Some 7% of Reddit’s free share float (or more) has been sold short so far, according to an estimate from the analytics company Ortex cited by Reuters. That’s something the social platform was worried would happen, noting in its prospectus that retail traders in its subreddits (and particularly on r/WallStreetBets) could cause “extreme volatility” in Reddit’s share price. Those Redditors had already signaled in posts that they were planning to short the stock.

Public data revealing short interest positions on Reddit won’t be available until April 9.

Reddit shares fell as much as 11% at market open to a low of $51.52 after an already-bad Wednesday. Bloomberg reports that Wednesday’s decline was in part due to a Hedgeye Risk Management report naming Reddit as a short idea, saying the stock could plummet 50%.

Reddit’s share price in the low $50 range is still well above its IPO price of $34, and even above its impressive first-day closing price of $48, which had investors chattering about the company’s impressive gains.

  • athos77@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    That’s something the social platform was worried would happen, noting in its prospectus that retail traders in its subreddits (and particularly on r/WallStreetBets) could cause “extreme volatility” in Reddit’s share price.

    I love how they’re blaming redditors instead of spez and his COO selling over a million shares …

    • livus@kbin.socialOP
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      9 months ago

      They’re not only blaming redditors, looks like at least one Hedge fund:

      Bloomberg reports that Wednesday’s decline was in part due to a Hedgeye Risk Management report naming Reddit as a short idea, saying the stock could plummet 50%.

      There’s been a lot of talk of it being overvalued so it’s not weird that some want to short it.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        They will absolutely be sticking to the narrative that this is all WSB’s fault though. It’s a really convenient scapegoat. Remains to be seen if it will actually work though.

        • eggmasterflex@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I don’t think so. I mean, some publications might, but big ones like Bloomberg and Reuters have acknowledged since the IPO that the major investors believe it is well overvalued. IIRC they reported that Fidelity and Blackrock gave it a $5B valuation. I recall another major investor cited the difficulty of feeding paid ads to its user base in the current community based format, and unsuccessful attempts to push profile/user centric “feeds” (similar to Facebook and Twitter) instead.

  • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Don’t forget that r/wallstreetbets is literally drooling in anticipation of being able to short Reddit stock. Unfortunately or fortunately, that sub has enough market power to be force to be reckoned with.

    • 1984@lemmy.today
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      9 months ago

      It’s a shit company, and lots of profit potential in seeing it go down. So it makes sense.

      Owners are going to cash out at these levels now and move on to another business while reddit takes a dive.

    • Zippy@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Shorting is a very important and good mechanism to bring prices back down to earth for any stock. Without it, you would see even higher valuation of which ultimately will be corrected to real financials and valuations. Be it one week or one century. And without shorting, there would be even more l people making dumb investments and intimately being bag holders.

    • ccunning@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Wouldn’t blame them after the IPO. Who wants to Create Shareholder Value for free…for someone else?

  • n0m4n@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Hearing that Reddit is subject to a lawsuit over a mass shooting and the toxic crazy that some of its subs were allowed!? Reality was going to hit. The unpaid volunteers had their mod tools dismantled, and were effectively driven out. This short was only a matter of waiting for the right time.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        9 months ago

        Reddit went public the same way robinhood did. Well known name recognition and seen unfavorably by many of their users when going public.

        So far it’s following the same path. Initial quick rise due to name popularity, then it will drop for a couple months before slowly rebounding back up part way to a more realistic price point for its valuation.

        Personally, I think reddits real pricepoint should be $20 to $30 a share. I’m guessing it will drop below that point before going back to it. Short selling popularity may take it there faster, but im saying it will go under $20 a share either way.

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Depends, Beyond Meat didn’t fall for two months and didn’t go under first day opening price for 10 months.

      • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Not a fan of artificial meat but I believe bm had a potential market that wanted their products, in a new industry that has plenty of potential.

        Besides pure speculation/gambling, what does reddit have to offer to genuine investors in 2024? They never made a profit, they don’t have a plan to make profit, they are alienating their users and their mods, they are low in the list of social media sites by usage with no credible plans to climb up the ladder. Really what’s in there to invest in?

        If I put money in a single stock ipo I want to believe that they are going public to raise funds that will be used to enact a credible businessplan. I might still be wrong and be left to hold someone else bag, but at least I believed in an idea.

        For the past few weeks teddit was trying to sell stock to their users and their employees families. That’s MLM marketing for you

    • perviouslyiner@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Isn’t it usually undervalued as a way to “pay” the institutional investors who pre-buy shares? Then they sell immediately after the first-day peak which makes the price drop.

  • verity_kindle@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I’m immeasurably excited about this. This popcorn tastes amazing and will never run out. They were, indeed, one of the last fun communities. One of the first to go lights out during APIpocalypse, if I remember correctly. Those apes will always have a special place in my heart.

  • AdmiralShat@programming.dev
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    9 months ago

    Can we trust that posts made to reddit to purposefully influence reddit stock are legitimate posts and not manufactured by the admins in some way?

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      No, nor can we rule out that they’re not attempts at influence by external actors, either.

      I think the best course of action is to just not touch the fucking thing – the stock, or the site.

  • 1984@lemmy.today
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    9 months ago

    Well it should plummet 50%, it’s worth maybe 25 dollars right now.

    In a year it will be down at 15.

    • Schaedelbach@feddit.de
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      9 months ago

      Yeah, same! But I guess I’m actually looking forward to any video from Dan. He makes the best long form content on YouTube. His channel is called Folding Ideas - for those who never heard of him.

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    They say as much as 50%. I say it’s going to go a bit lower. It went up to almost $75, but I think it will go under $25 before it starts to rebound. I bought my put options Monday morning. So far the stock is doing what I expected it to do, and I expect the decline in price will persist for the next couple months.

    I don’t have a big enough bankroll or time to sit at my computer to pull off short selling, so puts are my best bet. I will feel the tiniest bit bad for the people who made the put contracts to buy getting reemed, but honestly, if they knew what they were getting into. Like if they actually knew reddit and really researched things, they never would have been offering put contracts to begin with on Monday.