The stock market has blown up recently, and  many people that have never invested before have joined the frenzy, making thousands of dollars. But what is it? The stock market is long and complicated, and to someone who doesn’t know anything about it, it could be daunting. 

The stock market is run on the consumers and is a public domain to buy and sell stocks. A stock is a share in a company or a partial owner of a certain company. The reason that it is partial ownership is because you have the actual owner of the company, and then the people that invest in that said company. So, if someone were to put 20 or so dollars into the market, you could work your way up to bigger and bigger companies. The bigger the company, the more costly the stock. 

Nothing is guaranteed either. Stocks don’t have a set price, rather you bid on a stock. In apps like Robinhood or TD Ameritrade, you can see what it will cost you to buy a stock, and try to get it in time. That aspect is what draws people in and can be seen as a more formal, legal way to gamble. The gambling aspect is that you have no idea what will blow up, and in fact, the two ways of interacting with the stock market is buying and selling stocks, a quicker way to make money, or investing, a way to make money that pays you annually. 

With the emergence of day traders at home, the first way of making money has been made the most popular. That is where the trouble on Wall Street started. Those apps appealed to people that had interest in investing, but the apps were meant for a small percentage of people. When COVID-19 hit, and with the mass loss of jobs, some people found themselves making money in the stock market, which is considered the best time to buy, and once businesses started to open back up, they made their money. More and more people started to get into the market, which led to a Reddit server to help people make smart investments, and for the most part it worked. With trust in the community, some people thought that it was time to start helping businesses that were about to go under. When you buy the stocks in the company, it goes to them, and it has helped out in many instances. The internet is also the internet, so the first company that they decided to “save” had to be GameStop (GME), a company notorious for selling you short in their game buying service. It went viral, raised the stock of GME, and it did save them. This went under the radar for a little bit, but Reddit did Reddit things, and decided to save the AMC movie theater chain. This was much more well known than GME’s blowup, and after an hour of the markets opening, AMC announced that filing for bankruptcy was no longer needed. The final meme trend that blew up to the same degree was Doge. Yes, that dog from ten years ago, has his own coin. It is also not a company, and is worth over one billion dollars, and can be bought for five cents. 

The Market was overrun by the common people, and the main people that hurt, were the Hedge Funds. A Hedge Fund is a company like Goldman Sachs, where they give “loans” to a company, praying on them to make more money for themselves because when that company inevitably goes under, they make their money. With GME’s rise, the Hedge Funds were down over one billion dollars, just with the emergence of one company. They were scared to lose their money, and it has been alleged they talk to the trading apps to limit the stocks, but with no proof. The stocks were limited for those stocks, with a max of 50 stocks per person. People were outraged, and rightfully so. Many people that had been there from the very beginning, saw their money dwindle. It had gotten so bad at one point, some people were limited to just 50 stocks, no matter the company, just 50 stocks that an account could have at one time. The market crashed. People were so outraged, a class action lawsuit was filed against the trading app Robinhood, a case that most likely will go in the people’s way.  

With the market finally resembling something before a run on it, it is important to note that it is gambling. You must be an adult to have an account, although if you would like to run a portfolio, ask your parents. They could have a sub account under your name, or run it yourself. Second, this is real money. This could help or hurt your credit score, and affect your later life. Finally, do your research. The market is a pattern, so find apps or websites that can help you. This is no joke. Be careful and if you do decide that you would like to, all apps have their own potential fees, so just make sure you know what you are doing.