#PI Reposting to share a story. Please see that Pi friends and family widely share this post. This story will definitely provide great inspiration for Pi pioneers—what everyone should do to achieve their goals! The story is a bit long, so please be patient and read through!!!🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

He could only afford five-cent beers, but he invested all his savings into a worthless stock. In just six months, his assets skyrocketed to 47 million dollars because this stock would become the epic battle between retail investors, small traders, and the arrogant Wall Street hedge funds. This is the famous short squeeze event during the pandemic. His name is Gil, a financial analyst at Wantong Insurance and a YouTube streamer. One day, he told his followers he bought stocks. A friend advised him to sell the junk stock quickly—after all, he had a wife and kids to support. Gil not only bought stocks but also used all his equipment to invest in GameStop. His friend thought he was joking, but when Gil showed proof on his phone, they realized Gil had gone completely crazy. At that time, GameStop was the world's largest retailer of video games and entertainment software. However, due to the impact of online shopping and digital gaming, its stock had fallen over 90% in the past three years. Wall Street saw an opportunity to make a quick profit, including famous American firms like Castle Securities and the 72 Point Hedge Fund, with Melvin Capital being the biggest. Melvin’s CEO was only 36 years old but already the most profitable hedge fund on Wall Street. He had made six consecutive years of profits by shorting GameStop, driving the stock from $28 down to $2. The store owners changed six times in two years. They were ready to continue shorting GameStop, already celebrating their victory early with champagne. So Gil’s act of buying GameStop stock was almost like throwing money into the water. But unexpectedly, he woke up to find GameStop’s stock price had surged 130% in an instant. This unprecedented surge scared Melvin to the point of wetting his pants. He never expected the reason for the stock’s rise to be because a small internet influencer, Gil, said he loved the stock. Gil’s wife was about to be laid off due to the pandemic, adding pressure on him. Meanwhile, his childhood friend’s words made him doubt his own choices. But his wife fully supported his decision to buy GameStop. He went live on stream, letting Gil see what the investors were saying if he was unsure. Gil returned to his study, turned on his computer, and wore his signature red bandana. He had gone live several times before, sharing his investment methods. Although his viewers were few and often mocked him, Gil didn’t shy away. Instead, he responded humorously. Then he began seriously sharing his views on investing in GameStop. Because Wall Street’s big players were shorting GameStop, the stock hit a low of $3.85. Gil believed they had made a huge mistake—short sellers severely underestimated GameStop’s value, which was already shorted by 140%. This meant the more retail investors bought, the more the short sellers would lose. Even though most people were now buying digital games online, a quarter of loyal customers still bought physical discs at GameStop. Wall Street was deliberately messing around. As long as retail investors united to push the stock price up and refused to sell, they could crush the big capitalists’ short positions and make a huge profit. But Wall Street always looked down on retail investors as a mob—just a bunch of fools only interested in short-term gains, never united. They called these ordinary people’s money the easiest to steal—silly money. When Melvin saw retail investors entering, he excitedly added 600,000 more shares to short, waiting for the price to fall. These retail investors were the “chives” he wanted to harvest. But he never expected that his continued shorting would be seen as declaring war on GameStop. The retail investors decided to rise up—not for profit, but to take down Wall Street’s big shots. Online, people cheered each other on, frantically buying the stock and calling everyone to join in. Because they had nothing left, if each person invested a few hundred or thousand dollars to fight back, they could topple these Wall Street elites who only saw them as fools. This was no longer just about making money from stocks; it had become a thrilling revolutionary fight. Thus, a butterfly effect in the stock market began. A nurse with $50,000 in debt immediately invested half a month’s wages after seeing Gil’s call, furious at the capitalists who made her life miserable. Mark, working at GameStop, lost his business due to the short squeeze and couldn’t get paid for months. He invested his last hundred dollars into GameStop. A college girl heavily in debt, whose father had worked diligently at a big retail store before being bought out by hedge funds and bankrupted, also invested all her savings, hating those capitalists. A spark can start a prairie fire. With everyone’s effort, GameStop’s stock soared to $10. In 2020, the US experienced its bleakest Christmas ever. Gil livestreamed his results: GameStop had increased fivefold since last summer, from $4 in July to $21.70 now. Few investment theories actually work in reality, but viewers kept commenting, “Let GameStop fly to the moon!” Gil earned the respect of all netizens. The reason they could buy stocks for just a few dozen dollars was thanks to an app called Robinhood, a mobile platform dedicated to stock trading. Just register an account, and you can buy and sell stocks without trading fees—no barriers for most users. Just search the stock code, swipe, and press send—order done. Robinhood’s user base soared to 20 million. They could still profit for free because they facilitated stock trading orders—users’ trades were passed to market makers who executed the orders, earning small commissions. Although the money was tiny, the huge volume made Robinhood very profitable. Several market makers partnered with Robinhood, mostly with Castle Securities. But this business model also gave Wall Street a handle on Robinhood. On January 19, 2021, GameStop’s stock hit $43. Wall Street bet it would collapse, and the stock would plummet. Retail investors started buying aggressively, delivering a heavy blow to the big players. GameStop’s stock surged 70%, and the next day, it rose to $90. Gil posted online: “Wall Street is about to get squeezed out. Retail investors will turn the tide and reach new heights.” Short squeeze is a market mechanism—its opposite is shorting. If a stock being shorted keeps rising, short sellers need to buy back shares at high prices to cover their positions, because they borrowed the shares and must return them within a deadline. This buying pushes the stock price even higher. Other short sellers see this and buy to cut losses, causing the stock to keep rising—this is a short squeeze. At this point, Gil had already made $11 million. If he sold now, he’d have made a huge profit. But retail investors hesitated—everyone watched to see if Gil would sell. GameStop’s stock was in an extreme situation: Wall Street held 140% short interest—meaning even if they bought all available shares, they couldn’t cover their borrowed positions. They’d need to buy multiple times over. The stock could keep rising infinitely. Worse, the biggest holders were the “fools’ money” in Wall Street’s eyes—hedge funds that didn’t understand that hardworking ordinary people had no hope of winning. These hedge fund guys, born at the top of the pyramid, ate prime steaks, partied on yachts, and told others they made money because “silly money” was so easy to earn. This post resonated with all retail investors. The GameStop event instantly became a class war. So what if you’re just a tiny shrimp? As long as enough of you join, even a small fish can flip a whale. Gil urged everyone to hold firm and not sell. It’s not about money anymore; it’s a glorious revolution. And so, a butterfly effect in the stock market began. A nurse with $50,000 debt invested half her wages after seeing Gil’s call. She was furious at the capitalists who made her life miserable. Mark, working at GameStop, lost his job due to the short squeeze and couldn’t get paid for months. He invested his last hundred dollars. Two college girls, heavily in debt, each earned $270,000. The nurse’s debt was reduced to just $10,000. They all refused to sell. Later, Gil bought his brother a red sports car. In 2022, Melvin’s hedge fund shut down. Robinhood went public in July 2021, but its first day was disappointing. Two years later, trading volume was only 10% of its peak. The founders were no longer billionaires. Six months later, court documents revealed that Robinhood and Castle Securities executives had discussed massive trades before the halt. The court dismissed the lawsuit. A month later, the SEC completed its investigation and found no wrongdoing. The incident mostly faded away. Gil posted his last online message on April 16, 2021. His assets were $34 million. About 85% of hedge funds began actively investigating retail investors’ holdings, fearing another short squeeze. Hedge funds drastically reduced shorting. Wall Street could no longer ignore the “silly money” effect. That’s the full story.
All proletarians of the world, unite!!!