Yahoo Finance 10-year-old’s $4,200 win off Reddit battle
A 10-year-old boy has become $4,200 richer, after Reddit’s battle against hedge fund managers saw GameStop (GME) shares surge around 1600 per cent since January.
Fifth grader Jaydyn Carr from Texas in the US, received 10 shares in the company from his mother Nina two years ago as a gift. At the time they were worth around US$6 (AU$7.87) each.
Now, one share of GameStop is worth US$225, but it topped US$483 during January.
Nina told a San Antonio news outlet that the gift was for Kwanzaa, an African-American celebration of life, and she wanted to give her son something that reflected Ujamaa, which is one of the seven principles of the festival and focuses on cooperative economics.
But when retail traders on the Reddit forum WallStreetBets took on hedge fund managers and piled into Gamestop to stop institutional investors from making money off the stock, Jaydyn’s stocks skyrocketed.
"My phone was going off, because I have GameStop on my watch list," the mother said of watching prices skyrocket.
"I was trying to explain to him that this was unusual, I asked him 'Do you want to stay or sell?'"
Jaydyn said he wanted to sell, and sold his 10 shares for a whopping US$3,200 (AU$4,197) on 27 January, when shares were worth around US$320.
Nina said $2,200 of the funds would go into her son’s savings account, and $1,000 would be re-invested.
What’s happening with GameStop now?
Gamestop shares were down 31 per cent at the close of US trade on Monday to US$225 per share, but Reddit has turned its attention to a new stock: silver.
Traders from WallStreetBets have been piling into silver and silver ETFs, believing that’s where the next short squeeze is.
While some in the forum have been pushing back against the move, silver prices rose 10 per cent to US$29.70 (AU$38.87). This is silver’s highest price since March 2013.
Find out more about The Broke Millennials Club’s 6-Week Bootcamp here. And join the conversation on Facebook.
Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to the free Fully Briefed daily newsletter to make 2021 your best (financial) year yet.
