GameStop share price: What’s behind the 8,000% run?

GameStop reaches new highs

The GameStop-WallStreetBets-Citron saga continued overnight, with the stock closing out Tuesday's session up 92.61% or $71.15 at $147.98 per share.

Mind you, the bullish price action didn’t stop there. Traders continued to pile into GameStop (GME) in after-hours trade. At the time of writing, the stock was up a further 41% after the market-close, trading at $209 per share, at the time of writing.

From the company’s 52-week low of just $2.57 per share to that after-hours price, we’re looking at an implied move of just over 8,000%.

WSB’s recipe for success

This all comes as traders from popular Subreddit, WallStreetBets (WSB) have piled into the stock – buying both the underlying and GME call options at a rapid click over the last month.

This has seen many from the subreddit post screenshots of dizzying gains, with one recent post boasting that a WSB user turned $50 thousand into over $22 million betting on GME.

But it’s not just users from WSB piling into the stock or poking fun at GME’s meteoric run. Controversial billionaire investor, Chamath Palihapitiya on Tuesday revealed he was too was taking a punt on GME, Tweeting out an image showing that he had bought 50 call options on GME. He did this after asking his Twitter followers:

‘Tell me what to buy tomorrow and if you convince me I’ll throw a few 100 k’s at it to start.’

Even Elon Musk – another billionaire who has courted controversy for his tweets in the past – threw his opinion into the ring, tweeting ‘Gamestonk!!’ and providing a link to the WSB subreddit.

Shorts remain short

Despite the feverish atmosphere that continues to build around GME, some, such as well-known short-seller Andrew Left, remains bearish on the stock.

Left’s Citron Research last week tweeted that ‘GameStop buyers at these levels are the suckers at this poker game’ while adding that ‘$GME going to $20 buy at your own risk.’

After being derided and threatened for this view, Left said he would no longer comment on GME.

He seems to have revised his commitment to a media blackout somewhat, telling Reuters on Tuesday that he was still short GME (despite the colossal run up in price) while adding that:

‘Had never been involved in GameStop and came to this right now, would I still be short this stock? 100 percent.’

‘This is an old school, failing mall-based video retailer and investors can’t change the perception of that,’ Mr Left added.