Reddit’s WallStreetBets adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days after turning around GameStop’s fortunes

Users have donated around £252,000
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Luke O'Reilly18 March 2021

Reddit users who turned around GameStop’s fortunes by driving up stocks have adopted thousands of gorillas.

Members of the popular WallStreetBets forum have adopted more than 3,500 gorillas since Saturday - totalling $350,000 (£252,000) in donations to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

Some users are naming GameStop or the New York Stock Exchange as the adopter.

Many WallStreetBets members refer to each other as "apes", and "Apes Together Strong" is a popular catchphrase on the forum.

The trend began when one user posted an adoption certificate on the site - leading to a spate of copycat adoptions.

The charity's president Dr Tara Stoinski paid tribute to the community while speaking to the BBC.

She told BBC News: "They've truly made a difference for our world and shown what can be accomplished when people come together. When we save gorillas and we save forests, we save our world."

Previously small time investors have used the forum to successfully outmanoeuvre professional Wall Street investors.

Stock Of Video Game Retailer Gamestop Skyrocketing, Due To Reddit Message Board Traders
Previously the investors rallied around GameStop shares
Getty Images

The Redditors rallied around GameStop after the bricks and mortar game shop's shares came under pressure from shorting by hedge funds.

Short selling or shorting, is effectively a bet that the price of a company’s shares will fall.

But if the share price instead goes up, an investor will lose money.

Reddit users spotted that GameStop, a company which holds a lot of sentimental value to man, was being heavily shorted and retaliated by buying stocks and driving up the price. This forced the short sellers to buy back shares at a higher price.

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