Let's just assume that there are 100 shares of GameStop (worldwide) and go from there. Let's assume that the price per share/stock before all of this was $100 (in a "good" economy, etc.). How would this all work?
A nice timeline, step by step, line by line would be nice. For ex:
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Stock is selling at $100 per share (100 shares total). June 20XX
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Economy starts tanking, stock now at $95 per share. August 20XX
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People start predicting that it will go down further, thus they start "betting" (insert definitions that are accessible and not jargony), etc.
^ something like that would be nice. Thanks!
The thing you're supposed to put your money so you can retire is in actually buying and holding on to stocks. (Because shares come with a vote on how the company operates, and enough of the share holders are voting "make shareholders rich" that you can assume this is what the company will do. Capitalism!)
Shorts and puts and calls and all that shit is a layer of absurd gambling on top of that. Which, according to standard economic theory, makes the stock prices more stable and reliable for people doing the buy-hold thing. (Doesn't seem like a great theory to me tbh.)