seemed to be taking into account . It was standard value investor fare : GME sported a formidable cash position , the possibility of an aggressive share buyback program and other easily overlooked aspects of a company thought , frankly , to be slowly swirling down the drain .
Instead of newsletters ( or newspaper broadsides ), he posted video updates on YouTube . But the case that a monumental short squeeze might be developed in GME was laid out not by Roaring Kitty , but by other WSB participants . And as thousands of WSB members surged into GME stock , the now-famous spike began , with Melvin Capital ’ s massive short position an accelerant of incalculable measure .
If GME was undervalued at $ 5 per share , it ’ s astoundingly difficult to say that it ’ s fairly valued at hundreds of dollars per share when even the company ’ s board of directors don ’ t see the firm returning to profitability until 2023 . However , the collective market impact of other WSB target stocks has had implications for corporate finance . AMC , owing to its short squeeze – boosted price , “ saw its credit rating upgraded by S & P after using Redditfueled share offerings to raise capital and make a debt restructuring less likely .”
Lawson ’ s Amalgamated Copper Campaign
That contrasts with Lawson ’ s Amalgamated episode which , according to Frank Fayant ’ s depiction , was far less a matter of overlooked value or conscience . Rather , it stemmed from broken or misunderstood promises . Lawson had , by 1900 or so , been involved in several securities deals ( some contemplating unadulterated price manipulation ) with Henry H . Rogers . Rogers was an industrialist and financier most closely associated with the Rockefellers and Standard Oil . Two deals that Lawson and Rogers had collaborated on , Bay State Gas and the copper trust known as Amalgamated Copper , created both internal and external frictions .
In the case of Bay State , a dispute arose over how much Lawson was owed . When it became insolvent , the attorney handling the receivership determined that Rogers , Lawson and several other parties had taken loans from Bay State and ordered them repaid . A trial followed and numerous recriminations were thrown back and forth . Suffice it to say , Lawson was on the
“ The Real Lawson ,” a series on Thomas Lawson , was published in Success Magazine from October 1907 – March 1908 .
outs with the Standard Oil crew . At this time , in the summer of 1904 , the American public had developed a virtually unquenchable thirst for muckraking exposés . That , plus Lawson ’ s brilliance at lofty and persuasive pitches , provided fertile soil for his revenge — and led to the event which , if any , most resembles a WallStreetBets episode .
In a series of articles for Everybody ’ s Magazine that ran through 1906 , Lawson chronicled the story of Amalgamated Copper with the Rockefeller interests in a series that came to be called “ Frenzied Finance .”
Sections of his account were exaggerated , and a portion were outright fabrications , but the verifiable sections created furor . Lawson framed a public revenge plot as a matter of high-minded moral righteousness .
In November 1904 , Lawson took out newspaper ads advising investors to purchase Amalgamated Copper despite his recent revelations . Several weeks later , on December 6 , 1904 , he suddenly reversed his pronouncements , predicting that Amalgamated ( which had reached $ 81 per share ) would fall to $ 33 per share shortly . The newspaper ads indicated that :
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