How to buy, sell and short GameStop shares

How to buy GameStop in the UK: investing and trading

Investing in GameStop stock means you’ll take direct ownership of the shares – making you a GameStop shareholder. When you’re investing, you’ll profit if the GameStop share price increases above the price at which you bought them. With us, you can buy GameStop shares from zero commission on our share dealing platform.¹

Trading refers specifically to speculating on GameStop’s share price with derivatives like spread bets and CFDs. These are financial derivatives, which means they let you take a position on GameStop without having to take direct ownership of the company’s stock.

Remember, when you take a position on any stock, you could get back less than you put in and past performance is no indicator of future returns. When you trade on leverage, your risks are magnified because you're opening a position worth more than the money you put in.

This means you could gain or lose money much faster than you expect, and you could lose more than your initial deposit.

As 'meme stocks' like GameStop (GME) tend to experience large amounts of volatility, this risk is even greater. Make sure you have risk management strategies in place before you open a position, and bear in mind that guaranteed stops are not available when you trade GME.

How to short GameStop shares

Shorting GameStop means that you’re taking a position with the expectation that the GameStop share price will fall.

When you short sell, you theoretically open yourself up to the risk of unlimited losses - because there is no limit to how high the share price can go. Be aware of the risks before you trade.

Shorting GameStop shares

1. Create or log in to your leveraged trading account for spread bets or CFDs
2. Go to our trading platform
3. Search for ‘GameStop’
4. Choose your position size
5. Select sell and monitor your trade

How to sell your GameStop shares

Selling means that you’ll be exiting your investment position. This can be to either take a profit, or to cut a loss.

Selling GameStop shares

1. Log in to your share dealing account and go to our trading platform
2. Search for ‘GameStop’
3. Select 'sell’ in the deal ticket to open your investment position
4. Enter the number of shares you want to sell
5. Confirm the sale

How to trade GameStop options

Trading options on GME means having the right, but not obligation, to buy or sell GameStop shares at a set price, if GME moves beyond that price in a given timeframe.

With us, you can trade GameStop options using our spread betting account or CFD account. Just open an account, navigate to 'Options' and select GameStop.

This means that your positions will be leveraged, exposing you to risk that you could gain or lose money quickly. When trading options, you could lose more than your initial deposit.

Here are the ways you can trade options with us:

What’s the story behind GameStop?

GameStop shares became a favourite with users on internet message boards – especially the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets, in 2021, leading to the stock price seeing significant volatility as part of the meme stock craze.

Before the buzz, GameStop had been a company in decline with investors and traders alike. Market conditions meant that games started to go digital rather than offering physical discs. So, because GameStop’s business model was deeply seated around pre-owned and used games, digital downloads affected the company’s bottom line.

The drop in operating income was reflected in the company’s share performance from 2016 to 2020, which saw GameStop’s weekly share price fall by more than 80% from January 2016 to July 2020.

But, the company experienced a new lease of life following the popularity of the stock with so-called ‘millennial investors’. This saw huge swings in the share price.

In May 2024, the 'Roaring Kitty', Keith Gill, reappeared on X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time since mid-2021, seeing the stock price rise again.

How to analyse the GameStop share price

You may wish to use both technical analysis and fundamental analysis to analyse the GameStop share price.

• Technical analysis is concerned with chart patterns, technical indicators and historical price action
• Fundamental analysis is based on the fundamentals of a company, including its net revenue or profit and loss statements

You may wish to use a mix of both of these forms of analysis when assessing GameStop’s share price – especially since the company’s share price could be volatile for the foreseeable future. That’s even more true if short sellers begin cashing in on the expected share price crash.

Learn more about analysis with an IG Academy course

Footnotes:

¹ Our best share dealing commission rates apply to clients who opened three or more positions on their share dealing account in the previous calendar month.