive personality. sober-- we can go there.it's not a secret. so it became, like, my fucking thing.

chris garcia:you start making money, and all of a sudden,you start seeing your account just boom,boom, boom, boom, boom. and you get hooked,real quick and real fast. - it did feel a little bitlike a game. and again, i'm a gamer. and when i started withrobinhood, the first stock-- they give you a free stock. i guess, ironically,mine was gamestop, which i was very, very upsetand offended by at the time. director: scoot over 1 inchto your right, alvan? there you go. and just real quick,tell me what is jeffamazon? what isthat name? how did you come up with it? - yeah. jeffamazon was reallyan experiment, for me, to figure out if i couldcreate an online persona that was sogood at trading that it would be interviewedin a documentary. and it turned out to be true.

[laughs] there are alwaysmany different forces in the stock market. so i guess if you couldimagine a boat in the ocean, there's currents pushingagainst you. there may be people paddling.maybe if you have a sail, the wind can helpyou out. but whichever forceis the strongest, that's the onethat matters the most. [waves crashing] my game is asymmetricbetting-- the ability to put ina small amount of capital and to receive anextremely large return. between 10 to 100to 1,000 times returns. so what this meansis kind of spotting bubbles. you have to basically assessevery single possible data

point that exists,everything from interest rates to retail sentiment. i was looking intothese opportunities, and i thinki had found one. gamestop jumped double digit percentages one random weekin september. and i thought, wow,what's going on with gamestop? gamestop is a brickand mortar retail store that basically sellsconsole games. it was a company that was runfairly poorly. commentator: it's kind ofa failing company. it's like you canalmost compare it to blockbuster video. their business model isnot really the best. alvan chow: i still thoughtthat this was a dying brick and mortar store. people are definitelygoing to go digital. but i looked into it and looked at everything onthe internet about gamestop, and roaring kittywas one of them.

[music playing] - yo, what up, everybody? this is going to be the firstvideo of the kitty corner. and the market has kind offorced my hand on this one. the first stock that i'm goingto talk about is gamestop. and i know it's a polarizingstock. some people won't even tuneinto the stream right now when they hear thati'm bullish on gamestop. alvan chow: i thought he wasone of these crazy guys, with a cat as a logo, and there's nothingabout his background. but i figured out thathe was also an extremely prudent, responsible,knowledgeable investor. - gamestop is the only brickand mortar store dedicated to gaming. suppose over the next year,management can craft a narrativethat carves out a 2% share of that rapidly growing$150 billion gaming industry. one of themost exciting-- kirsten: i fully understoodwhere he was coming from, because i mean, it wasactually technical analysis, in my opinion, but it was just totallydifferent type of analysis

on trades than the typicalsuits were looking at. - i actually went on oneof roaring kitty's streams and just started doinga lot more research. and then ryan cohen announced his stake of 9%. ryan cohen isthe founder of chewy. it's the only companythat went head to head with amazonand just ate their lunch. - this dude knows his shitin the e-commerce world. he does kind of seem likehe's forward-thinking. alvan chow:after that, i was just in fullinformation-gathering mode. keith gill:hey, jeffamazon. welcome back, jeff.welcome back. alvan chow:we were just getting to really know the company. - there's so muchnegative commentary. i just thinkthat this sentiment is so negativethat it's overdone. that's what i'm trying to get at in this section. matt kelly:i saw a post from michael burry.i knew who michael burry was. i've seen "the big short."there was an article about him investingin gamestop. i can see whypeople think gamestop is going to goout of business. 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? i know that if we gathertogether, there's a point here at whichwe can really push

against hedge funds enoughto force them to cover. we can force the market. we can forcethis stock higher. - all these short sellersbuying back their position drives the stock higher and squeezing outall the short players from the market.that's a short squeeze. - you've got to bereally greedy to keep shorting gamestop when it was at like $6a share or something. because that means if you'reshorting at $6 a share, you're only profitingif it goes below $6. it was a post by jeffamazon, where he kind of laid outthe gamestop thesis. - i wrote this post called "the greatest short burnof the century." my brother, who's an actor,is going to come and read it for me because it's too cringyfor me to do it myself.

- what's up, gamblers?jeffamazon here. feel bad about missingthe gain train on tesla? fear not. somethingmuch greater, and stupider, is here.you know citadel, the market makerthat took all our money today? now we finally won't be at the mercyof the market makers. instead, we're going totemporarily join forces with the galactic empireand hijack the death star. our choice ofweapon, gamestop. gamestop. three big thingswill cause this-- ryan cohen,retail option buying, and marketmakers like citadel. it looks like this. retail robinhooders buya ton of call options. this will force market makersto buy shares, increasing the priceeven more. retail investors buyeven more options, again,

forcing the market makersto purchase more shares, pressuring shorts to close. institutional investorswill catch wind and join in. gme heads to $400 and we cash out. [music playing] this one is specialbecause we have math and great underlying news.to be clear, this will happen whether ornot we participate, but i prefer usto be a part of history. - it was a verycompelling thesis. i had never seensomething like this before. and you know,i'm no stranger to something calleda short squeeze, where all these shorts, they've got to coveron top of each other, and you know, the price shoots to the moon. but at the same time, it alsohad a huge downside, right? - gamestop announced today it's closinghundreds of stores. reporter:gamestop, the biggest video gameretailer in the world,

announced today that it willclose up to 200 stores by the end of the year. - that's pretty sad.- like, it could go bankrupt. that was alwayskind of the bear case. matt kelly: my hunches keptgetting confirmed, a little bit at a time. most of my friends i wastelling about it thought i was crazy.i was telling my friends who've been investedin a long time. like look, this is--i can barely explain it. i sound like i'm some qanoninsane person. i'm like, yeah,there's this guy, ryan cohen, who's like doing thisand that. and the shorting, i don't evenknow if that means, but that's what is happening.and they're like, dude, you know. i go to my wife and i'm like, hey, i really think this couldgo up to like 50 bucks or so. it's at like $13 now. i thinkthat's like a given. i think that will happenfor sure. i mean, maybe even $100.that would be insane. i think i'm just going to put a halfof everything in it. she's like, why don't youjust go all in?

i was like,what are you talking about? she's like, well, if you feelthis way, go all in, right? -you really do only live once. you only have one shot. so like you might as well dosomething fucking crazy and memorable, because if it's crazyand memorable, people remember that shit. because if you do stuff,the boring, bullshit, stupid ass waythat everyone else does, you're going to lose andyou're not going to make much and noone's going to care about you. - it felt risky. i bought about2,300 shares of gamestop. at $17 averageis about 45 grand. - the stock was about $6to $8, i believe,when i first bought in. ballpark, it wasaround $30,000. - i started investinglast year with $40,000 and ended up putting itall in on gamestop.

- 88,000 sharesat november 2020 at $13. i mean, you cando the math yourself. i think that was close tolike $1.1 million. so yeah, i was one ofthe first whales in gamestop. matt kelly:i post my yolo to wallstreetbets.man, did i get-- i mean, it was all like,you're a fucking idiot. the fuck is wrongwith you? [interposing voices] [music playing] man (on tv): --analysts in searchof asymmetric upside. 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, 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. yeah, i was off by a month. [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. it gave me taco belllevels of stomach cramps. i felt like i neededto cool down. you know, it was goingthrough the holidays. there was a britishvirus mutation on the way. you got hedge funds manipulating stuff to gettheir holiday bonuses. this all feltkind of dangerous. so yes, i ended upselling all my gamestop shares at $15.50. yes, i had a caseof paper hands, i admit it. i was wallowing back and forth in fetal position all day.good fucking riddance, 2020. let's all hope2021 will be better, right? [protesting] - usa. usa. usa. usa. usa.

[music playing] woman: i think that usmillennials realize that we were sold a narrativethat wasn't ours. you know, they spoon-fedit to us. go to college. work. do this.you'll have a great life. you just put our assesin a debt system, then wonderwhy we're not happy. at 11, we had columbine.then we had september 11th. then we had like,what, virginia tech? then the stockmarket crash, the bubble. we can't get jobs.a pandemic.

black lives matterwas happening, too, and everyone'schecking in on me. are you ok? are you ok?are you ok? and i'm like, are you ok? [music playing] like, this isn't new.it's new for you. then with the gaslightingfrom the last president [laughs]to the election. it's been like 99 lifetimesin a year. i just think that we're soldthese narratives about, like, things that justaren't real. chris garcia:the other big thing, too, was about this time,my fiancée was pregnant. so that was oneof those things where it was like, oh, man,this investing thing, i got to be smart about it because nowi got a baby coming. so this could be money to setaside for formula or just doing the baby's room,doing the floor to the house--

all these smallthings you hear of, right? a baby is goingto change your life. you need all this moneyfor stuff. and i had no idea. i mean, i had a dog. kirsten: when covid did hit, my dad's bar and restauranthad to be shut down. it was kind of scarybecause we had no idea how longthis was going to last. that's when i startedworking at a grocery store. i was buying stocks duringthe lunch break. i was like preparingfor the absolute worst. and i was ableto help them out and obviously just belike financially stable on my ownat this point, but i was down to $490in my account. and i was like, shit.[laughs] i might notbe good at this. matt kelly: the money, to me,isn't an end all, be all. what money means to me is itmeans escaping the rat race. it meansspending time with my kids.

i can not havethis constant anxiety that i'm going to fail, that if i start to have moreproblems with my brain, where i can't work,that my kids will be ok, that we'll have somethingto fall back on. reporter: let's talk aboutanother company, jim, and that's gamestop.is it too late for gamestop? jim cramer:i hate these guys. i've hated themfor a long time. can gamestop fail?i think it can. i think it canfall that much, and i wouldn't be around there trying to makesome money with it. matt kelly:i'm really starting to doubt myself.i'm really starting to doubt what i believedwas going to happen, and theprice is falling. - in the middle of january,my $30,000 investment had dropped downto around $5,000. it went down a lot, likebasically to $0. - there are a lot of people

that are very bullishon this stock, and the idea is thatit's a turnaround play. - there are a lot of peoplethat were bullish about the housing marketin 2006, 2007. there were a lot of peoplethat were bullish about, you know, tulips backin the 1600s. i mean, just because-- alvan chow: i thought i wasjust going to lose it all and just have to start overand keep [laughs] working at my company forlonger, because i had been prolongingsome credit card debt, and such, to play this.in fact, i thought this was never going to happen. [birds chirping] andrew left:we are always told there's only two things that arefor certain, death and taxes. there are actuallythree things that are for certain--death, taxes, and innovation, and that's a good thing.when you do innovate,

there's someonewho has a business who's being disrupted out. case in point, netflix.everybody remembers when netflix usedto send disks in the mail. netflix quickly realized, and probably made one ofthe greatest pivots in corporate history and became this wonderfulstreaming service. then when they becamethe streaming service, who suffered from it? blockbuster video.they didn't do that. blockbuster videocould have also done what netflix has done. and nowthey're out of business. so if you were shortingblockbuster video, doesn't mean you'rea bad person or you hated on blockbuster,but you understood innovation. if every corporate ceo right nowknew that they could do nothing and their stockwould go a lot higher, they could sell it, they wouldn't do anything,right? most wall street researchwas tied to companies that someone hada vested interest in making relationships. we're not citibank.we're not goldman sachs. you don't have to play nice. in 2008,where was the research to tell us stocks can go lower?

wall street doesn'tput out that research. short sellers do,activist short sellers. director:talk about-- - hold on.am i this boring to you? i'd just love to know whatyou're doing on your phone. - i'm just sending a text.- really? i'd just love to knowwho you're texting. i'd just love to knowif i'm this boring to you. - you're not boring.i'm listening. - fucking guy flies infrom new york. i'm this boring to you. - dad.- ok, i'm just asking. this should be a documentary. a documentary really would be,how i could be-- - oh, he's the citron guy. director: yeah. - oh, yeah, yeah.i know exactly who he is. shitron, we call it. the whole point of thatcompany is to make money shorting stocks. they'll short a stock, thenput out a hit piece on it, hoping that the stock tanks and they wereable to make money that way. - go to the mall today. walk into banana republic.walk into gap. reporter: what's yourprice target, by the way? - you could swing an umbrellaand not hit anyone. i don't think investors actually knowwhat they're buying. - whatever. peloton.[snorts] - is thatyour entire business? you are a short seller. that's all you do?you bet against something?

- so i look to make moneyin the stock markets, you know, any which way i can.my specialty is short selling. next thing i know this yeari put myself pretty much in the middle of the wholegamestop phenomenon, unknowingly.so it is what it is. - andrew left of citron wanted to do a littleresearch video on gamestop. - hey, this is andrewleft at citron research, giving you five reasonswhy gamestop is going to $20. - and so i was very curiousto watch it. i wanted to learnhow i was wrong. i was always lookingfor information to prove my thesis wrongso that i could exit a trade. - numbers don't lie.people lie. i know, everyone on twitternever has a losing trade. everyone on reddit is amarket genius. i hear it all the time. - he went through all ofhis talking points, which were kind of bullshit. - your first question you haveto ask yourself is, why is therehigh short interest?

this is a failing mall-basedretailer. their current businessis just drowning. you cannot argue. - and i've never seenany reaction like that. all of a sudden, we're buyinggamestop because andrew left posted this. - you can get mad.you can hack my account. you can go to twitter.you can sign on. you can call me everyname. if you want to savethe company, take your energy, go out there,and actually buy something from gamestop. - andrew leftof citron research. reactions, desk? - [humming "wolf of wall street" money chant] [music - "wolf of wall street" money chant] a day after left postedthat video, gamestop went from $43to $65 a share. [music continung]

in addition to that,ryan cohen joined the board. reporter: shares of gamestopsoaring after announcing chewy former ceo ryan cohen. - cheers to ryan cohen.this is sick. reporter:stock, an unbelievable jump,60% high today. reporter:citron and andrew left, those guys thinkit's going to $20. - pretty obvious whatthe price target is right now, right? i mean, it's almost certainlygoing to $420.69, right? [laughs] kidding. am i?

[music playing] matt kelly:this is where stuff started to shift for me, right?i'm not sleeping at all. i can't focuson anything else. i'm compulsivelylooking at my phone. and i started buying intothe whole diamond hands thing. i think luck is whenpreparation meets opportunity, and this was an opportunity. monday morning rolls aroundand my friend, theo,

he messaged me like,hey, man, i don't think gamestop isgoing to do anything more. i don't think anything'sgoing to hire. i'm just going to sell.i was like, don't sell, dude. you're an idiot.like don't sell. what the hell is wrongwith you? and he sold. literally, 10 minutes later,it starts going. reporter: stock for gamestopis up dramatically. reporter: it's been justswinging wildly. alvan chow:the week of the squeeze, i was describing itto my girlfriend as like i'm in the nba finalsright now. i have to belike on all cylinders. like when i have to execute is probably the mostimportant week of my life. - i got my stimulus. [laughs] so i started throwingmy stimulus in it, and i'm feeling cute,you know. then i'mwatching the numbers and it just keeps,and i'm like, huh. maybe this is something. reporter: gamestop is knownas the world's largest video game retailer. reporter:the stock is now at the center of a davidversus goliath story. shares have soared,

driven by posts on thereddit forum wallstreetbets. matt kelly:my wife and i are drivingto meet our realtor, and gamestop is moving. reporter:there are potentially billions of dollars of investor dollarson the line here. matt kelly: we're supposed tobe looking at houses, and i'm like,i can't look at-- i'm staring at my phone.she's looking at-- she's like, oh this is nice. i'm like staring.i'm like, oh, that's great. this is a great house.let's just get this one. reporter: the company surgedas much as 145% today. reporter: but this increasewill not last. - it's just lunacy. [cheering] chris garcia:this is the week, right, where i'm high and mighty.i feel great. i'm making what's literallyalmost a year's worth of salary in a month. everybody is, at this point,just sell, chris. you got $23,000.you have $24,000 in there. but what if? what if the charts are right,this $24,000 turns into $60,000, $70,000,$80,000, $90,000.

you never know. reporter:hedge funds have lost billions by betting against the stock. some little guys standto make millions. - fuck. [laughs] i missed it.the thesis was right. the group was right.the apes are winning. [roaring] reporter:some breaking news this morningon this gamestop story. gabe plotkin saying thatmelvin capital has been out, closed out its position. - the numbers and whathe's down is dramatic. so the questionwill become there, what is the futureof that firm? unclear. stock expert: around 10:30or 11 o'clock in the morning, it comes out that thisbig fund, melvin capital, is short the stock andfeeling the pain, and they are takingmassive losses. this really emboldensthe wallstreetbets crowd. they justtook down a hedge fund.

- once people did find outthat melvin was probably one ofthe larger short parties, there was a lot of hate towards melvin capital,a lot of hate. [music playing] man: once people realizedmelvin was losing money, that citron was losing money,this suddenly became a whole movement. man: we can change the biggesteconomy of the planet and break wall street. woman: the number ofthe community keeps growing. it's like 4 million people. the next day it's like5 million people. next day, 6 million people. and the news cyclestarts taking over. reporter: the online armyof average investors dealt a blow today in their fight againstthe wall street-- [interposing voices] reporter: thousands, if notmillions of them, decided to buy up that stockthat used to be cheap. reporter: [speaking spanish] stock expert:the media is talking about this wallstreetbets.the forum is exploding. everybody wantsto get a piece of this thing. cameron perri:the swings were insane.

when it ran to the $150the first time, i watched my account runinto the multimillion period, and then watchedit just plummet. and you cancall it paper hands, but i sold a decent chunk. kirsten: i was alsolike kind of unsure, so i sold offabout half my shares. i remember, like,not sleeping that entire week. cameron perri:it was very, very hard to make decisionsat that point in time. stock expert: you could seethe risk in this name. the stock wentfrom $10 to $150. you know,then everyone thinks, well, it should go from $150 to $10,000, right?there is no limit. alvan chow: who knowshow high this could go? if it goes to $1,000or $2,000. you don't want to overreactor try to steal a ball and risk a foulin the key moments. you want to beextremely disciplined. and everything that you weretrained to do-- so i was training myself to look for this momentof euphoria.

and then rightbefore after-hours, elon tweeted "gamestonk!!" reporter:the leader of this revolution? many of these small guysare pointing to elon musk. man: the god, the king,the meme master himself, elon musk has tweeted aboutgamestop and wallstreetbets. we are on his map. [launch sounds] 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. the motherof all short squeezes. - good evening, newly-mintedreddit millionaires. i'm sure all of youare watching this from the marble bathtubson your hovercraft. - i didn't think i was oneto get swept up by the greed and the ego,but i was.

anyone who can stomach $10 million swings in theirportfolio is sort of crazy. - has everybody been followingthis crazy gamestop-- - gamestop. - gamestop is a storeat a mall. it's between the claire'sand the orange julius. kirsten: my parents hadcalled me and asked me if i was in gamestopand how this was affecting me. and i was like, yeah, i'm making a shitton of money this week. that's what's happeningwith gamestop. i had made so much money, i told my dad,let's go to florida. - i'm seeing $200,000,$300,000 in my roth ira, $300,000in my td ameritrade account. like ok, we're taking this money and buying cryptoand buying-- you i started investingin wine and stuff. [laughs] - you know, you're messingwith your boys. hey, man, what color ferrariswe getting? like da, da, da.because i'm like,i'm not selling this.

i'm like, i want$15,000 a share. - surprise. [laughs] gamestop's up about 5x from when i uploadedthose videos over the summer, so that'sgreat to see. when you have a thesisand, by and large, it unfolds as you hopedthat it could, that's nice. so it shouldn't be taken for granted.it doesn't always happen. so just to clear upsome potential misconceptions, this was a true yolo for me. when i was buildingthis position last year, we had nowhereclose to a million dollars. i certainly do notdrive a lambo. we rent this housethat you see. so it's been a wild ridefor us as a family. and it has been just so muchfun to experience that with you overthe past couple of months. i hope you hadsome fun as well. and yeah, that's all.again, thank you to everybody. i hope you've had a fun time, and i'll seeyou around.

- all right. director:all right, can you see? - i can see.it's kind of freaky. i figured you guyswould like the mushroom. [laughs] this is a companyi invested in-- well, notthe sweatshirt company. i was the first investorin psychedelics. andit's a billion and a half dollarcompany today, maybe $2 billion.i don't remember. so gold, right,which is kind of 3,000 years old. it's worth came from the gods.the aztecs, the incas, the egyptian,all that had value. the total amount of goldon earth today, that's the total amount that'sever been mined in history, could fit in a cube55 feet across. so think about it. it could almost fitin this room, right? that's it.that's all the gold.

you could put itin central park. and people would be like, that's all the gold in theworld ever. it's worth $10 trillion. now, how in the hellis that worth $10 trillion? it's a sculpture. i bought alebron james rookie card for a million dollars.it's now worth $5 million. my mom thought i was insane. a million dollarson a basketball card? frickin' pokemon cards. if you had acharizard, it's worth like $600,000.it's a social construct. it's got value becausewe say it has value. that's it. so you look at someonelike elon musk. he's createda cult around him, a religion around him. and people, youcan't speak sense to them. they have their own model, even if the modeldoesn't make any sense. they're goingto buy elon stuff. the thing withthe gamestop story, we had a bunch of young kidswho were really savvy who figured out, hm, this stock's tradingfor very little. there's a lotof short interest. we can buy optionsand drive it up and squeeze out the shorts.

once it started going,it became a social phenomenon. it became an f-uto the system. like therewas a nihilism to it. some guys were literallytweeting things like, i don't care.i'm yolo-ing my life savings. and almost like a badge of honor that they wouldlose their money. i mean, there was a craziness.it can't last. it's not the way the worldworks. there's not a goodenough story, not a good enough mytharound gamestop that it will be a long-term,sustainable game. and the original guys probablysold and made a lot of money. what was so scary to me, thebulk of the people that are participating in thisrevolution aren't investors. they're along for the ride and they'relistening to their friend. in all likelihood,it will end ugly. matt kelly:i talked with my wife

about like there's a reallystrong feeling that this can goto $1,000 a share. this whole thing, we can go to $1,000 a share and we'd havelike over $2 million. $1 million doesn't seemenough for me anymore, right? the psychological impactthat this amount of money has, you see moneyin a different way. so i hold. i set my limit sellon all my accounts to $800. wednesday nightis the first night i went to sleep inlike fucking weeks. i don't think much is going to happenon thursday. fucking i was wrong. [music playing] woman: so i'm at the gym,naturally-- all my stories. and this is beforethe 9:30 market opens. this is a thursday. and my portfolio is set. it's cute.so i'm looking at it, and every single numberis popping, popping, popping. and isee gamestop hit--

i think it was like $467,$497, something like that. i'm going in there. i'm like, oh, maybe i'llbuy one more amc. it's like, i'm sorry. you already have a certainamount. you can't buy more. and all of asudden you see a doom. and i'm just like,what the fuck? - we're seeing reportsthat robinhood is restricting purchasesof some of these stocks, including gamestop andamc. chris garcia:i wake up that morning, right? one of my buddies hits me up,and he goes, hey, man. you can't buy.i'm like, what do you meanyou can't buy? he goes, go on to robinhood. - kelly, robinhoodstopped trading. robinhood stopped trading.you need to sell. you need to take profits. reporter:robinhood and other online brokerages blocked usersfrom buying shares of gamestop and other shortedstocks. - that morning, i woke up tolike minus $10,000 or $15,000. and i was like, yeah, this isthe toughest hit i've ever had. reporter: these sitessuddenly allowed users only to sell their positions,not to get new ones. reporter:robinhood put out a statement,

quote, "in lightof recent volatility, we are restrictingtransactions for certain securitiesto position closing only," which meansyou can only sell it. - if you can only sell stocks, then those stocksonly go down. matt kelly: i go to work.and i'm standing there. i'm givinga presentation, right? i'm on a zoom meetingwith 100 people. and the price drops to about120 bucks a share. i'm like in the middleof a word. and i look downand i see that and i just went--i just freeze. i stopped.i'm sick to my stomach. i don't knowwhat the fuck i'm doing. like why? a million dollarsis a million dollars. like what is wrong with me? reporter:after surging yesterday, the stock dropped 44%. - then it immediatelypops back up. reporter: it hit an intradayhigh of $469. - but the next thing you know,it's tumbling down. you couldn't stop itfast enough. you're watching it and it's bylike the minute.

you're like, oh, my--dude. i was like, oh. reporter: the stock droppeda whopping 44%. - it was soincredibly stressful. reporter: janet yellen,treasury secretary. the sec saidthey are watching. - [non-english speech] - dude, what the--- there it is, and it is nowstarting to fall. - i have never seen anythinglike this in my three weeksof investing. reporter: and gamestopgoes down 44% today at the closing bell. it shot back up duringafter hours trading. the pricenow stands at $312 per share. [pounding] - oh, my lord. it was world war iiiat my home. my fiancée was like,what is going on? i am screaming. i'm literally on the vergeof breaking stuff. i'm about to drive to menlopark with big red paint and just be like "cheaters"right on their front door. like, you guys arescrewing us all over.

like, robinhoodis you take from the rich and give to the poor. now robinhood's changingthe rules of the game so that they don't lose. - the market will takecare of this. the market will show thatgamestop is not a $500 stock or a $1,000 stock. it's a $5 stock. - you'd see a slewof negative articles or an analyst downgrade. - last week wasn'ta free market. it was a free for all market. - i think there is somethingobviously wrong, and it's the gamificationof wall street. - jim cramer,that dude from cnbc, he's like, you guys won.you guys won. take the money. jim cramer:take the home run. don't go for the grand slam.take the home run. you've already won. - you're putting a restrictionon a stock, and it's causing that stockto lose value. and i can't do anything aboutit. not only that,but the only thing to save it is to buy more stockto make it-- to drive the pricethe other way. i can't do that. - if they hadn't cutthe supply of shares off when they did, the stock would have goneinto the thousands,

multiple thousands.as you can imagine, that pisseda lot of people off. - there's going to bea big fuck you that you can't stop this. it's coming.they want 1,000% worse. [interposing voices] - if you're interestedin pursuing a lawsuit against robinhood,td ameritrade. [interposing voices] i didn't hear one personon tv complaining about wall street tryingto crush gamestop. 140% short. matt kelly: my wife's like, we should just sell beforeclose of business on friday. we can always buy back inif it drops. the price is good right now.it's still in the $300s. we're still making outlike insane, more than we ever dreamed, more than we ever imagined. and i'm like, no, fuck them.i'm holding my shares. this is bullshit.they can't do this shit. they can't rig the game.

they can't change the gamein the middle of it. like, are you kidding me?this is insane. i'm stubborn, right? because now it triggeredthis other thing in me. it's not about money anymore. it's not just aboutthe money anymore. it's about therevolutionary part of it, the sticking it to the mantype of idea, right? this is about thetime when wall street starts postingall these billboards up in fucking new york,like "gme go brrr," things like this. and i am diamond-handingthe fuck out of this. that's my mentality. [music playing] the writing was on the wallthat the rich and powerful will do whatever they couldto prevent this from happening.i'm not taking less than $450. kirsten:so i wasn't taking any losses. i was going to hold any stockfor as long as i could. chris garcia:we're not going anywhere, you know what i'm saying?we're not going. matt kelly:7, 8 million more people were joining the subreddit.

psychologically,i'm jacked to the tits. chris garcia:millions of people in that thread, man,we were diamond hands. and unfortunately, you know,it was one of those situations that whenthe stock went down, it kind of stayed down, right? and literally,it was getting so caught up in it and then getting so stuck inthat diamond hands mentality, like don't sell anything.and that's really what was essentially almostlike the beginning of the end, i guess you could say -

[shuffling] [music playing] matt kelly:it was a tuesday. and i'm just watchingthe price, and it's kind of justslowly trickling downwards. i'm holding, but i'm startingto feel nervous. i'm starting to feelthis anxiety. i'm reading wallstreetbetsreligiously. i'm seeingall of these posts about, like, it's going to crash,you know, all of these things. and so it's gettingin my head. the psychology is really fucking with me. that's wherewallstreetbets is at. so the sentiment has changed. now there's 8 millionpeople on there, and all this shit's happening.and i'm like, all right,is that the sentiment now? is our people just thinkingthat this is done?

it's over? i felt like i fell into a cult, right?that's what i felt in my head. all this stuff, i felt likei got this cult mentality. it's like you've gotto be careful about confirmation bias.you've got to be carefulabout these things. and i had beenpreaching that for years. i'm like, how did this happen to me?that's what i felt in my head. i felt likei had been lied to. i felt like i bought intosomething that wasn't true. chris garcia: once we startedlosing money, dude, the margin calls werecoming in almost daily. and for a while,it was daily. it was like, hey, you owe us,like, $2,000. like, you need to clearthis up now. shit. let me sell x amount of stockof this, right? because before all this,i was just using my cash. so granted, as soonas they turned on margin, i paid the 5 bucks a monthfor the robinhood gold. seriously,once i got to there,

it was like, oh my god, dude.like, they're going to give me an extra,like, 8 grand right now to play with? i lost thousands uponthousands over those next few days,and that was like, whoa. ok, well, there goes gigi'scrib. there goes the carwe had planned. all right, like,those thoughts are gone. ok, don't worry about it.it went from, oh, i'm going to makeso much money on this to i got cheated out.i got cheated. - a lot of angry customersout there and a lot of questionsabout what took place and the decisions that youmade. - some of your customers,vlad, are enraged. i mean, they say you're sidingwith wall street, that this is a crime. chris garcia:it felt dirty. it felt un-american. - i don't want to getdeep with it, but it feels very american. - ok, vlad, you knoweverybody here that's watching ushates your guts, right? - we were sold a narrativethat isn't real. like here's a history bookthat is not the truth. so you're telling us, oh, we want you to investin a free market. that's a fucking lie, too.

[music playing] [cheering] mike haupt: there's alwaysbeen wealth inequality in this country,but here is our moment. this is our momentthat we came into the public spotlight.the retail investor has finally demonstratedtheir strength. we've got enough peopleinvolved in the market to be ableto make a huge play, and for it to slapthat hard was huge. and then it gottaken away from us. and i felt cheatedon behalf of my community.

my name is mike haupt.i'm from tampa, florida. and i make memeson wallstreetbets. i make gif memes, all kinds of memes. it's like the dr. seuss thing.i've made memes in the train. i've made memes in my car. i just did one from the showfrom hbo "chernobyl." where i mean, it's messed up, but the guy that was suffering from theradiation poisoning, he's, like,slowly deteriorating. i'm like, this isa person's account. this is a perfect analogy for like the averagewallstreetbets user's account. and i feel likethe transient relationship that my generation haswith money is not our fault, to stick up for mypeople a little bit in my communityand my generation. we were born into the worldwhere we were encouraged not to save, where we were encouragedto think short-term. my credit card rewards pointsgive me more money than my savings account.what does that tell you to do? the economy is telling youto spend your money as fast as you get it,and that's what we're doing. reporter:who do you think has the power right now in society?

- who do i thinkhas the power in society? reporter: yeah. - the rich. reporter: why so? man: they have so muchinfluence over the laws, the regulationsthat they impose upon us. protestor:we're giving billions, and almost a trillionto wall street, just for bailouts.something needs to change. mike haupt: the rich haveinsulated themselves from the consequencesof the economic system that they've helpedproduce. - there's no excusefor thinking there's somethingfree in life. you've got to go outand earn it, and that's whatamerica has always been. reporter: markets just openedand the gamestop surge appears to be over,with the stock now down 60%, well, as ofyesterday. but it is morethan just numbers. it is people's lives,their savings, their 401(k)s. matt kelly: it drops to about100 bucks on tuesday evening.

oh, jesus. i start to get sickto my stomach and i start to kind of panic.i'm having a panic attack. i was like, we need to getout of this. this is fucking insane.we're losing all our money. like, what is going on?so wednesday morning, it sold. february 3rd, i think. i sold all my sharesat 120 bucks a share. i watched a million dollarsgo down the drain, a million dollars, and that'swhat's going through my head, a million dollars. this is my family's future.this is my future. this is time with my kids that i could have boughtback. i didn't feel likei gained $350,000. i felt like i lost a million. [music playing]

reporter: the trading frenzyaround gamestop is the focuson capitol hill today. the house financialservices committee will hold a virtual meetingasking who wins and loses when short sellers,social media, and retail investorscollide. reporter:in the hot seat, robinhood ceo vlad tenev,citadel ceo ken griffin,melvin capital ceo gabe plotkin, and roaring kitty,the trader keith gill. reporter:no doubt lawmakers are furious and they want to havehearings about this. the problem is goingto most likely be that the systemis designed terribly. the system gets abused.and they need to make changes. - first of all, to me, this was a whole dogand pony show. - first, robinhood securitiesput the restrictions in place in an effort to meet increasedregulatory deposit

requirements,not to help hedge funds. - you can read body language.you can see the way they're trying to weaselout of something. - i understand that partof the focus of this hearing is the decisionof stock trading platforms to limit tradinggamestop. i want to make clearat the outset that melvin capitalplayed absolutely no role in those tradingplatform decisions. - they're not being honestand truthful about this. - i want to beperfectly clear. citadel securities had no rolein robinhood's decision to limit trading in gamestop. - so citadel is a realconglomerate. they have a hedge fund.they have a broker. and they have a marketmaker. - mr. griffin, why is this not consideredmanipulating a stock whenever you can shortsell to 140%? don't youthink there should be a limit on something like that? ken griffin:i'm not sure it's worth us delvinginto legislative corrections for a very unique situation, in terms of the extremesize of the short interest. - why is it that a stockcan be shorted over 100%? i don't even knowhow you're allowed to do that. congressman: mr. plotkin,

you made the commentin your testimony a minute ago that you were not tryingto manipulate stock. yet if you're shortselling a stock 140%, explain to me why that'snot manipulating the stock. - any time we short a stock, our systems actually force usto find a borrower. so we alwaysshort stocks within the context of all the rules. - the fundamental reasonwhy this happened isn't because we wanteda revolution against hedge funds.it was because there wasan opportunity out there to form a short squeezeon a stock and make some money off of it. and until the rules changethat you cannot short a stock above 100% short interest,then there's no reason why there wouldn't beanother one of these. - i just want to getto what happened on that day in january. so let's takea step back here. that decision you made, to restrict the buying but not the sellingof gamestop, was based-- was it based on pressurefrom anyone on the witness panelhere today?

vlad tenev:not at all. zero pressure from anyone.it was a collateral depository requirement decision madeby a robinhood securities president. - rather than sayingthat robinhood was nefarious or had an evilintention here, it was colluding with somebodyelse, they were probably negligentin their capital and risk controls. - the decision to restrictgamestop and other securities was driven purely by depositand collateral requirementsimposed by our clearinghouses. - well, when it comes to it, they just literallyran out of money. [laughs] if they knew that up front,you know, be transparent. man:the irony of this entire thing is that robinhoodprovided a platform for all these investorsto pour into the market, and they added hundredsof thousands of new accounts. people wanted to attackwall street, and thereality of the situation is they broke robin hood. mr. tenev, you took from your customers in orderto minimize the $3 billion from being largerthan it probably

would have been because you wantedto protect your position, and that is very troubling. - they had to sacrificesomebody in order to resolve this, and they sacrificed the peoplethat wanted to diamond hands their gamestop. and a lot of peoplelost a lot of money. andy barr:so if anyone has a problem with your decisionto halt trades, it's fair to say thattheir frustration should be directed towardfederal regulation. vlad tenev:congressman, you know, i'm not trying to throwanyone under the bus in direct frustrationanywhere. all i cansay is robinhood's security played this by the booksand played it basically the only waythat we could remain in compliancewith our deposit requirements. andy barr:mr. tenev, i appreciate-- chris garcia:wall street's got it to where they have every card and they knowevery rule of the game to where we're going to bend and bend those ruleswithout breaking them. and the problemis what they do, us typical little guys will never be ableto do that stuff, right? maxine waters:mr. gill,

you are now recognizedfor five minutes to presentyour oral testimony. chris garcia: and then lookwhat's happening, right? you got roaring kitty out herewho's getting called in front of anoversight committee. hey, you did bad. you led a group of peopleto do this. keith gill: thank you,chairwoman waters, members of the committee. i'm happy to discusswith the committee my purchases ofgamestop shares and my discussions of theirfair value on social media. i also believe the currentprice of the shares demonstrates that i've beenright about the company. a few things i am not.i'm not a cat. i am notan institutional investor. and i do notprovide personalized investment advice for feesor commissions. the idea that i use socialmedia to promote gamestop stock tounwitting investors and influencethe market is preposterous. i'm just an individualwhose investment in gamestop and postson social media were based upon my ownresearch and analysis.

i want to say that i supportretail investors' right to invest in whatthey want when they want and to send amessage based on how they invest. as for what happenedin january, others will haveto explain it. it's alarminghow little we know about the inner workingsof the market. as for me, i like the stock. (distorted low voice)i like the stock. - keith gill, the legendthat he is, says he likes the stock. [roaring] the next day, sure enough, he fucking doubled downon his position. and i'm like, jen.i'm going back in. [music playing] (singing) 1, 2. 1, 2. 0, 2.1, open. 3. matt kelly:it was the end of february. i just told my jobi'm leaving. we're goingand we're moving the texas. we're buyinga new house. and it shoots back up.

so literally, the same day,like 20 minutes before-- it starts going up from-- it starts going $40, $50,$60, $70. it goes up to like $180that day. i'm sitting therewatching the ticker, and i'm like,i need to do this now. i need tosell out, because i was in other stuff.and i was like, i need to sell for a lossand get back in right now. and ifucking do it. and i'm holding 2,000 sharesagain of gamestop. i'm not selling it for lessthan what i think it's worth, and whati think it's worth is way more than what they wantto pay for it. so i'm holding fora million dollars a share. i'm holding for the moass,the squeeze. nobody knowswhat it can go to. this has neverhappened before, and it probably will neverhappen again. it could come now. it could come infive years from now. it's turned into along-term investment for me. [explosion]

i'm hoping this is the biggesttransfer of wealth that's ever happenedin history. (singing) 1, 2. i'm still holding.[laughs] and then from there,it ran up to $180. it went up to $350.back down to $100. back, you know, cause of thefuckery that's happening and the manipulationthat's happening. it's not followingany tradition. so in the lastthree months, i've just been doing research, learning abouthow the market works, how often are they doingthis? and is gamestop specialin a way that this is the first timethey've ever done it? or is it specialin the way that they've done this forever?so people say, oh, they haven't learnedfrom the financial crisis. they haven't learnedfrom 2008. but they did learn. they learned that there'sno consequences for their actions. [non-english speech][music playing]

alvan chow:when elon tweeted after-hours,

i remember texting my dad. i was like, ok,this is the top for sure. so i soldeverything after he did that. so by the skin of my teeth,i escaped that. i mean, this $8 millionis kind of like-- i'mlike just eating scraps that are left overfrom a massive battle. i think i'm a really smallfish in a very crazy event. i'm just opportunistic. - i put $40,000 in and walkedaway with over $1.6 million. my last day at workwas on friday. - ok, so after a few weeks,i was just like, fuck it. and i cashed out and i wentstraight into crypto. so that's all ido now is crypto. - i lost money. director: say more. say more.

- nothing. i lost money. there's nothingmore to be said. it's a stock. you lose moneyand you move on. that's it. i didn't lose a child. i didn't lose a wife.i lost money. if you want to do thisfor a living, you're going to losemoney. you want to be a kung fufighter and not get hit? don't be a kung fu fighter,or go play on video games. - did you know that you canstart making passive income just for holdingsome of your favorite stocks? i start trading and don't knowhow to start? i got you. you're not going toget rich overnight doing this and the market's not alwaysgoing to be nice to you. when i started all of this,i'd never even had any idea that, one,it would really be an income. now i can be aninfluencer and be a fin influencer. the finance influencers isthe new term people call it. and that's where we'reat now. man: the whole premiseof wallstreetbets is to make money quickly and do it in a waythat's not healthy. and whenyou do make all that money, you don't even know whatto fucking do with all of it. honestly, that's why i likeyou'll yolo'd it away. because i wasn'treally happier.

i wasn't happier at all. [fireworks] chris garcia:the one thing that i've noticedfrom the people that have gotten rich quickis they're never here a year afterwards. you know,they'll make the news today. they might do some fun stuff. but if you don't learn how tomanage your money or learn how to manage wealth,you won't keep that wealth. be warren buffett, dude.make your money in your 60s. who cares?like age isn't a thing, and enjoy the 20years it'll take you to becomean overnight success because when you'rean overnight success, what happensafter that? - mmm. this might soundreally, really crazy, but what i've donewith my portfolio in crypto these past fivemonths, i know i'm set for life.i just have to hold. dead ass.

sir jackalot:who says a stock price has to be calculatedbased off cash flow? i mean, it's just what peopleare willing to pay for it. and again, what's morallyor ethically wrong with that? that's just the game. [music playing] (singing)

there once was a stockthat put to sea. the name of the stock was gme. the price blew up and theshorts dipped down. hold my bully boys, hold. [grunts] soon may the tendieman come to send a rocketinto the sun. one day whenthe trading is done, we'll take ourgains and go. she had not beentwo weeks from shore when ryan cohenjoined the board. the captain called "allhands" and swore he'd takehis shares and hold. [grunts] soon may the tendieman come to send a rocketinto the sun. one day whenthe trading is done, we'll take ourgains and go. before the newshad hit the market, wallstreetbets came upand bought it. with diamond hands they knew they'd profit,if they could only hold. [grunts] - is there anything in therethat could get me canceled? director: huh? - is there anything in therethat could get me canceled or fired from my job? [music playing]

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nobody took it seriously. >> you're on the property. you have cameras. >> my other maintenance man another property, they connect with, us we help them, they help us. if i had $1 for every time i got asked do i have a husband -- >> i have a wonderful husband. he just had his business and i decide mine. this is my life. other than my family, this is my entire life. >> we want to make sure that if we do purchase this, it's meeting our needs and we don't also need another building. >> i have three boys. michael is the youngest. mike took on the general manager role. i had to let go of a little bit because i want my hands and everything. >> how many people get the chance to go to work every day with their mother's? >> the first thing we do is fix everything with food. >> this is part of our italian culture. >> some days are like

phenomenal. then some days, she can't figure out how to use the printer and it's frustrating. >> mike! i need some help. >> we have some days where are [inaudible] locked. and he forgets that i'm not the boss. but i try not to use that card because i need him to learn everything that's in my head. >> i started from the very bottom. being a labor, learning everything and basically working underneath the supervisor and shadowing him. so, i pretty much worked from the ground up to where i. no yeah, ground. [laughs] other than that, that's not scheduled work. >> basically, mike and sean, they run the daily operations. >> i really do depend on mike. we are partners with his mother in this business. >> sean and i met while we were in college. and he was an upperclassman. i looked up to him as sort of a role model. he was almost like a big brother to me. >> mike and i have been through a lot together.

both personally and professionally. we are both in recovery which is a big thing we have in common. >> if you can do it with somebody else, has the singles as you do, if you become a better person on a daily basis it makes it easier. >> they're like two old souls. they work together so well. [laughs] i know they both have the company's best interest at heart. sometimes, it takes a little, you know, i just gotta let it be him and back off. he comes around. so, is this what people want to hear about in this documentary? >> the race of the white house has not been called for pennsylvania. >> confusing pennsylvania. >> president trump is still leading in that state by about 108,000 votes. >> the days after the election, there wasn't clearly a winner. and it left everybody and stress. >> philadelphia became the ground zero for the election battle. >> the convention battle, with the votes being counting, crowds gathering outside, you

had trump supporters get outside, you had biden supporters and facing off against each other across the street. >> people were dressing up as the constitution. people were dressing up as mailboxes. they're holding silencing, with the people. progressive and conservative america in one place. literally, these two treats outside of the center. trump's legal team composed of -- turned up at the center. they go to address the crowd and they count every vote. turn up the music really, really. route >> so, we cannot hear where the pump says because it's completely overwhelmed. everybody was fighting at each other, every post and three and instagram we saw -- and then, the phone call.

>> my phone rang around 8:45 am, i was in a meant bible study in oil's tom pennsylvania. >> hello. >> so, i didn't answer and then my phone immediately run again. so i excuse myself and walked outside. and it was a trump stuff or. they were asking if we would be amenable to them having a press conference at four seasons, i just thought, why not. by about 9:45, the deal is sealed. it's just insane out of all places. we're landscaping company, we are experts in ground maintenance, irrigation, seeding, planning not press conferences. irrigation, irrigation, seeding,from overreacting to allergens all season long. suddenly this tweet comes psst! psst! flonase all good. our students, they're our top priority.

and students are job one for our superintendent of public instruction, tony thurmond. recruiting 15,000 new teachers, helping ensure all students can read by third grade. the same tony thurmond committed to hiring 10,000 new mental health counselors. as a respected former social worker, thurmond knows how important those mental health counselors are for our students today. vote for democrat tony thurmond. he's making our public schools work for all of us.

through from donald trump, the press from france at four seasons philadelphia 11 am. i sprang into action, gathered on my, stuff wrapped bags made phone calls to the editor. >> i jumped in my car and i go down to the four seasons hotel in downtown philadelphia. >> i think it was at the door with the second tweet came through. four seasons landscaping. philadelphia. my reaction was utter confusion. >> of course it's there! there's a landscaping there. oh yeah. it's the four seasons hotel. it's the entrance area with the landscaping. >> him wished the key pad somehow and type the word landscaping. i thought it was a mistake. >> i got a call from the four seasons hotel and he said maria, i've got one question, are they coming to you or are they coming to me? >> trump deletes the second tweet. a third tweet comes in.

and it's said big press conference in philadelphia, four seasons total landscaping. why would the presidents lawyers hold a conference that a landscaping company? >> the starts with donald trump tweeting that there would be a press conference on saturday morning at the four seasons in philadelphia. not the hotel, but the four seasons total landscape. it remains unclear whether the trump campaign made an error not. >> why did you pick this place? it was just ahead scratcher. this was just the beginning of how surreal this was was. it's not prominent. why was it here? you had more questions than you could possibly have answered. with trump, it was always difficult to get answers about the truth. because people didn't know the answers. often it was because they were

lying. i spent weeks and weeks interviewing everybody i could. and hitting that end after dead end after dead end me nobody really knew how they ended up at the landscape in place. in a part of town that normally is not where campaigns host these things. i wanted to answer what i thought was a simple question. with the hell had happened? and the longer that i dug into it, the crazier it was. >> mistake or not, they held their press conference at the loading dock of the landscaper here's what it looked like. that is quite an image. projects power. >> the screw it up. they got the wrong place. they said let's just go with it. >> we are on an industrial strip with a crematorium across the street and an adult video and bookstore up the street. >> there was a level of excitement among our staff that we would be hosting the presidents campaign staff here. but that was quickly followed by dread. an obvious screw up, but they

all played alone and pretended that was the master plan. >> there are two different theories, really. that i had. that other people had as well. one, i thought that maybe they had someone that thought they could book the four seasons hotel. someone on the campaign made the president think that it was a possibility that it would be held there, and that once he tweeted that, they googled around and found that the closest thing called four seasons to the four seasons in philadelphia happen to be the landscaping place. the other theory was this perfect storm from various people. various levels of the campaign. and somehow through a connection or an accident they ended up here. >> i'm at the campaign staff here at about 9:30. it was a pretty quick set up obviously. you saw was on tv. i'm pretty proud of the space

that we were able to curate in such mauve small amount of time. it was a landscape construction yard. >> normally, you might have police outside of the perimeter, but it was just private security, and they asked us to put our news organizations down on a clipboard and they would call us in and make it look like it might be exclusive, like minot all get called in. >> we request were republican. the information -- >> media! >> i think the biggest part for me was seeing giuliani like pull up into black suburbans. i thought i was dreaming. >> nobody famous has ever been here. it was almost like in slow motion. like him walking into the office. >> i actually wasn't going to come here. and i got a phone call from my son anthony, he said mom. this is bigger than we think. and he sends me a picture while i'm talking to him.

and rudy is sitting at my desk, and the plaque in front of my desk says boss lady. i looked at my husband, i said we better get over there. >> we demand a fair election! [inaudible] we demand a fair election! we demand a fair election! >> there was a crowd of people, that biden and trump supporters were there, they were going back and forth with each other. and then the cops showed up and the entire front row was shut down. that's when it kind of got like a very nerve wracking for me. >> it was just overwhelming, so i just looked around, i looked at everybody, i try to figure out who everybody was. the press conference was about to start. i stood on top of the trailer so i could see. and i just watched. >> in the final weeks, officials told me keeping rudy busy became a full-time job.

they had to devise places to send him. specific aides to keep with him. that would make it so he was not running wild, creating whack-a-mole problems for them. >> rudy giuliani is undermining confidence in the american election system. therefore undermining our national security. >> rudy giuliani was considered to be a great force of law and order. he was one of the heroes of 9/11. >> i think that's part of why it was so disturbing to watch him unravel. and to watch him kind of the base some self and support of this guy. who he thought he was better than. >> by the way, do you have any idea that the state department -- >> do you know the lie? >> shut up. you don't know where you're talking about. you don't know what you're talking about, 88.

>> he was kind of a mess, but he was always around. and she was always loyal and that was the only thing that seem to matter to the president. >> he is a great guy he knows it's a witch hunt that's what he knows. >> rudy followed his press coverage very closely. and he was very aware of what's the view of him was in mainstream circles. >> he was nothing but respectful to us when he was here. shook our hands, took pictures with us. greeted all the cops but i think going on a tv. i don't know if something changes. >> he wants told me my view of my legacy is quote fuck it. >> when a beautiful day. thank you. i'm here on behalf of the trump campaign as an attorney for the president. to describe to you the first part of a situation that is extremely. >> rudy comes out and launches into the speech about how the election was stolen and how there are very grave allegations of fraud. he has witnesses behind him.

>> people who have seen alleged fraud, people who will be testifying in lawsuits. he presents this guy daryl. we later learned he's exposed himself to children under age. >> it became here quickly nothing was there. there was no revelation. he wasn't exposing a big fraud in philadelphia. the election wasn't stolen. >> while rudy was speaking i was off to the side with mike and murray. we looked at each other, and we are in awe of how long this was going on. >> and i know, i know he won't accept it, because of your hateful biases. but see if he can try to think rational. put some of those ballots and manufactured in advance by the democrat machine of philadelphia. wouldn't be the first time they did it. >> i didn't think anyone took this real serious. >> how can i possibly tell you? there's fraud or no fraud.

>> you just said -- >> and somebody said, you know they have called the election for biden. >> who was a called by 00 my goodness. all the networks! wow! all the networks! >> all the networks! when the networks decide the election. and we're all thinking all the time. networks called the elections you can see this ripple among the crowd of journalist. >> as they try to figure out what to do. i'm kind of stunning thinking the same thing. do i need to stay here? or go back to philadelphia? where people are going to be celebrating the election. then you see people starting to pack up their stuff. >> many of them had to leave. because the primary story wasn't that rudy giuliani was challenging the election results. the story was that biden has just won the presidency. somebody asked me, where were

you when they called the election for joe biden? i say well, i was in the parking lot of four seasons total landscaping. >> the presidents lawyer left as the news came in that joe biden had been declared the victor. perhaps this is why they chose the industrial estate. they wouldn't be heard or welcome here in downtown philadelphia. [applause] a city in a state which delivered donald trump the white house four years ago, pennsylvania is now the state which pushed joe biden over the line. >> i just thought, sure, we said yeah. and it was going to be over. period. >> we would have done this for either political campaign. we just wanted to be helpful. >> and we just had no idea what we were in for. >> i just saw my press conference today, four seasons, fancy. >> yeah, it sounds fancy.

but it was at a landscaping company called four seasons. was that a mistake? [laughs] >> what, no. >> we heard from all different types of media outlets, and people wanting to know more about what happened. >> i got calls from the washington post. >> chicago times. >> new york times. >> usa today. >> yahoo news. >> netflix. >> business insider. >> nbc. >> fox. >> cnn. >> in the bbc. i started seeing that this was going further. and it was going into europe. >> german newspapers, irish newspapers, you name it, they were all calling. >> my emails have not stopped. are you getting emails? >> nonstop. >> are you? >> yeah, it's insane. >> that's why i said yes. it was turning into this. i would have thought twice. >> on the day after the press conference it was nothing but chaos. we couldn't even use the office phone for two weeks. because it just never stopped

ringing. >> you couldn't even get a thought process, let alone answer them. >> you have 1010 new messages, of which three are urgent. >> [inaudible] i understood that there is a special round of bill shape this week. >> hi, do you provide services like -- [inaudible] >> the league did. >> deleted. >> you are a traitor. >> deleted, new message, 39. >> the things they are saying about us is like amazing. i just can't even believe this. okay guys, wait till you hear this one. there is a big conspiracy theory. we are burning ballots across the streets at the crematorium. people's minds, they are just delusional. >> that was one of the hardest parts for me. i never had to deal with that level of hate.

i'm talking hundreds and hundreds of emails. i just got basically saying to go f yourself. we're going to burn down your building. it created a lot of fear of what the future holds for four seasons total landscaping. >> it's frightening because 28 years could go down the tubes. i remember asking my husband joe are we going to survive this? are we going to get out of this in one piece? people don't get it that being in business is not a picnic. i remember them coming to take my car in the middle of the night. bringing a generator home because they shut my electric off. because i couldn't cash my checks. i had a tough time borrowing money when i bought this building.

i had to put my house up for the bank to give me the mortgage so i had the shot of losing both places. >> do i want to see something that she billed just disappear or i going to keep the legacy going? >> trying to operate a business throughout all of this i don't even know what's word to use to describe this. >> people were taunting us, laughing at us, mocking us. and we needed to figure out a way to let them all know that we were in on the joke and we were laughing too. >> all of the networks! [laughs] >> when you surround yourself with good people good things happen. i think it started to turn when michael and sean started to run with this on instagram and facebook. and they made a joke out of everything because it was funny to us after. that they picked us, out of everyone in the world, they picked our place. >> if this whole thing blew, up i would recover from it. i would go and work somewhere else. but a family business that was 28 years in the making might not recover from something like this. and i felt responsible, because these people are my family. >> understanding the joke, and being in on it.

it was just like a waterfall of memes that you can make. >> -- >> we got put into a corner, and we used our humor to get out of it. >> we were making thousands of people laugh all over the entire -- not only nation, but world. it went from being a majority negative, and getting hate. to then be total opposite overnight. >> they ended up doing this in a rink eating parking lot, no offense to the landscaping company. the real winner wasn't the campaign. which got to use it for free. it was the total landscaping company which has really come out of this on top. just owning social media over the last month. >> like true entrepreneurs, we wanted to capitalize on this international attention. and salty shirts. >> we went from being a landscaper, to selling merchandise. we just started filling orders

day and night. >> we have done approximately one point $5 million in sales revenue. that's a lot of t-shirts. we've been getting a lot of fan mail, people have been sending us christmas cards with our zoom background on them. >> can you believe somebody made this? they made us our own lego set. there was a diagram of our company in berlin. that amazed me. that who would want this? >> somebody made a virtual reality four seasons. we had people showing up on our doorstep knocking, asking for t-shirts. we even had one employee that was leaving, and somebody offered them $50 for the stained sweaty t-shirt off their back. we had hundreds of visitors coming in the first couple days following our social media revamp. >> suddenly we had fans. it was surreal. >> would you look at all of these people out here? it's like every day, this is insane. people have referred to us as a philadelphia landmark. we've had so many families out

front. >> we even had two sisters, one lived in bethlehem, pennsylvania. the other in new york city. and they met here with a blanket, and a picnic basket, and had their thanksgiving dinner together here. i really think the four seasons hotel thing was a blessing for us. if our name had been marie's landscaping, none of this would've happened. >> the team at four seasons total landscaping appears to be have taking this in their stride. go online, you can buy a range of make america rake again, and law and order merchandise. >> i reached out to the four seasons hotel, my reporting concluded that no one from the trump campaign or any campaign had reached out to the four seasons hotel. about hosting any event. >> i love the narrative that it was a mistake and that they meant to book the four seasons hotel. >> there was no mistake, this is exactly where the press conference was supposed to be. >> they had surveyed some areas are along the i-95 corridor. and our site was one of the ones that they determine would be secure with quick access on

and off the highway. >> and it was free, that's another important thing. the trump campaign blew through 1. 1 billion dollars they were near broke. before the presidential election. they didn't have any money. and that's why it couldn't have been at the four seasons hotel. they would have charged. >> that's why it was a four season total landscaping. what because they didn't want to do it anywhere else. >> this has given me something that i can't even exchanged to you. this was not about money at all. this was about our story it's un-american underdog story. i think we will able to turn something that appeared to be disastrous for a small business into something positive. >> before the press conference, four seasons total landscaping was struggling. the most leaving from paycheck to paycheck going from being a local city landscaping company. and now being globally

recognized it's amazing. but we were just honored to be able to get back. being able to help the next person out. we did a toy drive this christmas. me and shawn went into ourselves, to deliver to the hospital. thank you ladies so much, i really appreciate it. for them to get that joy, that was the best part for me. you know. i'm very proud of myself for that. >> when we get on the zoom, take over this. we are at the end of the line. for me in my career? when i hand those keys over to michael, he's got it. he's proved himself. michael has shown every day how much he has grown as an individual. as a father, as a husband, as a son. >> she's a phenomenal mother. she's always there to support

me. it's like always having somebody with their hand on your back, pushing you to greatness. >> for him to step into my shoes and take over my rule, i have so much faith in him. i know he can do anything. >> my distinguished guests, my fellow americans, this is america's day. this is democracies day. the day of history and hope ott, a renewal and resolve. through a crucible for the ages, america has been tested a new, and america has risen to the challenge. >> the most amazing thing in my life has happened. i am in a super bowl commercial.

looks good guys! success! right place, right time. fiverr gets that. from graphic design, to web development, or even a pr expert for things like, i don't know, like opening a press conference. fiverr has the freelancers to get you where you want to be. >> is this the lobby? >> this is not a hotel. not a hotel reetbets, what's the story to you? - [sighs] i think the story is abouta group of idiots, a very large group of idiots,