Got GameStop?
It’s been an eventful past few weeks in the markets thanks to the frenzied trading of Reddit/Wall Street Bets-inspired investors who recently moved to squeezeshort sellers.
The group’s activity created a rush of investing, with overa quarter of Americans buying shares in companies that gotcaught up in the scene, according to a recent Harris Poll-YahooFinance poll. This included the stocks of AMC Entertainment(35%), GameStop (33%) andBlackBerry (23%).
More than half of theseinvestors, 53%, plunkeddown $250 or less for theviral stocks, and about 15%invested over $1,000. Butafter the trading reached afever pitch, some tradingplatforms experienced outages, and brokerage firmsmoved to impose restrictions — such as Robinhood.
As a result, much of theaction soon moved fromWall Street to lawyers’ offices and then onto Congressand regulatory agencies. AndYoutuber “Roaring Kitty” — aka MassMutual registered repKeith Gill — got caught up in the regulatory crosshairs.
“One potential outcome: The Securities and Exchange
Commission could move to a T+ 1 settlement date for securities
transactions from the current T+ 2,” writes Washington Bureau
Chief Melanie Waddell in this month’s Playing Field column
(“Reddit GameStop Squeeze Is a Game Changer”). Security
Traders Association President Jim Toes, for instance, views
the current T+ 2 settlement process as “antiquated.”
Meanwhile, the more bread-and-butter field of retirement
planning remains firmly focused on longer-term issues such as
the best age for taking Social Security benefits.
“Claiming early can be particularly harmful for a higherearner because it reduces income for both spouses over alifetime, and harmful for a lower-earning spouse becausehe or she forgoes the ability to receive the full 50% spousal benefit,” explain Social Security experts Jason Fichtnerand Michael Finke in thismonth’s cover story.
“Only about 4% of retirees make the optimal SocialSecurity claiming decision.This results in a loss ofwealth of roughly $2.1 trillion for current retirees thatmade a suboptimal claimingdecision,” they add.
We hope you enjoy thismonth’s issue and invite youto check out the redesigned
ThinkAdvisor.com. Just asyou offer your clients thebest service and financialsolutions in the business,we’ve introduced the newwebsite with a best-in-class approach to its look, news focus,practical insights, industry analysis and overall user experience. Please let us know what you think by reaching out to meat jlevaux@alm.com.
We hope you enjoy this
month’s issue and invite you
to check out the redesigned
ThinkAdvisor.com. Just as
you offer your clients the
best service and financial
solutions in the business, we’ve
introduced the new website
with a best-in-class approach.
EDITOR’S NOTE
By Janet Levaux
GROUP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
