Couple more inplay bets coming in the next hour have my eye on a few games. already 1/1 today #INPLAY #RogueTipster http://twitter.com/RogueTipster
August 19, 2016 at 01:17PM

GAME INFO:

Game Number: #6
Date: Monday January 4th, 2021
Current Streak: L1
Tip Off: 7:30 pm (EST)
Venue: Amalie Arena (Tampa, FL)
Weather: 15°C (59°F) - FAIR

ATLANTIC DIVISION

TEAM	W	L	GB
Philadelphia	5	1	0.0
Boston	4	3	1.5
New York	3	3	2.0
Brooklyn	3	4	2.5
TORONTO	1	4	3.5

MEDIA:

Official Media Game Notes: TORONTO RAPTORS
Canadian TV:

• Pre-Game: Raptors Pre-Game @ 7:00pm (EST)
  
• Raptors Tangerine Basketball: SPORTSNET & SPORTSNET ONE @ 7:30pm (EST)
  
• NBA Late Night: Sacramento @ Golden State @ 10:00pm (EST) - SPORTSNET ONE & 10:30pm (EST) SPORTSNET
  
• Raptors in 30: every 30 mins - 12:30am - 1:30pm (EST) - SPORTSNET ONE
  

US National TV: NBA TV
Legal Streams:

• SPORTSNET NOW
• TSN DIRECT
• NBA LEAGUE PASS - BLACKED OUT IN CANADA

Radio:

• 590 AM

UNIFORMS:

• RAPTORS - WHITE - ASSOCIATION
• CELTICS - GREEN - ICON

BOXSCORES:

• SPORTSNET
• TSN
• ESPN
• NBA.COM
• YAHOO!

BETTING INFO:

Spread: Raptors -4.0
Total: 218.5
Money Line: Raptors -175

EXPECTED STARTING LINE UPS:

POSITION	RAPTORS	OPPONENT
PG	Kyle Lowry	Marcus Smart
SG	Fred VanVleet	Jaylen Brown
SF	OG Anunoby	Jayson Tatum
PF	Pascal Siakam	Tristan Thompson
C	Aron Baynes	Daniel Theis

INJURY REPORT:

RAPTORS	STATUS	INJURY
Patrick McCaw	OUT	Left Knee Rehab

OPPONENT	STATUS	INJURY
Javonte Green	OUT	COVID Protocols
Romeo Langford	OUT	Right Wrist
Kemba Walker	OUT	Left Knee

NBA REFEREE ASSIGNMENTS:

POSITION	NUMBER	NAME
Crew Chief	# 24	Kevin Scott
Referee	# 27	Mitchell Ervin
Umpire	# 84	Jenna Schroeder
Alternate	N/A	N/A

wear a mask.

wash your hands.

install the Gov't of Canada COVID tracing app.

WELCOME BACK RAPTORS FAM! ❤️

I want to preface that the contents of this post is for informational purposes. I do not condone or approve of any harassments or witch-hunting or the attacking of anybody.
 
Richard Lewis recently did a stream talking about the terrible state of CS esports and I thought it was an important stream anyone who cares about the CS community should listen to.
Vod Link here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/830415547
I realize it is 3 hours long so I took it upon myself to create a list of interesting points from the stream so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, although I still encourage you to do so if you can.
I know this post is still long but probably easier to digest, especially in parts.
Here is a link to my raw notes if you for some reason want to read through this which includes some omitted stuff. It's in chronological order of things said in the stream and has some time stamps. https://pastebin.com/6QWTLr8T

Intro

• "The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
  • "I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
• "For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
  • "We're spread way too thin."
• "If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
• RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
  • Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
  • ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
  • Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
  • Widespread match fixing
  • The Pandemic
    • "People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
    • "People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
      • "To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
      • "Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
      • "People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
• "It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
  • RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
    • He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.

CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association

"Who does this union really fucking serve?"

• RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
  
  • He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
    • He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
      • He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
    • Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
    • RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
    • Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
      • "and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
• He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
  
  • "We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
  • He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
  • "They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
• He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
  
  • He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
    • He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
  • He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
    • RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
  • "I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
  • "Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
    • "Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
    • "That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
• He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
  
• He also says their rankings are a joke
  
  • "Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
• He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
  
• "Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
  

ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission

"They have been put in an impossible position."

• RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
• "ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
  • "Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
  • "Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
    • Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
      • Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
  • "They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
    • "They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
• ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
  • He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
    • Also says more coaches being banned are coming
    • He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
• ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
  
  • "I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
  • "So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
    • "Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
• RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
  

Stream Sniping

"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"

• RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
  • On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
    • "Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
      • He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
        • He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
        • The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
        • "ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
• He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
• "All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
  • He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?

Match Fixing

"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."

• RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
  • "Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
• "Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
• Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
  • Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
    • They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
      • "I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
        • "Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
• RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
• "There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
  • "It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
• "It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
  • "I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
• He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
• "That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
  • "All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
• "I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."

North America

"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."

• RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
• There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
• He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
  • RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
  • He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
• He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
  • He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
    • They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
    • When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
    • "was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
    • He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
• He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
  • He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
• He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
  • He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
• He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
• He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
  • Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
• RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
• RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."

Talent

"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."

• RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
• He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
• Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
• He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
  • He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
• He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
• He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
• New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
• He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
• He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
• He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."

Valve

"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"

• Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
  • Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
• In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
• RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
• He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
• RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
  • A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
  • RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
  • RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
• RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
• Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
  • They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
• RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
  • Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
• He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
• Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
  • RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
• "It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
  • Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
• "Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
• "People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."

Closing Statements

"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."

• RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
• "We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
• "There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
• "How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
• "Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
• "The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
  • He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
• He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
  • "If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
    • "They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
• He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
• "Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
• "This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
• "You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
  • "Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
• "Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
  • "You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
• "I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
  • "I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
• "I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."

GAME INFO:

Game Number: #5
Date: Saturday January 2nd, 2021
Current Streak: W1
Tip Off: 7:30 pm (EST)
Venue: Smoothie King Center (New Orleans, LA)
Weather: 11°C (52°F) - CLOUDY

ATLANTIC DIVISION

TEAM	W	L	GB
Philadelphia	4	1	0.0
Brooklyn	3	3	1.5
Boston	3	3	1.5
New York	2	3	2.0
TORONTO	1	3	2.5

MEDIA:

Official Media Game Notes: TORONTO RAPTORS
Canadian TV:

• Pre-Game: Raptors Pre-Game @ 7:00pm (EST)
• Raptors Tangerine Basketball: SPORTSNET & SPORTSNET ONE @ 7:30pm (EST)
• REPLAY: 11:00pm (EST) - SPORTSNET
• Raptors in 30: every 30 mins - 1:00am - 9:00am (EST) - SPORTSNET ONE

US National TV: NBA TV
Legal Streams:

• Sportsnet NOW
• TSN Direct
• NBA League Pass - BLACKED OUT IN CANADA

Radio:

• 590 AM

UNIFORMS:

• RAPTORS - BLACK - STATEMENT
• PELICANS - RED - STATEMENT

BOXSCORES:

• SPORTSNET
• TSN
• NBA.COM
• ESPN
• YAHOO!

BETTING INFO:

Spread: Raptors -1.5
Total: 215.5
Money Line: Raptors -120

EXPECTED STARTING LINE UPS:

POSITION	RAPTORS	OPPONENT
PG	Kyle Lowry	Lonzo Ball
SG	Fred VanVleet	Eric Bledsoe
SF	OG Anunoby	Brandon Ingram
PF	Pascal Siakam	Zion Williamson
C	Aron Baynes	Steven Adams

INJURY REPORT:

(as of 5:30pm report)

RAPTORS	STATUS	INJURY
Patrick McCaw	OUT	Left Knee Rehab

OPPONENT	STATUS	INJURY
Wenyen Gabriel	OUT	Right Knee

NBA REFEREE ASSIGNMENTS:

POSITION	NUMBER	NAME
Crew Chief	# 71	Rodney Mott
Referee	# 17	Jonathan Sterling
Umpire	# 20	Leroy Richardson
Alternate	N/A	N/A

wear a mask.

wash your hands.

install the Gov't of Canada COVID tracing app.

WELCOME BACK RAPTORS FAM! ❤️

GAME INFO:

Game Number: #7
Date: Wednesday January 6th, 2021
Current Streak: L2
Tip Off: 9:00 pm (EST)
Venue: Phoenix Arena (Phoenix, AZ)
Weather: 13°C (54°F) - FAIR

ATLANTIC DIVISION

TEAM	W	L	GB
Philadelphia	6	1	0.0
Boston	5	3	1.5
New York	4	3	2.0
Brooklyn	4	4	2.5
TORONTO	1	5	4.5

MEDIA:

Official Media Game Notes: TORONTO RAPTORS
Canadian TV:

• Pre-Game: Raptors Pre-Game @ 8:30pm (EST)
  
• Raptors Tangerine Basketball: SPORTSNET & SPORTSNET ONE @ 9:00pm (EST)
  
• NBA Late Night: N/A
  
• Raptors in 30: every 30 mins - 1:30am - 11:30am (EST) - SPORTSNET ONE
  

US National TV: N/A
Legal Streams:

• SPORTSNET NOW
• TSN DIRECT
• NBA LEAGUE PASS - BLACKED OUT IN CANADA

Radio:

• 1050 AM

UNIFORMS:

• RAPTORS - RED - ICON
• SUNS - WHITE - ASSOCIATION

BOXSCORES:

• SPORTSNET
• TSN
• ESPN
• NBA.COM
• YAHOO!

BETTING INFO:

Spread: Raptors +3.0
Total: 219
Money Line: Raptors +130

EXPECTED STARTING LINE UPS:

POSITION	RAPTORS	OPPONENT
PG	Kyle Lowry	Chris Paul
SG	Fred VanVleet	Devin Booker
SF	OG Anunoby	Mikal Bridges
PF	Pascal Siakam	Jae Crowder
C	Aron Baynes	Deandre Ayton

INJURY REPORT:

RAPTORS	STATUS	INJURY
Patrick McCaw	OUT	Left Knee Rehab

OPPONENT	STATUS	INJURY
Jalen Smith	Q	Left Ankle

NBA REFEREE ASSIGNMENTS:

POSITION	NUMBER	NAME
Crew Chief	# 16	David Guthrie
Referee	# 77	Karl Lane
Umpire	# 12	Robert Husey
Alternate	N/A	N/A

wear a mask.

wash your hands.

install the Gov't of Canada COVID tracing app.

WELCOME BACK RAPTORS FAM! ❤️

GAME INFO:

Game Number: #3
Date: Tuesday December 29th, 2020

Current Streak: L2

Tip Off: 7:00 pm (EST)
Venue: Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia, PA)
Weather: 3°C (38°F) - SUNNY

ATLANTIC DIVISION

TEAM	W	L	GB
Philadelphia	2	1	0.0
Brooklyn	2	2	0.5
New York	1	2	1.0
Boston	1	2	1.0
TORONTO	0	2	1.5

MEDIA:

Official Media Game Notes: TORONTO RAPTORS
Canadian TV:

• Pre-Game: Raptors Pre-Game @ 6:30pm (EST)
• Raptors Tangerine Basketball: SPORTSNET & SPORTSNET ONE @ 7:00pm (EST)
  • NBA Late Night #1: Minnesota @ LA Clippers - 10:00pm (EST) - SPORTSNET
  • NBA Late Night #2: New Orleans @ Phoenix - 10:00pm (EST) - SPORTSNET ONE

US National TV: N/A
Legal Streams:

• Sportsnet NOW
• TSN Direct
• NBA League Pass - BLACKED OUT IN CANADA

Radio:

• 590 AM

UNIFORMS:

• RAPTORS - WHITE - ASSOCIATION
• SIXERS - BLUE - ICON

BOXSCORES:

• SPORTSNET
• TSN
• NBA.COM
• ESPN
• YAHOO!

BETTING INFO:

Spread: Raptors +1.5
Total: 218.5
Money Line: Raptors +100

EXPECTED STARTING LINE UPS:

POSITION	RAPTORS	OPPONENT
PG	Kyle Lowry	Ben Simmons
SG	Fred VanVleet	Seth Curry
SF	OG Anunoby	Danny Green
PF	Pascal Siakam	Tobias Harris
C	Aron Baynes	Joel Embiid (P)

INJURY REPORT:

(as of 1:30pm report)

RAPTORS	STATUS	INJURY
Patrick McCaw	OUT	Left Knee Rehab

OPPONENT	STATUS	INJURY
Joel Embiid	PROBABLE	Back
Furkan, Korkmaz	OUT	Left Adductor

NBA REFEREE ASSIGNMENTS:

POSITION	NUMBER	NAME
Crew Chief	# 25	Tony Brothers
Referee	# 50	Gediminas Petraitis
Umpire	# 81	Simone Jelks
Alternate	N/A	N/A

wear a mask.

wash your hands.

install the Gov't of Canada COVID tracing app.

WELCOME BACK RAPTORS FAM! ❤️

As of this year I have finally achieved a net worth of 6 figures~ (108k to be exact).
TLDR; save schmoney and get that honey! P.S. skip to “EDIT”. Im illiterate and lost all my brain cells watching tIkTok so I wrote my original post incorrectly and confused some folks.
I started doing a traineeship at 17-18 as a receptionist earning $20,000 a year with no money to my name and now in just 4 years here I am (I moved out at 18 too with no help).
For the first 2.5 years I aimed to saved 20,000 a year in a high interest savings account.
Since late 2019 I've been dipping my feet into investing a small amount and I admit, I've lost a lot of money. Since then, I've learned my investing behaviors, improved my knowledge and hope to start making real gains.
I don't drive because I'm scared to get my P's lol - so that's obviously helped.
I didn't go to uni since I didn't know what I wanted to do and that definitely helped since I don't need to pay any fees (I'm a permanent resident and tbh kinda stupid when I was 17 I thought I had to pay since I wasn't a citizen yet oh well) This let me work full-time and get into the office early.
I haven't travelled anywhere which is a shame but it has helped with my savings. As travel restrictions ease, I hope I can see more of the world soon!
I'm typing here because I'm proud of myself and I don't have anyone to share my success with.
I'd like to thank this subreddit for guiding me and to everyone for sharing their FIRE goals and tips.
EDIT:
Damn I didn't expect to get this many replies. Sorry for not clarifying!
​

• A description of the journey you took to get to where you presently are.

2016: graduate HS (17 yrs old)
2017: 18 years old doing a 1 year traineeship as a receptionist where I lived at home, my contract meant I was paid only 20k a year and because I lived at home I could save 10k that year.
2018 - Moved out in February and got my first real job as a receptionist on 60k p.a - that allowed me to save more lol hence the 20k savings a year. I turned 19 in may. I didn't ask or get any help from my parents because my parents are divorced, my dad and I are estranged and my mom was struggling to raise me and my brother :( I don't have any family here either that I can depend on, it's just me. Rent was $200 a week and idk about bills but it was between 4 people. How I moved out? Abusive household :x
2019 - Still renting, same job, same pay, continue to lived frugally, hit goal of 20k savings in bank account again, invested $5000 lost like $2000 lol but it's okay I was expecting to lose since I didn't know what I was doing. And for me I was scared coz I worked so hard to save all this money and here I am losing it. Rent was the same, bills the same.
2020 - still renting, same job, salary increase to 63k a year for added responsibilities, continue to live below my means, hit goal of 20k savings in bank account. Learned more about investing, portfolio is now $10k not from gains but from me topping up my funds slowly. No real gains, just learning. New rental for $250, bills for 4 people.
2021 - still renting, same job but now I'm an office assistant and receptionist, same salary, , live below my means, still looking to save 20k this year but I also hope to see some gains for once in my life since I reevaluated my portfolio. I'm only young and I'm trying my best. There really is no trick to it I'm literally saving 20,000 a year that's it (just under $400 a week if you break it down. Rent for $250 incl. bills.
Lifestyle: Don't drink or party because I have no friends or a social life :( I take public transport and walk everywhere, I shop budget at groceries, I try to cook at home because I'm also living an active lifestyle and drinking/eating out too much etc won't work in the long term for my health fitness goals. I didn't go to uni, I don't have a car and I'm still on my Ls which are set to expire next month oops.
Honestly the sacrifice was that I haven't lived...I can't go to nice places, I see so many girls doing their hair, makeup, nails lashes but I jsut don't even though I want to. I've haven't travelled overseas at all by myself. I was scared that If I don't hit this goal of 100k by 23 I'll be in trouble, what if I'm sick ,etc what if I need surgery because I don't have anyone to depend on. I've been working full time since 17 while my friends can party, go overseas, go to brunches and road trips I can't do any of that :( At the back of mind I just think about how I will never ever let someone have power over me because they control my finances and render me hopeless. I grew up in an environment where I was silenced and beat because I had no choice but to obey the authority. I, one day want my own home where I can say this is mine. I did this. You all tried to beat me down but here I am due to my own will. And when I think about that, I owe it to myself to do this now and work for a better future.
Note: Current figures below
HostPlus Indexed Balanced Super: 20,925.47
Westpac LifeSavings acct: $61188.97
Portfolio: $25,885.56 at the time of writing but I gained $1,925.63 today (yay!) Please also note that I've only recently been strengthening my portfolio, and I'm talking December 20 where i was still losing. Most of the sum here was transferred from my bank account but I've made gains of 5k so far this year since I reevaluated my portfolio in early jan. My next goal is to earn 20k a year from my portfolio so that way I can have a total of 40k savings/earnings a year. I don't know if I can do this but we can only try! I've got a lock of stocks yes (don't come for me), but I'm getting into ETF'S now and will build them up over the years ahead.
If there's a few thousand that doesn't add up it's probably the scraps I salvaged from my tax return lol. I'm no math guru sorry but I have no interest in trying to trick anyone here lol.

• What your past/current strategy has been and an evaluation of its performance.

It's pretty dumb LOL, I get why some of ya'll be pressed in the comments. I literally made this 20k a year savings plan when I got my real job at 18 and just went with it. Like I don't want this stuff to be hard, I just want life to be simple and to be happy. I would've started investing in ETF's earlier and salary sacrificed to my super more (just $200 a week). I didn't need to be so stressed and needed to trust myself to get out of my shitty situation. Moving forward gonna get rid of me stonks and learn how to go about ETF's smartly for the long run and idk if anyone has pointers please share. I don't really have any skills so I'm going to get a diploma and just keep learning, because the more I earn the more I can save/invest right? For anyone that's curious how this relates to FIRE, retirement isn't on the radar yet but being financially independent is a part of FIRE and I think I'm on my way there :)
Jks just go to ASX_bets and look for rocket emojis! 🚀🚀🚀
​

• Advice for others who may be in a similar situation to you.

May not be the most impressive or savvy way but it's how I did it.

• Make a rule. I note down all my expenses and then see what I have leftover from my salary. I want to save as much as I can so my priority is to "pay myself" first. Work out a decent amount to give yourself for spending and literally put everything else away. Doesn't matter if it's only $200 or if you can save $1000+ It's about building lifelong habits, it might suck at first but you become accustomed to it. Build good habits, maintain consistency
• Learn basic financial concepts. I just read the ASIC's Moneysmart website and the Barefoot investor. It's like weightlifting, once you get a hold of the basics you can just grow them gains baby. It was really confusing though, lots of books are for idk, money-savvy older people based in America in suits or something. I asked myself wtf is a ROTH IRA so many times. Lots of things out there are really complicated and don't help/target young people so I just figured out my own way. It can be really overwhelming and confusing stuff, but don't worry it's okay! Do it for you and learn things that serve you and help you reach your goals. F*** derivatives, whatever the hell that means!
• Lifestyle changes: Re-evaluate what's necessary. For me, it's the gym and eating out once or twice a week at your local Vietnamese for $11 pho lol, so my life isn't very expensive. My interests are very inexpensive, I enjoy walking outside to meet my daily step count, I enjoy playing games at home, I love cooking at home and it means I get to hone my cooking skills. I like my makeup and I value looking presentable but I buy drugstore makeup when they're on sale (thank you Priceline you are my life), no Fenty beauty for me :( Buy staple clothing, obviously buy stuff that makes you look and feel good but you defs don't need to get that corset top from House of CB because like...no I take it back. It's a need.
• Know your why: If your reason is strong enough you'll just do it.
• To anyone from abusive homes or relationships, one day you will escape and be able to live life on your terms. I didn't think it was necessary to go on a whole spiel about my story but keep your head up high you will make it, and you will heal in your own pace. I felt like my life truly began when I moved out...it's a hard and lonely journey but it will be very rewarding in the end. I couldn't afford therapy and still haven't gone but using kids helpline (free hotline for kids, teens and young adults up to the age of 25) really helped me when I needed to be heard.
• Please live your youth if you're my age or just live life in general! When you're in survival mode you can't enjoy the pleasures of life because you don't have a choice. Make it a goal to do something exciting every month or however often you have the time, money and resources to do so. For example, for valentine's Day I'm going on a picnic and making a cheese platter for two for $35! It's cute, affordable and sweet :D

Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.
Sun Tzu, Art of War
Everything was for tomorrow, but tomorrow never came. The present was only a bridge and on this bridge they are still groaning, as the world groans, and not one idiot ever thinks of blowing up the bridge.
Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn
I was wrong! Blow the bridge! Blow the fucking bridge!
Tugg Speedman, Tropic Thunder
Hello again GME Gang! It’s been a while since I last ranted at you, but I know we’ve been in some very good hands here at WSB with all the great DD folks have posted over the past few weeks. So no need for CPT Hubbard to go for 11 again on the Thumbscroll Dial (until today, that is). I’ve enjoyed a lot of these posts very much, so thank you on behalf of myself and the attention-deficient Rocket Children for continuing to deliver that 100% Chaff-Free GME-grade Wheat at such a feverish clip.
Now, I am going to get to Hong Kong’s Lamest Outlaw and his disconcertingly vacant eyes here shortly. But first I want to take you on a journey back to Christmas Eve, in the year of our lord 2020—a heady time in all our lives. We were all so young and innocent then, weren’t we? Fresh off the run up to 22. Blissfully oblivious that we were living in the last moments where the question What is The War of 1812? was the only acceptable Jeopardy question for the answer: The Last Time the Goddamn U.S. Capitol Was Stormed. This was also before we all became irresponsibly overleveraged in Cathie Wood’s Ornamental Gourds ETF. It was a wondrous, confusing time.
But before we get too off topic, let’s all hop in my 1985 DeLorean (purchased with proceeds from my Jan 15 calls – thanks RC!), fire up the ol’ Flux Capacitor, and get that shit to 88 because something happened that evening that is Worth Pondering—particularly in light of recent events. And just as a friendly reminder: even though you’re going back in time in a DeLorean, no one here has to deviate funds away from GME shares to Save the Clock Tower and you are under no obligation to fulfill a scenario where you wind up making out with your Mom (unless your Mom is Cathie Wood like mine—in which case maybe just some quick over-the-clothes stuff).
On the Subject of How It Once ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas
So what in the holy fuck happened on the night before Christmas, Captain? Well, while all you Gentiles were sleeping soundly after lying to your children about benign home intruders and before gorging yourself on the teat of late-stage capitalism, me and the rest of the Chosen People were up late eating Chinese food and thinking about tendies (self-hating Jew Joke! Ba-zing!). But then: when out on the electric twitter machine there arose such a clatter, I sprang to my phone to see what was the matter. And what to my wondering eyes did appear, a mysterious tweet from a Rich-Ass Viking who had a lot of fucking interesting things to say about this whole GME situation that’s what.
This tweet, buried as a reply to a tweet sent by Mr. Rod Alzmann (@RodAlzmann or u/Uberkikz11), simply said: “Merry Christmas. Shhh.” But it included this screen shot:
[**Image Deleted Due to the Mods - check the link below where someone transcribed it - I'll try to add later**]
Now, this tweet to Rod, sent late at night and likely after a strong Mead or three, was very promptly deleted. But your intrepid cub reporter saw this here tweet that night with his own two eyes—seeing as I am a degenerate GME addict and devoted follower of Mr. Rod Alzmann (Hi Rod!). And I took screenshots, of course, like any responsible records custodian might. And so did the dude who wrote a somewhat-overlooked WSB post on this, which included the most pertinent text of the message if you are having trouble reading it here:
https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/kk0omp/christmas_miracle_gamergate_2020_gme_shorts/
Now, what are we to make of this? At the time, I thought it was very interesting. But I did not give it too much attention seeing as how the internet is overcrowded with anonymous weirdos claiming to know more than they do about all sorts of subjects (and now I feel your judging eyes…). Also, there was some very good commentary in that WSB post from some sharp folks about the screenshot author’s questionable use of the shorthand PE/IB—given that private equity and investment banks wouldn’t apparently be involved in a behind-the-scenes transaction with the short funds like what was being discussed there (don’t ask me, I just string together silly words here). But maybe you poke around his Twitter a bit and see for yourself.
Still, plausibility assessments based on preferred nomenclature aside, it seemed to me that some version of that conversation had to be taking place behind the scenes in a situation like this—given the batshit insane short interest, the funds supposedly involved, and the rapid rise in SP coinciding with RC’s share accumulation, December 21st amended 13D filing, and new status as a GME Insider and Board member (just love saying all that in a row, don’t you?).
So the Viking’s screenshot tweet, and the very likely possibility that shorts are in so deep that they’re attempting to negotiate peace with large shareholders behind the scenes, stuck in my tiny little baby brain as a pretty plausible set of scenarios. And from the look of it, it seems like some funds were at least willing to discuss offering these shorts a Golden Bridge away from Certain Fucking Destruction on the open market. And if the words on the screenshot are at all aligned with reality, these short funds have no good options.
Yet it seems like they are still playing hardball to negotiate the carat on this generous bridge offer they’re getting. Why? Maybe they’ve been getting high on their own supply for so long and they don’t know how to see this situation for what it is. Who knows? Maybe there is no Ryan Cohen and we’re all living in a simulation. But if the recent low-rent anti-GME articles and market manipulation efforts we’re seeing are any indication, these overleveraged short fuckers seem to think they’re going to be able to spin out of this hold and drive the SP back down to even smaller peanuts than it’s at now by sheer force of will (and some deployment of well-honed tricks of the trade amirite?) to emerge unscathed. Or even victorious? I dunno—it’s their delusional fantasy sequence.
But do you know what this scenario reminds me of? And this is just coming to me so please bear with me as I’m not showing this to my editor before we print (I haven’t seen this movie in ages – don’t know what made me think of this!). Fuck it, I’m just gonna start riffing here. The shorts trying to thread this needle, against all odds and logic and common sense, reminds me of that hilarious scene in Dumb and Dumber where haplessly delusional Jim Carrey thinks he has a chance with Mary Samsonite Swanson. But the scene is funny because he really doesn’t. Have any chance. At all.
Now, I know this is a 1990s movie originally released on VHS that we haven’t seen it or even seen it referenced in ages. But now that you’re thinking of it again after all this time, doesn’t it remind you of this too? I know, I get it: You’d have to have fucking peanuts for brains for it not to.
(https://twitter.com/ryancohen/status/1350877969816956934?s=20)
On the Subject of the Continued Internet Bumbling of Mr. Justin Dopierala
Now that screenshot came to mind this past week when something kind of weird happened while we were all enjoying our quick rocket ship ride. And yes, we are briefly going to talk again about Seeking Alpha’s second finest pro-GME author (always been more of a Dmitriy man myself) and recurring CPT Hubbard character, Justin Dopierala (and no, Angela, I do not want to have like 10,000 of his babies).
Last Thursday, after we were all virtually high-fiving one another and counting our future Lambos, Mr. Justin Dopierala, head of Domo Capital and longstanding uber-bull GME shareholder and author at Seeking Alpha (last seen arguing pithily with our own Rod Alzmann about the conservative nature of Rod’s holiday earnings projections. Hi again Rod!), made it known that he sold all of Domo Capital’s 500,000 shares for around $42.50—at the very top of the run up last Thursday morning.
Now, Domo Capital’s business decisions are none of my goddamn business. And there are plenty of market opportunities right now. Shit, I hear there is even a new Cathie Wood Gourd ETF coming online soon that people are really excited about and that I’m sure Justin’s clients would find intriguing. But Domo’s decision to sell seemed curious given a few things: (1) on Wednesday, when the rocket is mid-flight, he got a twitter follow from Gabe Plotkin, head of Melvin Capital, which he promptly tweeted about with a “get a load of this fuckin’ guy” vibe (oh the sweet, intoxicating arrogance of tendie victory, I too love it so); (2) he had also tweeted that day comparing GME’s rise to Apron’s short squeeze that lasted 4 days—where he also stressed to his followers that Apron had a much lower SI than GME; and (3) he then promptly deleted all of these tweets and almost everything else GME-related on Thursday after apparently introducing 500,000 shares of liquidity into the height of a stressed market up and through the Thursday reversal and down into his own personal tendie town.
Now, after seeing all this, I mouthed off a bit to Justin on the electric twitter machine because that’s kind of my thing. And if you are familiar with my prior ramblings, you know that he and I go way back. In response, Justin talked a bit of shit about your intrepid cub reporter here in a comment on Dimitry Kozin’s October 21, 2020 article about a possible sony revenue share deal or something, the comment section of which has become the preferred SA water cooler over there. (And I can’t link that because Thems The Rulez). And Justin hurt my little feelings a bit with his very sharp denial. And by all means have at it over there to check out his comment about why he sold if you give a shit. That is if Justin hasn’t deleted it yet. Free country and all.
But to summarize, on the subject of treacherous coordination with Melvin Capital, Justin said he would not could not in a boat and he would not could not with a goat. And I for one believe him. And do you know why? Because even though Justin seems like a very smart guy in some ways, he’s also a well-known internet bumbler who blurts out things to his internet friends that a person with better self-control would keep to themselves. And so I do not think he is capable of pulling that off or keeping a secret like that. Also: he said he didn’t so I am more than willing to give someone the benefit of any doubt in that area and you should too. I think we keep Hanlon’s razor firmly in mind here about never attributing to malice that which is explained by stupidity. That is unless, of course, you’re Andrew Left and you’re actually trying to convince people that you didn’t realize there was a US presidential inauguration planned for the same time you announced your Super Important TeeVee Yammerfest ‘21 about GME not being a good candidate for an imminent short squeeze no way no how not if my name isn’t Andrew Left short seller expert extraordinaire and Hong Kong’s Most Misunderstood Ethically-Minded Businessman. You can ascribe the fuck out of malice to that one.
No, even though I really have no idea, I think the most likely thing that happened there was that Gabe Plotkin, Master of the Universe, Head of Melvin Capital, and Acolyte of Perennial Most Ethical Business Man MVP candidate, Steven Cohen—got into Justin’s head when Plotkin followed him on twitter during the 57% (at one point 94%) day last Wednesday and then Justin got a bit chippy about it.
And this is the real reason I’m bringing this up.
Because I honestly care very little about the Nervous Investing Habits of the Wisconsin hedge fund voted most likely to prompt a Mr. Roboto reference. No: I think that Gabe Plotkin sent a message with that follow. Without even ever having to say it directly. And I think that after GME’s huge run and getting a little overexcited while working the twitter machine, Justin maybe had a chance to relax with a warm glass of milk that night and reflect on that message. Which I believe was: I’m watching you, motherfucker. And the only reason I’m paying any attention to some shitstain Wisconsin pseudo-fund on a day like today when I am getting my ass fucking torched is because I want you to know that if this GME shit blows up on me, I’m going to fuck your ass up. I will remember the name Domo Capital forevermore. And when you least expect me, I’ll be there. Now: your move, motherfucker.
And once I realized what might have happened there, that made me feel kinda bad for Justin if he felt that way. Definitely a puss move because fuck you Plotkin I drink your fucking milkshake, right? But bad because that’s a mean message for a business colleague to send, Gabriel. Shame on you if that's how you roll like a big New York bully and scaring our poor Justin like that. And if you just wanted to follow him to shoot the shit or swap listicles and Star Wars Prequel memes with a respected contemporary—even in the very midst of getting fucking annihilated while short GME—well Justin has a totally different account for that and he’s not allowed to access it during work hours.
On The Likelihood That The Most Heavily Shorted Stock in History Is Not Being Subject to Continued Market Manipulation When A Steve Cohen Acolyte Is Losing His Fucking Shirt
Have you heard about Steve Fucking Cohen? The guy who looks like he’s tip top of the list of the premier Hollywood casting agency’s rolodex for Saddest Dipshit Still At the Strip Club After Everyone Else Has Already Gone Home? I’m sorry, that’s mean and my mother told me to always be kind to the truly hideous looking because they’re probably still beautiful on the inside (spoiler alert: he’s not!).
Get a load of this guy:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-01-02/why-sac-capitals-steven-cohen-isnt-in-jail
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-09-02/controversial-hedge-fund-billionaire-steven-cohen-takes-on-hollywood
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/steven-a-cohen-among-the-million-dollar-donors-to-trump-inauguration-2017-04-19
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/steve-cohen-trump
https://nypost.com/2015/06/17/billionaire-steve-cohen-bros-out-with-guy-fieri/
Are you back? I’ve missed you. That was scary, wasn’t it? But allow me to TL/DR all that for you who decided to avoid all that unpleasantness: the dude just has all this bad luck and keeps finding himself into these really awkward situations where someone could potentially question his commitment to ethical business and life practices as well as adherence to the laws of the United States and it’s just not fair and nothing’s fair and Nice Guy Steve Cohen Is The Victim Here So Just Stop Right There Mister I See What You’re Doing. He's also bros with Guy Fieri. Cool.
But why am I talking about a guy who would so clearly pass Billy Madison’s Final Question about Business Ethics without even breaking a sweat?
Because Steve Cohen once had a young Ace Protegee that he loved very much. With the name of an Archangel, so tender and pure. And one day this young man decided he wanted to Prove Himself and Leave Steve’s Nest. And thus was born Melvin Capital, seeded financially by Steve Cohen but named after famed Crooner Melvin H. Tormé, which Gabe’s esteemed mentor Steve would play in his office, over and over, all those years ago.
Now let’s fast forward a bit because I’m boring myself with all that fucking Cohen reading (the bad Cohen—don’t you dare get anyone confused here). As I was saying: Gabe Plotkin, head of Melvin Capital, has by all accounts gotten himself into a bit of a pickle here being so deeply short GME. Lots of people have analyzed and overanalyzed it, and I’m not going to do it again here; that dead horse is well and truly beaten. But to bottom line it: we’re all just staring down what is essentially an unprecedented math problem that will, at some point, resolve itself. And if it revolves itself in favor of the Good Guys, then the Bad Guys will lose a Fuck-ton of Money. That’s your money block quote, WSJ, so fuck off and stop calling me.
Now: picture yourself as a Steve Cohen acolyte that just bought a $44M Miami Compound and who cannot stop talking about how co-owning the Charlotte Hornets is worth it just for the courtsides alone bro once basketball is a thing again and so what if Michael Jordan keeps calling him Gary it’s close enough. Are you feeling the most financially secure that you have ever felt in your young rich life right about now? Or might you be a wee bit worried that you’ve pursued an investment thesis so reckless, so irrationally and intentionally destructive of equity, that even Melvin H. Tormé himself must be rolling in his fucking grave that you would ever dare put at risk your ability to continue being Michael Jordan’s Gary?
And so here is when I again link my good buddy Jim Cramer’s Great Unveiling of the Tactics Deployed by Short Sellers hoping to change the narrative and construct a “new truth” to suppress the SP in the face of, oh, let’s just say: a very promising turnaround story in a high-growth industry by an e-Commerce Canadian Genius who does not fuck around and who knows what he’s fucking doing and aims to sell more and better video games experiences to crackhead video gamers and there’s a million things he wants to do but just you wait, just you wait.
Is this plot that hard to follow?
And I’ll also say this: I know fuck-all about monitoring order flows or how funds continue to create synthetic shares to short shit into oblivion. But I’m just stepping back and thinking of the broader narrative and tactics on this. Spit-balling here again—bear with me. Now, if you were massively short a security while paying out your ass in borrowing fees for the privilege of entering the most crowded short trade in the market and you’re now opposite a massive business turnaround story, Ryan Cohen, numerous institutions, funds, retail whales, Norwegian HNW Freemason Consortiums, and the energy behind the Finest Rocket Children Ever to Grace Planet Fucking Earth—and you’re taking it in the ass week after week here—Do you then play this straight? Do you set aside all of these illegal and deceptive short tactics Jim Cramer candidly outlines in that video even though they’re impossible to enforce and are in fact not enforced? That Jim basically says you’d be professionally negligent if you were short and didn’t do this shit because fuck it whosgonnastopyou? And now you fucked up and that steamroller is barreling down upon you and there are all these things you could theoretically do try to get yourself out of this jam if you were That Kind of Person? Do you set this all aside and, at least in Jim’s view, tie one hand behind your precious ethical back? On the most heavily shorted stock off all time where you are bleeding Real Life Big-Boy Money? Just buying and selling you know, just a job, honest living, nothing much to it, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, can't get too carried away with it.
Or is it something a little bit fucking different than that?
I don’t know. I’m not in the industry myself. And I would never accuse anyone of doing anything so clearly contrary to the values upon which their professional career as Master of the Universe was built. So Gabe: chill. Don’t follow me or something on twitter man, since for all I know that’s Plotkinese for I Hope You Don’t Mind Sleeping With This Severed Horse Head in Your Bed Motherfucker. It’s just money, dude. You seem pretty well taken care of. But man would I be sweating if I were short right now staring down the barrel of your new neighbor Ryan Cohen’s whims and patience and polite Canadian manners and ambiguous emojis that we all lose our shit for. I mean, fuck man: are you ok? Don’t forget to exercise and eat well during all this. Maybe switch to green tea or something. And remember: you’ll always—always—be Michael Jordan’s Gary.
But here is where we return to our good friend Andrew Left from Citron Research.
Do you remember the excitement you felt this past weekend? I’ve never seen WSB so jacked. People were coming out hot on Tuesday—an uptick day! The new phone book’s here! The new phone book's here! What luck to be free of Gary’s tomfoolery for one fine day. And then GME spiked right away—reaching a high of over $45 that morning.
But then something happened. We all know what it was. But here is where any SEC lookie-loos need to close those Pornhub links and pay closer attention. Because in the moments before the Citron tweet that morning about Andy’s upcoming BuzzFeed Listicle call on Why GME is Scary Investment GRRRR, total short shares available dropped from 1.2M to 0. And a $300K put bet was placed on a weekly with a strike price well over 10% out of the money at the very moment that GME’s price was accelerating rapidly. (H/t u/FatAspirations). That’s some WSB-level shit right there.
And yet they pull it off! GME immediately shoots down nearly 30% intraday, and eventually climbing abck up above 10%, making us all feel a little weird and like ungrateful millennial brats for feeling so shitty about a 10% day. But we all know what fucking happened, now don’t we?
So what can we say about ol’ Andy? Now, many of you know Andy as the dumbshit who shorted TSLA until he was ground into little bits of dumb dumb dust and made to look ever so foolish over and over again until he finally cried drunk uncle and flipped to being long TSLA and now he’s cool to you or whatever. Or you might know him as the guy who puts out really shoddy research that often, by pure happenstance, drives a new narrative to control the orderflow and SP on a WSB-beloved security like PLTR? You know the guy I’m talking about. Once in hot pursuit by Hong Kong fuzz, an International Man of Obviousness with a face that says: why yes, I will have another vodka tonic thankyouverymuch. That’s him.
Well, just like future call-back candidate for the role of Frightened Inmate #2, Mr. Steve Cohen, Andy is also but a Caveman—frightened and confused by your modern concepts of “ethics” and “rules.” No! No!—He’s a straight shooter! Devoted to rooting out obvious frauds, like Lukin Coffee and TSLA (Do not fuck with Elon or my Hot Mom’s ETF, Andy). And like the aspirations of Antoine Bugle Boy when he entered the blue jeans market, Andy saw an overcrowded short trade here based on an overly simplistic and obsolete short thesis about GME and said: “Me Too!” And as this thing is ripping to the stratosphere, Andy starts ringing his dumb dumb twitter bell and saying hear ye, hear ye—Inauguration Day and time it shall be for all my Big Brain thoughts about GME!
Nothing weird about that. No sir.
So Andy Citron or whatever the fuck his name is will be putting out some dumbshit video or something today in what seems to be a pretty clear attempt to scare my poor Rocket Children and get those pesky computers to high frequency this shit to drive the SP down to more acceptable loss levels (cause let’s be honest: they’re still taking a fucking bath here) for Mel Tormé’s namesake hedgefund and all the other cretins that are dug into short position here. And they’re gonna try to scare ya’ with the color red! And they know that no one here likes the color red.
But do see what’s going on here and who we’re dealing with. This really ain’t rocket science, Rocket Children. The dude actually tried to claim he forgot about the Inauguration. In 2021. He has not been in a coma, to the best of my knowledge. But you do look a little bleary eyed, Andy. Must have been all that staying up super late working on those last few bullet points to fill out the powerpoint on that GME listicle of yours, eh sport?
Conclusion: On the Subject of Patience and The Arc of The Universe Bending Toward Ryan Fucking Cohen
In my youth there was a period of time where I went out on boats that would drop crates into the waters of the Arctic. Bundled inside them were raw pieces of meat. In the coming days the boats would head back out to the frigid seas, hook the floats bobbing upon the waters, and pull the crates up. Packed inside would be many crabs. They were so delicious & made a good price at market. The difference between the crate that was empty and the create full of bounty was a mystery even the great physicist Erwin Schrödinger pondered at much length.
But the hearty fishermen of my youth already knew the answer long ago. Why did the trap fill up? Time. In time, all traps fill. In time, all things pondered shall be revealed.
--The Fucking Viking, That’s Who
Now look, you all know I have a soft spot for Ryan Cohen. Hell, we all do. He’s a good dude. And the man has played this flawlessly so far. He really has. The fact that we are all sitting here with Ryan Cohen having successfully negotiated three seats on the Board—a bloodless coup as my man Rod Alzmann says—here in January? It’s amazing. His vision for GME is dialed-the-fuck in and extremely exciting. This misunderstood business is on the threshold of an exciting turnaround with Ryan Cohen at the helm. And though I was very much looking forward to the potential repercussions of a vote being called at the annual meeting and what that might mean for the short-term share price, this result is infinitely better. Whatever their motivations, that Board and George Sherman saw the writing on the wall here and accepted the Golden Bridge that Ryan offered them. And Ryan Cohen has done everything he’s set out to do here. And he’s clearly been having fun while doing it. Read up on the guy at some point if you haven’t–there’s lots of good DD out there on him, obviously. And while you’re reading and thinking about Ryan Cohen, think also about guys like Steve Cohen (no fucking relation) and Gabe Plotkin and Andy Left and how lucky we are that we get to roll with RC against that motley crew of fuckwads.
And do you know what? I’m guessing that RC, and maybe even the funds being discussed in that screenshot, have been very patient with Mr. Plotkin et al in recent weeks. You don’t go around bankrupting hedge funds willy nilly, you know--bad form and all that old chap. People tend to remember that. And guys like Steve Cohen and Gabe Plotkin seem like they play for keeps. So now you try to build them a Golden Bridge to cross—maybe not their preferred route of travel, but could be worse and all that, right guys? But for whatever reason it seems like the natural instinct here on the short side is fight over flight. And these short FUD tactics are getting increasingly ridiculous to help slow down the inevitable march toward the detonator right next to that bridge. So relax everyone! And let’s not fool ourselves: All those Masters of the Universes are well aware of the math problem they’re all facing here and they must have a vague grasp of the odds that this goes off in one direction over the other. And what that could mean for the size of their money pits and how many sports teams they can buy this year. Shit, I assume Steve Cohen is counseling his young acolyte about how many sads he himself felt deep down in his man heart on that fateful day in 2008 when he lost $250M on a short when Volkswagon squeezed to infinity—a sadness that he will continue to draw on when his agent finally finds him a role that calls for it.
But my point is: the longs here can afford to be patient and let this play out. When this thing moves, the Viking’s Schrödinger crabs will only be in one pot. And I’m guessing that pot is the one being held by the guy who is actually in total control here: Ryan Goddamn Cohen.
So enjoy the show today. If you’re anything like me, you’re feeling relaxed after gorging yourself on lucky space peanuts all week.(https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/10022/lucky-peanuts/)
And though these silly wabbits with their cumbersome FUD efforts can get a bit tiresome, I’m still very much enjoying this GME show at this point and almost do not want it to end—what with all these Sorkin-esque twists and turns and my Cohen Tweet Decorder Ring getting all this sweet action.
But just remember who Ryan Cohen is, what he cares about, and what, so far, he has told us he intends to do here. And then you might realize, as I have, that Ryan Cohen has had the Gray’s Sports Almanac here all along. This story has already been written. He’s already won. And Melvin Capital’s Schrödinger-ass crabs are dead as fuck. The only question now is: what causes that Golden Bridge to blow? I, for one, am content to wait on RC while counting my good fortune that I can continue to accumulate until whatever happens here happens. So pass the rocket peanuts.
It’s just money after all. Right Gabe?
TL/DR: Psst: a Mysterious Viking once told me about behind-the-scenes Golden Bridge negotiations that are likely taking place that give shorts no chance but the shorts seem to think they’re saying there’s a chance but there really is no chance; Gabe Plotkin, Steve Cohen and Andy Left are misunderstood Straight Shooters who probably answer typical interview questions about their own perceived weaknesses by saying “Sometimes I just care too much about doing the right thing”; and Ryan Cohen is the Goddamn Man so we can all relax and not worry so much about all this dumb short FUD bullshit, ok? OK. 🚀🚀🚀
**If you construe any of the above as investment advice without doing your own DD or at least Googling Ryan Cohen then you are a fucking idiot and may God have mercy on your soul. You too, Andy.

GAME INFO:

Game Number: #4
Date: Thursday December 31st, 2020

Current Streak: L3

Tip Off: 7:30 pm (EST)
Venue: Amalie Arena (Tampa, FL)
Weather: 25°C (77°F) - SUNNY

ATLANTIC DIVISION

TEAM	W	L	GB
Philadelphia	3	1	0.0
Brooklyn	3	2	0.5
Boston	3	2	0.5
New York	2	2	1.0
TORONTO	0	3	2.5

MEDIA:

Official Media Game Notes: TORONTO RAPTORS
Canadian TV:

• Pre-Game: Raptors Pre-Game @ 7:00pm (EST)
• Raptors Tangerine Basketball: SPORTSNET & SPORTSNET ONE @ 7:30pm (EST)
  • NBA Late Night: Cleveland @ Indiana (REPLAY) - 10:00pm (EST) - SPORTSNET ONE

US National TV: N/A
Legal Streams:

• Sportsnet NOW
• TSN Direct
• NBA League Pass - BLACKED OUT IN CANADA

Radio:

• 590 AM

UNIFORMS:

• RAPTORS - RED - ICON
• KNICKS - BLUE - ICON

BOXSCORES:

• SPORTSNET
• TSN
• NBA.COM
• ESPN
• YAHOO!

BETTING INFO:

Spread: Raptors -9.5
Total: 216.0
Money Line: Raptors -450

EXPECTED STARTING LINE UPS:

POSITION	RAPTORS	OPPONENT
PG	Kyle Lowry	Elfrid Payton
SG	Fred VanVleet	Reggie Bullock
SF	OG Anunoby	R.J. Barrett
PF	Pascal Siakam	Julius Randle
C	Aron Baynes	Mitchell Robinson

INJURY REPORT:

(as of 5:30pm report)

RAPTORS	STATUS	INJURY
Patrick McCaw	OUT	Left Knee Rehab

OPPONENT	STATUS	INJURY
Alec Burks	OUT	Left Ankle
Kevin Knox II	GTD	Left Knee
Frank Ntilikina	OUT	Right Knee
Immanuel Quincey	OUT	Left Hip
Austin Rivers	GTD	Groin
Dennis Smith Jr.	OUT	Left Quad
Omari Spellman	OUT	Right Knee
Obi Toppin	OUT	Right Calf

NBA REFEREE ASSIGNMENTS:

POSITION	NUMBER	NAME
Crew Chief	# 71	Rodney Mott
Referee	# 64	Justin Van Duyne
Umpire	# 13	Ashley Moyer-Gleich
Alternate	N/A	N/A

wear a mask.

wash your hands.

install the Gov't of Canada COVID tracing app.

WELCOME BACK RAPTORS FAM! ❤️

Do me, and everyone else a favor and read the entire thing before commenting. There's a significant trend on this sub of people just commenting bullshit based on what they think a post might say before reading it. There's a lot of explanation and context here so take your time if you're looking to learn.
Just a straight copy/paste from his newsletter today:
If a lot of people on Reddit band together to drive the price of a stock higher, is that illegal? I have been asked that question a lot recently, and I want to be clear that:

1. I don’t know, and
   
2. If I did know, I wouldn’t tell you, because I do not give legal advice in this newsletter, and I particularly do not give legal advice that people on Reddit might read while pumping up stocks.
   

That said I suppose we should talk about the question in general and extremely not-legal-advice terms. I guess my answer would be that it might be illegal in all sorts of ways, but it is not obviously illegal, and if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were to go after WallStreetBets for this stuff they will be breaking new ground and going beyond their previous cases. I do not want to say “this stuff is all fine,” but I will say I am not all that bothered by it.
There are two main things that are illegal. One is “securities fraud.” This basically means lying about a stock. The other is “market manipulation.” Nobody knows what this means. Legally, it means something like:

To effect, alone or with 1 or more other persons, a series of transactions in any security … creating actual or apparent active trading in such security, or raising or depressing the price of such security, for the purpose of inducing the purchase or sale of such security by others.

So if you buy stock with the purpose of pushing the price up so that other people will buy it, that’s market manipulation. If you buy stock hoping that the price will go up because other people buy it, that’s not market manipulation; that’s just normal. Those things are not so different. There is a “traditional four-part test for manipulation that has developed in case law”:

1. I buy some GameStop stock.
   
2. I put out rumors—in my subscription newsletter, on Reddit, in fake press releases, whatever—about some catalyst for the stock to go up. “Hey I hear from an inside source that GameStop just got an exclusive contract to supply downloadable video games in Tesla cars,” etc.
   
3. People see these rumors, believe them and buy GameStop stock, pushing the price up.
   
4. I sell the stock to them at the higher prices.
   

So consider the general concept of a “pump-and-dump” scheme. The most classic pump-and-dump goes like this:
1) I buy some GameStop stock.
2) I put out rumors—in my subscription newsletter, on Reddit, in fake press releases, whatever—about some catalyst for the stock to go up. “Hey I hear from an inside source that GameStop just got an exclusive contract to supply downloadable video games in Tesla cars,” etc.
3) People see these rumors, believe them and buy GameStop stock, pushing the price up.
4) I sell the stock to them at the higher prices.
This is very straightforwardly illegal and the SEC goes after this stuff all the time, alleging securities fraud. Lying about stocks. Here is the SEC’s “Investor Alert: Social Media and Investing -- Stock Rumors,” which pretty much defines a pump-and-dump this way:

For example, in a “pump-and-dump” scheme, promoters “pump” up the stock price by spreading positive rumors that incite a buying frenzy and they quickly “dump” their own shares before the hype ends. Typically, after the promoters profit from their sales, the stock price drops and the remaining investors lose money.

There are variations. The SEC has gone after forms of dishonesty that aren’t quite lying about the stock. For instance, if you are a widely followed stock promoter with a subscription tip newsletter, and you email tips to your subscribers and then sell your stock to them while saying that you’re buying, that seems dishonest, and the SEC will go after you. Or if you are a promoter or research firm and you put out positive research about a company, but you don’t disclose that the company paid you to put out the research, that is also bad.
Now, I think you could do a pump-and-dump without any actual lying. For instance:

1. I email subscribers to my expensive private newsletter saying “hey let’s pump GameStop.”
   
2. We all buy GameStop, knowing that we’re just doing it for the pump, with no real or fake catalyst for the stock to go up.
   
3. It goes up, because we bought a lot of it.
   
4. Other people, innocents and high-frequency trading algorithms, see it go up on heavy volume and think “hey this is a good stock, we should buy it.” They buy it, pushing the price up.
   
5. We sell the stock to them at the higher prices.
   

In this version, I have not lied about a stock. On the other hand, I have effected transactions in the stock to create trading activity and raise the price, for the purpose of inducing people to buy it. Seems like market manipulation, “painting the tape” or something. The SEC goes after stuff like this occasionally.
I think that in modern markets you could even do a bit better than that and have a completely honest pump-and-dump:

1. I show up on Reddit and say “hey let’s pump GameStop.”
   
2. We all buy GameStop, knowing that we’re just doing it for the pump, with no real or fake catalyst for the stock to go up.
   
3. It goes up, because we bought a lot of it.
   
4. Other people see us doing this, read my Reddit post, know we are pumping the stock, and also buy it, because we seem to be having fun, and they like fun too.
   
5. Eventually some of us get bored and start selling and the price collapses.
   

The point here is that it is at least theoretically possible that no one buys stock for any reason other than “hey it’s a fun pump.” That is, no one is deceived about the fundamentals (there’s no fake news about the company), and also no one is deceived about the technicals. No one says “huh this stock is up on a lot of good buying pressure, I should buy some”; everyone who buys says “hey this stock is up because it’s being pumped, and if I get in now I might still get out before it collapses, and that’ll be fun.” It is “respect the pump” as a quasi-mystical mantra.
I bet the SEC would say that’s market manipulation, but I am not so sure. I suppose we did our trading “for the purpose of inducing the purchase or sale of such security by others,” but not by deceiving them about what’s going on. “Join us in a fun game of chicken,” was our basic message here. Did we try “to create or effect a price or price trend that does not reflect legitimate forces of supply and demand”? Who’s to say what’s “legitimate”? Surely the price did not reflect expectations about future cash flows, but just as surely the price reflected supply and demand: We all wanted to own it because we were having fun, so the price went up.
Anyway, the actual GameStop situation. I suppose it’s possible that someone on Reddit has posted fake rumors about GameStop’s business, but I haven’t seen any. The posts I’ve seen about GameStop have been either (1) substance-free “GME to $1,000” stuff or (2) arguments based on publicly available information plus personal opinion and guesses about the future. They might be wrong or exaggerated or misstated, but it’s not, like, core fraud.
Is it manipulation? Well, there is not a lot of deception here. No one is buying GameStop stock because they think to themselves “boy this stock is going up a lot on heavy volume, must be a bunch of big institutions who see fundamental value here.” There is absolutely wall-to-wall coverage of GameStop in financial media, and it pretty much all says “lol those crazy redditors, pushing up the stock for no reason.” So at worst this is a sort of honest pump, people banding together to do it for the lolz and hoping they can get out before it collapses.
I’m not even convinced it’s that though. The stock closed Friday at its all-time high. Roaring Kitty was up $11 million. Everyone came back on Monday and did it again. My model here—and I should emphasize this is purely a guess—is that the people most identified with the GameStop trade on Reddit, at this point, are much more interested in securing their legendary status on Reddit than they are in taking profits at the expense of whoever came in later.
You could have other miscellaneous theories about words like “collusion” and “short squeezes.” Is it illegal for people to band together to all buy stock at the same time? “If institutional investors had an internet site or chat where they arguably cajoled each other or coordinated to buy stock to move the price higher,” one reader asked me by email, “wouldn’t that be stock manipulation and wouldn’t the SEC get involved?”
Well, a while back there were reports that the SEC was looking into hedge fund “idea dinners,” where hedge funds get together to pitch each other on their third-best ideas. 1 That sounds like institutional investors having a chat where they cajole each other to buy stock in a coordinated way. But the SEC wasn’t concerned about market manipulation. The SEC was concerned that the hedge funds might be a “group” under the securities laws, if they teamed up to own more than 5% of the stock, and that they hadn’t made the necessary group disclosures. This is less of a concern for small retail investors, just because they are less likely to get above 5% of the company. 2 Also it doesn’t seem like the idea-dinner probe went anywhere. Telling your friends that you like a stock and they should buy it is, more or less, fine.
Or is a short squeeze illegal? One popular topic on WallStreetBets is recalling stock borrow. Kochkodin’s article describes one call to action in April 2020:

The final all-caps sentence imploring GameStop owners to call their brokers and tell them to not lend them short opened a new theater to wage war against short-sellers.
It’s a little known fact, and one that you wouldn’t expect to learn on a Reddit message board, that a stockholder can request that shares they own outright not be lent out to short-sellers.

If everyone bands together to recall stock borrow, there will be fewer shares available for short sellers, and the short sellers will be forced to cover their bets by buying stock, pushing the price up more. Is that illegal? Is it illegal to make borrow impossible with the goal of messing with short sellers?
The SEC might think so, actually. In 2012, it brought charges against Phil Falcone and Harbinger Capital Partners LLC for, among other things, having “conducted an illegal ‘short squeeze’ to manipulate bond prices.” I confess I do not understand why the SEC thought a short squeeze was illegal, or what they think the fraud was, but the Falcone short squeeze is one of my all-time favorite financial stories and I advise you to read the complaint for humor and inspiration. Quick summary: Falcone owned some bonds of a company called MAAX Holdings Inc. “After hearing rumors that a Wall Street financial services firm was shorting the MAAX bonds and also encouraging its customers to do the same, Falcone decided to seek revenge.” So he bought all the MAAX bonds. Then he bought more: Short sellers would borrow MAAX bonds (presumably from him), and then sell them to him, so that he ended up with “22 million more bonds than MAAX had ever issued.” Then he stopped lending them out, forcing the short sellers to buy bonds to cover their shorts. But there were no bonds to be bought, since he owned them all (and more). At some point an executive from the “Wall Street firm” called up Falcone to talk about the situation, and even in the SEC’s dry language you can tell that it was one of the greatest conversations in all of Wall Street history:

At some point, the conversation turned to the trading in the MAAX bonds. The senior officer asked Falcone how the Wall Street firm might satisfy its obligation to Harbinger. Falcone stated that the Wall Street firm should just keep bidding for the bonds. Falcone acknowledged that the Wall Street firm would suffer some losses doing so, but told the senior officer and the others that sometimes you are just on the wrong side of a trade.
In the course of this discussion, Falcone stated that he knew that the short position in the MAAX zips had created a “long” position in excess of the issue size. When the senior officer asked how he could possibly know this, Falcone stated that he was working the position himself and that he (i.e., Harbinger) had acquired approximately 190 million bonds. The senior officer and the other the Wall Street firm personnel were stunned.

“Just keep bidding for the bonds,” “sometimes you are just on the wrong side of a trade,” I love it so much.
Where were we? Oh, right, GameStop. I suppose a really coordinated successful effort to squeeze borrow might count as market manipulation, at least in the SEC’s view, but I’m not sure how serious this effort was. In any case it hasn’t worked. “Despite a punishing two weeks and relentless chat-room taunting, GameStop Corp. haters are showing no signs of surrender,” Bloomberg reported yesterday; short interest has barely budged, and there are still shares available to borrow.
I don’t know. Taking a step back: Should the SEC care about all of this? On the one hand, I do not see a whole lot of deception in this GameStop situation. The SEC’s core concerns, about people lying about stocks and tricking the innocent, don’t seem especially implicated here; everyone is having reasonably informed and consensual fun.
On the other hand it is all pretty dumb? Like if you are a securities regulator, you can think of your job narrowly as preventing people from lying about stocks, or more broadly as encouraging capital formation and fostering confidence in markets and moving markets toward efficiency and perfection. And, you know, this is the opposite of that. A popular conclusion from the GameStop story is “well I guess the stock market is nonsense now,” and I’m not sure that conclusion is wrong. Seems like the sort of thing the SEC wouldn’t like. But what can they do about it?
Here's the full article, there's a bunch of linked sources where he adds resources on previous occurrences or other court cases/SEC actions, but I'm way too lazy to edit all of those links in: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-26/will-wallstreetbets-face-sec-scrutiny-after-gamestop-rally