In case you haven’t heard yet, something extraordinary happened to the stock market in the past few weeks.
GameStop is a video game retailer that has been struggling especially due to the pandemic. However, it surprisingly saw a significant increase in its stock price in the past few weeks. Just last year, GameStop shares hit a low of under $3. By the end of December 2020, the shares had increased to over $18 and then reached a successful share price of over $350 by Wednesday, January 27, 2021. This caused a trading frenzy for the stock market.
How did this happen and why is this significant, might you ask? Well, a group of institutional investors saw an opportunity to make a profit from betting against GameStop’s share price, or short selling. This started a battle between a crowd of amateur investors and multi-billion-dollar hedge funds. In response, the group of amateur investors in a Reddit forum called “WallStreetBets” decided to buy into GameStop shares. At first, their motive was based solely because they thought GameStop was undervalued but then became a message to the short-sellers.
This group was able to band together to rocket the share price to an immense level, causing heavy losses for short-sellers. The Redditors used Robinhood (an app that introduces people to the stock market), to invest in GameStop shares, knowing that the short-selling investors would have to buy the stock at an increased value. The same amateur investors have now shifted to other shares that have been bet against by hedge funds including Blackberry, AMC and American Airlines.
After having conversations about it, I realized that this was a revolution happening. If a bunch of little guys were able to congregate to defeat the advantages that the big guys have, imagine where else you can apply this concept.
What if you were to replace GameStop with an actual person and the Wall Street hedge funds with that person’s struggles with mental health or illnesses. The pandemic has caused many people to feel isolated and discouraged. What if for Valentine’s day everyone put effort into spreading love and kindness, by overwhelming a stranger with love and attention? You can donate to a charity, school, church or other meaningful organization. You can also send a virtual Valentine’s day card to a patient at a children’s hospital. Of course, this also applies to anyone else you know personally, who you think deserves some extra love and attention. Due to the health and safety regulations, I know that expressing these gestures can be difficult. But even mailing a traditional handwritten card through snail mail or sending a text message to someone you might not normally text on this occasion, can go a long way to uplift their spirits.
I believe random acts of kindness can have a way of multiplying the goodness and love in the world. Especially during a time like this, a random act of kindness can help give hope to someone struggling. All it takes is just a minute of your day, which can uplift those in need of your affection and consideration.