Defiant Redditors buy Times Square billboard as GameStop stock saga rages
'$GME GO BRRR' is a reference to the sound a money-printing machine makes
Defiant amateur investors on Reddit say they are not backing down on their investments in GameStop — and even took out billboards in Times Square and across the country urging the faithful to continue holding the line.
"$GME GO BRRR," blared a digital ad on the corner of 54th and Broadway in Manhattan. The ad ran for an hour on Friday and was a creation of digital billboard maker Matei Psatta.
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The line refers to a popular internet meme that uses "Brrr" to signify the sound a money-printing machine makes. GME is the stock’s ticker symbol on the NY Stock Exchange.
Investors on Reddit have driven the price of GameStop — a dusty mall electronics retailer worth only $2.57 a share at one point last year — to astronomical highs in just days. From a value of just under $40 a share on Jan. 14, the stock skyrocketed to $483 a share. Though price swings have been extremely volatile, the stock has spent much of the last five days comfortably above $300.
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The "movement" was initially organized by those on the Reddit page WallStreetBets. The pirate investors convulsed markets all week, pumping up Gamestop’s price in an effort to stick it to hedge fund short-sellers who bet against the stock and planned to profit from its failure. Instead, prices surged because of the renegade buyers, and some Wall Street institutions were brought to their knees.