Seeing the stock market for what it really is

In what started as a joke on Reddit, amateur traders have altered the stock market and have opened the eyes of millions to the corrupt force that is Wall Street.

It all started with GameStop.

Members of the “WallStreetBets” Reddit board realized that if they began buying shares in lowly, unsuspecting stocks they could target the hedge-fund elites and make money in the process. Using apps like Robinhood that were made to help everyday people get involved with trading, users began buying shares of GameStop, a failing video game retailer, for $19.95 in a frenzy Jan. 12. By the end of January, GameStop’s share price had skyrocketed to $325, and ordinary traders were profiting. Hedge funds and the private investors who managed them, however, were taking hit after hit. In response, Robinhood decided to restrict trading on their app.

Robinhood froze all new trades Jan. 28. A week later, trades are still severely limited and users are unable to buy and trade like they were before. Even with these strict limitations on amateur traders, hedge funds, unsupervised funds that pool money from wealthy investors to invest in high-risk, high-reward options, are still able to trade as they please.

By limiting and restricting the number of shares users can buy and trade, Robinhood is actively taking away the “free” component of the free market. Their new limitations and blocks are so egregious that progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and right-leaning Sen. Ted Cruz agreed with each other on Twitter for the first time. Ocasio-Cortez demanded more information from Robinhood on the freeze and even suggested a hearing.

The problem that Robinhood and other trading apps alike have with common people successfully participating in and profiting through stock trading, just like the suits on Wall Street do, has become abundantly clear: the market is run in a way meant for the suits to stay in power and for the rich to get richer.

There should be no difference in ability to buy and trade between a bored Reddit user and a wealthy stockbroker. The U.S. stock market is an open market for a reason: to promote investment accessibility and economic prosperity for all. But when middleman companies inhibit the small investor’s trading process, they deepen the pockets of hedge-fund investors while taking away money from average Americans. They make the market anything but open.

While their trading actions are limited, amateur traders are not backing down or surrendering to these hedge funds. In what seems to be Occupy Wall Street 2.0, traders are refusing to sell shares of the once unexciting stocks that are now liquid gold, hoping to force hedge funds to close their positions and beg for buyouts. Melvin Capital, a hedge fund targeted by the Reddit group, fell 53% in January, losing $4.5 billion in assets after betting that GameStop share prices would drop.

Until trading apps lift restrictions and allow everyone to trade freely, traders should hold the line. The longer everyday traders refuse to sell, the harder corrupt hedge funds will fall. Hedge fund investors aren’t used to their beloved stock market being manipulated against them, but as more and more people point out the flaws in the system, their days of unfairly controlling trades while hiding behind their shield — the words “free market” — are over.