The Reddit-fueled market mania that sent GameStop and other heavily-shorted stocks soaring last month has often been described as a perfect example of retail investors sticking it to the Wall Street establishment.<\/p>\n
But not everyone on Wall Street was betting against GameStop.<\/p>\n
New York-based hedge fund Senvest Management started investing in GameStop before it caught fire with much of the r\/WallStreetBets crowd, and by October 2020, it owned more than 5% of the company, The Wall Street Journalreported Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Senvest paid under $10 for most of its shares, and after GameStop stock peaked at more than $400, the hedge fund walked away with a $700 million profit, one of the biggest winners, according to The Journal.<\/p>\n
Senvest declined to comment.<\/p>\n
By contrast, Reddit user r\/DeepF---ingValue, who has largely been credited with igniting the GameStop rally, claims to have made a $48 million profit.<\/p>\n
Read more: Buy these 26 heavily shorted stocks as retail traders trigger wild rallies in Wall Street's least liked names, Wells Fargo says<\/p>\n
While Senvest got in on GameStop after a compelling presentation by its new CEO George Sherman and the involvement of investor and Chewy founder Ryan Cohen, it got out because of a tweet fired off by Elon Musk, The Journal reported.<\/p>\n
On January 26, after the market closed, Musk simply tweeted \"Gamestonk!!\"<\/p>\n
Musk's tweet helped extend the short-squeeze, sending GameStop's stock surging another 157% when the market reopened the following morning.<\/p>\n
\"Given what was going on, it was hard to imagine it getting crazier,\" Senvest CEO and fund manager Robert Mashaal told The Journal.<\/p>\n
Many hedge funds have been hit hard by the recent market frenzy. But even GameStop short-seller Melvin Capital, one of the biggest losers with losses of 53% in January, eventually got a $2.8 billion bailout from other hedge funds.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, GameStop's stock had already dipped back down to around $92 on Wednesday, and reports are emerging of retail investors who bought in late and have already lost massive sums.<\/p>\n
Read more: One chart shows how Elon Musk can create a huge amount of wealth with just his Twitter<\/p>\n
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Elon Musk's GameStop tweet led hedge fund to exit with $700M profit - Business Insider - Business Insider<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Reddit-fueled market mania that sent GameStop and other heavily-shorted stocks soaring last month has often been described as a perfect example of retail investors sticking it to the Wall Street establishment. Continue reading