CNN is an entertainment network. They don’t need quotes from hedge funds. It’s easier and more engaging to get “an expert on hedge funds” to rant on-air about how mad they must be, and then report on it as if it were news.
They also have had a few stories about how this is "Trumpism". They're desperate for eyes. It think it's great and the fact that discord dropped the WSB channel because of bad users (which could easily have been infiltrated users) falls right into the same issues we were having a couple weeks back.
All of this makes it clear that people are frustrated and upset. My only concern is people that can't take the squeeze jumping in on the train and losing in the end.
Since no one replied with anything substantive yet, I looked around a bit to try and answer my own question. Nothing I've found from a hedge fund is even remotely close to crying foul... but here's a collection of quotes
Citron research (not a hedge fund, but one of the parties that had a large short position) put out the following video generally supporting redditors and wsb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS4yPsmaDDQ
Melvin Captital (Hedge fund that took a big hit), as far as I can tell, has not put out any substantial statement, but none of what I can find that they did put out is crying foul. Examples of what I can find include "The social media posts about Melvin Capital going bankrupt are categorically false", ""Melvin Capital has repositioned our portfolio over the past few days. We have closed out our position in GME (GameStop)"
The only statement I can find from Citadel (hedge fund that invested in Melvin) is from their CEO, saying "Gabe Plotkin and team have delivered exceptional results over the history of Melvin. We have great confidence in Gabe and his team".
Point72 (another hedge fund investing in Melvin to bail them out - and who already had $1 billion under management with Melvin) had their chairman say "I've known Gabe Plotkin since 2006 and he is an exceptional investor and leader. We are pleased to have the opportunity to invest additional capital and take a non-controlling revenue share in Melvin Capital,". I haven't found anything else.
> The only statement I can find from Citadel (hedge fund that invested in Melvin) is from their CEO, saying "Gabe Plotkin and team have delivered exceptional results over the history of Melvin. We have great confidence in Gabe and his team".
That sounds like the kind of thing a GM says a week before they can a couch. If you actually HAVE great confidence, you don't have to say you do. Actions speak.
I mean, the action here was Griffin's company investing two billion dollars into Melvin, so that sort of lends credence to the idea that Griffin does have confidence in Gabe and his team.
>> We are pleased to have the opportunity to invest additional capital and take a non-controlling revenue share in Melvin Capital
Haha, seems to me like other funds are taking advantage of Melvin's position to buy up some of Melvin on the cheap. All those hedge funds must love the squeeze!
yeah - this is just a squeeze. they happen. any sophisticated player in the market will recognize this as a normal (though not common) thing.
the weird and new part is that the people cornering the market are a horde of retail traders who are colluding in the open, but in a way regulators probably don't have tools to address.
what you are describing is not collusion or market manipulation. If it was, CNBC should be investigated for recommending stocks daily.
random people post analysis and others decide if they agree. Even if there were people saying to buy to cause a short squeeze, that is also perfectly fine. Institutions trade on momentum all the time, that is basically the entire HFT sector. If anything, the people on reddit are even less egregious that wall street because they are doing it in a public forum, where institutions do it in secrecy during three martini lunches or "idea dinners"
Do we know if anyone actually complain to the SEC? I know they put out a statement they are monitoring it, but it's rather hard to miss, especially when noticing weird market trends is literally your job, unless they've said something otherwise it seems likely they did that on their own initiative. Especially when congress members (i.e. your bosses) have been putting out various statements about it...
If there was a complaint there are also lots of other options than hedge funds... banks, mutual funds, pension funds, etc...
It seems somewhat unlikely that they were short, but they are the parties who I would generally expect to want increased regulation. Hedge funds on the other hand are probably delighted as a whole that there are lots of retail investors throwing money around in interesting ways - they generally excel in taking money from people doing that.
Have any of the hedge funds actually cried foul?