Did the leader use their personal influence to manipulate the stock price of meme, and then profit greatly from it? Would this be considered market manipulation? If the SEC wants to prosecute them for market manipulation, they need evidence that the leader deceived investors to some extent, but currently the SEC lacks such evidence.
Keith Gill, the leader, is causing trouble again.
On Thursday, he announced that he would return to Youtube live on June 7th, three years after his last live stream. This move has caused a sharp rise in the stock price of GameStop (GME) during trading hours.
GME surged 50% mid-day on Thursday, closing up over 47% at $46.55, with significant trading volume throughout the day. As of publication before pre-market trading on Friday, Gamestop has risen nearly 30%.
Is the behavior of the leader who uses personal influence to drive the continuous rise of GameStop (GME) stock and profit from it considered market manipulation?
Unfortunately, it is not considered market manipulation.
According to the lawyer, based on known trading facts, the SEC currently cannot prosecute the leader for market manipulation.
According to regulations, the SEC needs to provide evidence that the leader has in some way deceived market investors if they want to prosecute for market manipulation.
However, the information the leader posted on social media and his disclosure of his GME holdings did not appear to be obviously deceptive.
As of Thursday's close, the leader's GME stock and options contract holdings were worth a staggering $557 million, with a floating profit of $380 million.
Daniel Hawke, a partner at the law firm A&P Kaye Scholer, pointed out: "What Gill did was take advantage of a loophole in the law. He used his fame and influence to attract people to buy stocks. Unless there is fraudulent behavior, the existing rules do not allow the SEC to prosecute such behavior."
However, the leader's behavior does not seem to be insider trading, as he is not a high-level executive at GameStop.
Nevertheless, for some people, Gill's behavior is clearly an abuse of the market bug.
Matt Stoller, director of the American Economic Freedom Project, said: "This is obviously market manipulation. I can't believe we're still discussing this issue. What's the point of market manipulation laws if they don't address this situation?"
Others in the market said that Gill's behavior is no different from that of Wall Street fund managers, who discuss their holdings on television.
Interactive Brokers chief strategist Steve Sosnick likened Gill's behavior to that of an aggressive investor who quietly accumulates shares of a company and then publicly announces the news in the hope of pushing the stock price up.
Although the SEC cannot formally prosecute the leader, measures are already being taken to limit his influence.
For example, the Massachusetts securities regulatory agency has begun investigating Gill's behavior, and the investigation is still ongoing.
Morgan Stanley's trading platform E*Trade is also considering whether to remove the leader from its client list to reduce negative effects.
Edited by Jeffrey