????Stealing from the rich and giving to the…err rich?? Robinhood’s “un-democratic u-turn has rocked the already rocky markets this week.
????”Gamestonks” – adding fuel to the fire, one tweet to rule them all.
????Fad or foe? – Bandwagon stocks what does the future hold?
Robinhood Robinhood riding through the glen, Robinhood Robinhood, people losing their fricking minds!! I mean heck, we’re just a week on from Trumpism and a world of promised calm and fairness for the future and then a mere smirk arises in a message board and come w/c 25th Jan and by the end of the week every Tom, Tweet and Harry is trying to get their hands on the stocks of the century (or maybe just the week as it may turn out).
The “democratisation of investing” say the people, “where are the regulators” cry the institutions. Wherever you sit on the matter, its hard to argue that the last 72 hours there’s been a major awakening among retail investors. The fact of the matter really is that this is nothing new, retail investment has been a “thing” for many years and access to it has been possible long before Robinhood hit the appstore. The difference, as ever with change, is perception. The barriers of entry in recent years has never been physical and now everybody knows. The bandwagon, fuelled by Reddit (which looks like something my 8 year old nephew could build) and everyones favourite Twitter has inadvertently built an analyst tool as influential as a Bloomberg terminal at 100% reduced cost.
The downing of Robinhood proves that the institutions still ultimately have the control if they need it and regulators will be minded to not turn the other cheek on this one although there are fears that the retail investor may in fact become worse off as more and more content is drawn from the PR establishments “investing is risky”, “be mindful of loss of your funds” the goal will be to make the retail investor appear the bad player in this saga simply because they “don’t understand” that couldn’t be further from the truth, the risks become a contest and the wins a bonus of the high is MUCH bigger than the price heights of $GME or $AMC.
Most people will tell you that good investment is about buckling up for the the long term and this this will be true for understanding the outcome of this fast paced saga. WSB have won this round, but no PR is bad PR right??
Return of the Sanity…
Well kind of…
♣️ Clubhouse party (remember house party? sooo 2020) but anyway, Elon breaks ground questioning Vlad about WHAT went on at Robinhood.
???? Biden staking his claim for pacey President, executive orders, cheeky payouts and taking on the Russians.
???? from one President to another Jeff steps up/down from CEO of Amazon.
2021 whilst gripped by lockdown has not been without its stories and events. Every week has given way to news thats filling our breakfast tables and there’s something for everyone! The turn of the month has been no different with the news that book seller Jeff Bezos has taken a side step away from the Amazon desk to seek philanthropic avenues and space exploration dreams. Andy Jassy, the man who’s lead the serious growth in the Amazon cloud computing space over a number of years steps in. At a time that although not critical to the company (possibly the least critical moment in the companies history) is certainly one that poses some of the more significant challenges of how to stay relevant. Amazon? relevant? I hear you cry as billions of parcels are delivered year on year by the giant which is fast taking over the big players UPS & Fedex in the logistics space. There’s no doubt their popularity and benefits have been heightened in this pandemic, every Tom, Harry & Dick have sought Amazon for everyday needs to avoid the risks of social transmission. This, resulting in the expense of the smaller local players in the market, but there’s murmurings on the streets as bands of merry people seek a local backlash. In the UK, sounds of community support and culture are nothing new, but as the new spreads of failing businesses and areas struggling as the pandemic (hopefully) fades away along with the government support will leave a gaping emotionally driven hole that many of us will be wanting to fill. Why? well unlike the absolute garbage sensationalised in the news we are a closer nation. I know my neighbours, I know their neighbours, I know the postman and I know his favourite local market. What changed? well we all started talking. Its amazing really the difference pulling back from the 9/5 working week to discover that theres a whole world out there and it isnt the rat run between your home and place of work. But with this comes a greater sense of belonging and understanding that we just simply haven’t had for decades. Our communities are just that, they’re ours.
This paints Amazon a different landscape going forward, CSR is becoming less of a buzzword for corporates to band about and pretend to show evidence of support, but its now something actively sought by an emotional user base. Although an expression of “care” can nonchalantly manifest itself on the end of a 250 word tweet, collectively it can form a powerful movement that we’ve seen all too frequently in 2021 already. This creates a user base of “power” supported by the channels that make up social media. We only have to look at last week and the Wall Street Bets saga, a simple hashtag can bring down an institution or raise it up. This was simply share price, but who knows where this could extend to.
Theres a new player in the market and its the people and they’ve got something to say.
