Steve Goldstein on the investment experience of GameStop and AMC speculators

And those traders are inexperienced. Cardify, a consumer-data firm, did a survey of 1,600 self-directed investors in GameStop and cinema chain AMC Entertainment, and found that most were inexperienced investors having less than 12 months of experience, and another quarter with one to two years’ experience. Nearly half made their biggest-ever do-it-yourself trading investment in the last four weeks, according to the survey that ended on Monday. 

Why? Of these overwhelmingly young and male investors, 45% said for quick financial profits. Nearly 20% said it was part of a long-term investing strategy, and 16% said to spite big hedge funds and institutional investors, according to Cardify.

~ Steve Goldstein, "GameStop’s meteoric gains have almost entirely disappeared — here’s advice for those who didn’t get out in time," MarketWatch, February 5, 2021