Some sources would be awesome besides "I totally know someone". Phrases like "right to cultural practices" are straight out of a reactionaries toolkit, especially when you repeatedly bring up "foot binding" which isn't even a Uygher practice!!!
Yeah, but they think that they can control the rules so that no one breaks it.
Yes.
There's ways to make money, but there's an element of luck involved. It's like betting on a coin that you know has a 51% chance of coming up tails and you have to guess the over/under on tails out of 1000 coin flips
Basically they're collaborating to force the hand of the hedge funds, independently without an organization. Hedge funds with short positions need to buy shares. They have a debt that has to come due. Everyday they don't pay, they pay interest on the outstanding shares. The higher the price rises, the more money the shorts have to pay in interest. The more they pay, the deeper the hole they get in and the more return they need from the eventual collapse.
By refusing to sell, the WSB guys are arbitrarily pushing the price higher and higher. The longer they hold the line, the more they force the hand of the short sellers. It's a classic "short squeeze", but it's unique because it's driven by retail investors instead of other hedge funds. It's just like how workers pushed to the brink can refuse to work and cost a business money, even if it means losing a paycheck.
How is the intrinsic value of that business determined?
All kinds of ways :). Check our Benjamin Graham's work on this like "Security Analysis". It's based on a combo of expected business profits and the value of all
Remember a stock is a REAL THING. You are an owner when you own stock, even if you're just a trader. You own a piece of that business and its profits, assets, future profits, etc.
Do you then have any data to show that the market value actually trends towards the intrinsic value?
Do you have any data to show that the price of a quarter trends towards 25 cents? Ask Warren Buffett about how he made his money.
In his case, it was very easy because there were a lot of good deals back then. In particular, Buffet would target companies whose market cap was less than the book value. "Market cap" means "how much would it cost to buy all of the stock". "Book value" is how much all their shit is worth (land, factories, equipment). If the book value is let's say $1/share and the stock
It's more complicated than that now, but the "data" is the millions of rent seekers who earn a living in the same manner as Buffet.
Tesla will either crash, or there's insider shenanigans going on.
Prices trend towards intrinsic value in the long run. Prices can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent, as they say.
Because a "stock" is just a part share ownership in a business. It's value is based on the intrinsic value of that business. There's definitely an art to it as much as a science, and it's a long term trend. Unless you're a moron who believes in the efficient market hypothesis, price and value don't always match up but trend towards each other. Fundamentally, people aren't going to keep paying 30 cents for a quarter or sell a dime for 8 cents forever.
I was listening to a country-station morning show out of West Texas yesterday, and it was an absolute goldmine. A bunch of laid off oil workers think that Biden shut down the Keystone pipeline to "help China and Russia"
despite it being near completely random and volatile,
This is a neoliberal myth, fwiw. It's meant to scare individuals away from the idea of "economic value" existing as a real thing vs. "marginal preferences" and all that bullshit. It's also to scare you into buying financial instruments and trusting "financial experts"
Mr. Market is a moody bastard who needs therapy, but in the long run, stocks always trend towards their actual value. The volatility is short term noise caused by the fact that markets are not perfectly rational.
Ironically, the WallStreetBets people aren't gambling. They've got the hedge funds by the balls, and they know it. This is like a modern day wildcat strike.
Middle class retirements depend on the stock market (401ks). The US government knows as much, which is why they are swift to keep the bubble propped up.
An index fund can certainly crash, but if it does, any cash you hoarded instead will also be worthless.