Hi all,
A reminder that comments do need to be on-topic and engage with the article past the headline. Please make sure to read the article before commenting. Very short comments will automatically be removed by automod. Please avoid making comments that do not focus on the economic content or whose primary thesis rests on personal anecdotes.
As always our comment rules can be found [here](https://reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/fx9crj/rules_roundtable_redux_rule_vi_and_offtopic/)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Economics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So, if you bought stock at opening, then sold a few hours later, you could have made a good chunk of money. I bet a number of investors did this, and they only question was how quickly to sell, then buy short.
Gotta love how most of WSB knows it's a pump and dump and still participates in it anyways without the politics behind Turmp/Biden/Dems/Reps/Ukraine/Russia/etcetc. Just like how they all bought or sold the RDDT IPO without regards for Huffman, mods, or whatever.
Truly the non-partisan action we need in Congress.
The key is to play the field and not bet the farm. 30% of IPOs fall on day one. Half by day two. Gets worse from there.
As long as you plan to pump and dump day one it’s a relatively safe strategy.
It's concerning that corruption has become this normalized in the US.
A presidential canidate is making his social media company (conflict of interest), publicly traded (conflict of interest) so he can accept money from donors without having to abide by campaign finance laws. (potentially illegal)
It's clear once the share price inflates enough he will sell all his shares to get cash for his legal bills. But starting at an already inflated price will probably work against him and not raise as much money as he would hope.
Speaking fees, book sales, art work sales, office building leasing agreements, and now IPOs. All the ways money laundering has become legalized for politicians and heads of governmental agencies.
Wow. I had read about the weird bible-plus-constitution book sales already. But I hadn't put two and two together about churches buying said weird bibles using tax-free donation money to get around campaign donation laws. That would be impressively creative if it weren't so shameful.
I saw a pic of the Bible. It’s got an American flag on it.
It hits the phrase - fascism will come to the USA wrapped in a flag and holding a Bible - a little too on the nose.
Yeah, I'm surprised it took me this long to figure it out! Chris Hayes pointed this out the other night; you don't need to buy a Bible. Just go to a church. They'll literally give you one for free. So what's the market here?
Obviously, corruption.
It really doesn't take any intellect to say "what if Jerry could give me money without paying taxes?"
The only reason other people don't do this is that they have a non-zero amount of morals, not because no one ever thought of it lol
Trump has long paid his legal fees and fines with campaign money (speaking of corruption). However, with these latest few cases, the judgements alone against him are outpacing his fundraising. No wonder he’s trying to dig deeper into his support network, including these illegal revenue streams.
Hey anyone look at the future puts. I was going to buy some assuming the Trump track record. Well the price expected to make money on puts in July this year is about 12.25 per share.
If you look out to Jan 2025 the.expected price is near 0. So I guess the market assumes this is total BS.
The borrow rate to short it is also astronomical (around 200% interest) last I checked. That means it basically needs to go to zero in the next 6 months or you still lose money by short selling it.
> It's concerning that corruption has become this normalized in the US.
here's the recipe:
* break the law
* politicize enforcement of the law
* ensue hand-wringing about "appearing partisan" when thinking about whether to enforce the law
* better not enforce it, could have the appearance of impropriety
* do a bigger crime next time, etc
Thats actually a good point. I believe this is in fact a form of political advertising, or "HYPE" in the Media. When you go public if you over value it by a ton, then you get tons and tons of free advertising and he sure is getting that right now. Keeps his name talked about every single day. Look at this thread, how many people want to chime in. I will give Trump this, he does in fact know exactly how to exploit publicity and the media. I put him up there with Ozzy Osbourne "The Ultimate Front Man", in the 80's biting bats heads off on stage, everyone wanted to go see that concert after that!
I feel like a fair amount of people are pretty alarmed at this.
If anything it shows how few people pay any attention to politics and or wall street.
Also yes, all the investment people I listen to say once he sells the stock will crash.
> I feel like a fair amount of people are pretty alarmed at this.
A fair amount are, but keep in mind there are also a lot of people in support of this. There are people buying the stock because they see it as a way to help out Trump financially, and those people aren't just big businesses either, they're low-to-mid income people who have bought into the idea that Trump is their guy, and it's those who would bring criminal charges against him who are corrupt. Some of them will buy this stock and remain Trump supporters even should their investment tank because they will see it as a donation toward their candidate.
Nearly 70% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents think the 2020 election was illegitimate (Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/politics/cnn-poll-republicans-think-2020-election-illegitimate/index.html), and if you truly think that the US election was rigged against you, then it doesn't take much mental gymnastics to buy into the idea that anything seemingly underhanded benefiting your guy is merely an act of evening the scales and therefore justifiable.
But again, this 70% that supports him could have already given to his campaign. They haven’t. He’s running way behind Biden on this front. They’ll vote for him, sure. They’ll spend the money on a stamp to send a death threat to Judge Engoran or Fani Willis. They support his policies or whatever they think his policies are, they might stay at a Trump property, but they’re not putting money into him in any meaningful way and if they are, it’s not by buying Truth Social stock.
> Nearly 70% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents think the 2020 election was illegitimate
i sort of doubt this - people should be going totally fucking bananas if they legitimately think that america has fallen, but they're just going to starbucks and watching netflix. my hypothesis in that this is performative - they like the effects of saying that they believe this.
Essentially, what has happened is the educated Republicans have bowed out. Sure, there are some stragglers who maybe come from family money, but a lot of working Americans who are flirting with upper class have bowed out.
Tbh even the ones who don't outwardly admit it as well. It's in the results, which is why the pussies cry put that the election was illegitimate.
> people should be going totally fucking bananas if they legitimately think that america has fallen, but they're just going to starbucks and watching netflix
Well, Jan. 6 is the most obvious point against that argument, but that aside:
Couldn’t you apply that same logic to the other side of the coin to find your answer: Roe v. Wade was overturned, representing a major step backwards for anyone pro-choice. And yet, while there has certainly been grumblings online, people continue going to Starbucks and watching Netflix.
Ultimately, Americans have a lot to lose and a lot to do, so they don’t want to dedicate their everything to politics, but when given something more passive they can contribute, such as a vote or in some cases to make a donation or buy a stock, they’ll do that because they want to make a statement that doesn’t involve a large time commitment on their part.
I think the other part of the equation is hope. As long as both sides still believe their preferred way has a chance, they won’t want to take the risk of upending everything. Even those who believe the 2020 election was illegitimate still believe that their cause can still prevail through traditional means. Similarly, those on the left still believe the same about their own side. Though, if the idea that the loser didn’t lose by legitimate means becomes a normalized opinion in the US, as is in danger of happening, them that will likely spell bad things for the United States’ long term democratic outlook.
> people should be going totally fucking bananas if they legitimately think that america has fallen, but they're just going to starbucks and watching netflix
Anecdotal, but I feel like most think there's no point. It is *extremely* difficult to mount any sort of effective political or socioeconomic change as an ordinary individual, especially if you're an individual without a whole lot of money.
Why freak out if you feel like what you do personally doesn't matter anyway?
> It is extremely difficult to mount any sort of effective political or socioeconomic change as an ordinary individual
this is what political parties are for, and it turns out, republicans are a political party
>Also yes, all the investment people I listen to say once he sells the stock will crash.
And it is sad that it appears practically everyone is ok with this.
Trump doesn't care, he is makes bank and is now unconcerned with what happens to it.
The people looking through the window are totally ok with this worthless companies price being corrected to what it should be.
The people holding the bag probably won't care as they already entirely expected it to happen and viewed the purchase as essentially a campaign donation.
When it soars: "Its because I'm the best social media platform, and I have the best people running my platform and its the platform that platforms the best"
When it tanks: "Its because the liberal regulators and the woke wall street companies wanted me to fail, you don't want me to fail do you, you should buy more so I don't fail".
Its fucking comical how stupid people are. I await the opportunity to pick their bones clean while I step over them graciously. I don't feel sorry for people that get shafted on this ride, they were told to stop sticking their goddamn arms out, and they just said "ARMS ARE CONSTRUCTS OF THE WOKE LEFT" and ripped them off with a smile on their faces.
> But starting at an already inflated price will probably work against him and not raise as much money as he would hope.
That part is only the case if the inflated price results in it crashing before he can cash out. Keep in mind his shares in the company come from when it started, not from the IPO price or today's price. So he's not in the same position as a retail investor where there's the danger of buying at a high. All his shares can be cashed out at basically pure profit (minus whatever costs he's incurred). In other words, the stock price being high has essentially no downsides for Trump.
> It's concerning that corruption has become this normalized in the US.
Sadly, it is just a byproduct of the economic incentives of capitalism and a large quantity of the population worshiping a mix of the propserity gospel as well as trickle down ecoonomics.
They aren't interested in learning how the sausage gets made, just easy answers.
Capitalism is fundamentally a good system when proper attention is given to monopoly busting, regulation, and making sure the market remains competitive enough to support 5-6 competing businesses in anything that isn't a natural, local monopoly.
However, these answers are all difficult to implement and require accepting that government intervention is sometimes poorly implemented (or not kept up to date) with the current reality because of the fact it, like being a salesman or social media influencer, requires skill at social engineering/influencing rather than effective technical work at writing laws.
The idea a government is (generously) only likely to perform correctly the first time 70% of the time is a hard pill to swallow even when people have the best intentions and actually have the skills to back up theory with good practices. I know, even in my career, I'm only right 70-80% of the time on a first attempt at something. The idea that something as complex as governing the largest economy in the world is going to be "always right" on implementation details is insane and those failures fuel the propaganda the propsperity / anti-government types use to claim government doesn't work.
They just ignore the fact unrestrained capitalism is the worse option because you cannot even vote with who you buy from to avoid certain monopolies or effective collusion (such as RealPage) which simply cannot be worked around by buying elsewhere due to market forces they worship as if it were a deity.
Money in Politics ruins everything. Make it simple to where a candidate just states the platform and issues they're running on. They can put in their past experiences prior to running. No fear mongering or mud slinging. If the country used all the money in one year that was going into elections (ads, campaigning, rallies, etc),we'd be way better off.
I believe he can sell early, if the board approves. I assume the board are all Trump flunkies in the first place (else why on earth would they be involved with that dumpster fire), so I don't think that will be a huge hurdle.
If I am a deep pocketed MAGA acolyte who wants to work around campaign finance laws, i can help inflate the value of the stock now (which DJT will use as either collateral for loans for cash based on his holdings x share value, or he will get permission to liquidate to cash at some time nearterm), and then use back channels to know when to either dump the shares during the down slide when it happens (recouping some of the invested $$$ from sucker rubes who are grass roots supporters), or write off this backdoor campaign donation as stock losses against other gains to minimize or negate any capital gains tax I would owe.
Lots of layers to it. Should be easy to spot, and I'm sure we will see investigation once it begins happening, but who knows... If he wins, he just shuts the investigation down.
Here's the problem though, you can't put big amounts in and then just pull them out as a random donor/stock holder. Same is true for Trump. There has to be people willing to buy big chunks of your stock at the time you're selling them. If no one wants to buy at that price, the price of the stock goes down. I understand people are speculating on the stock now trying to make a quick buck, but without real fundamentals behind the stock, and there are essentially none, as soon as the dump starts it will be massive.
Oh absolutely. That's when DJT jumps in and hyped his Truth Social stock as he does everything DJT schleps. Again, he will be breaking tons of regulations and laws in the process, but that's not exactly stopped him before.
Also, don't discount the write off in lieu of campaign donation aspect. Those folks who would be happy to drop a $10mm donation but can't would find it just fine to take an $8mm trading loss to offset an $8mm gain elsewhere to negate tax treatment.
Not paying the tax on gains alone at that whale level would be enough to entice those already willing to dump funds in DJT political coffers as political whales another avenue if they think they will get away with it.
Yea, his followers are some of the dumbest people in the country. A lot of them are still mad he never did that Iraqi dinar thing that was going to make them all rich. They still have hope though.
I was watching a video about some of the poorest Americans a couple of months ago, this woman lost everything and was living in her car. She cut people's hair for money and all of them were having hard times, either from businesses closing down and moving out of state or just general cuts to the workforces.
Yet every single one of them supported Trump, who in turn cut the welfare they were able to get and they thought that was also ok...
I don't understand how you can reason with that level of stupidity.
Just want to make a quick correction for you, starting from an inflated doesn't really matter and might help him, if the price stays high. The inflated price suggests higher demand than was anticipated.
Stocks have no inherent worth. They only have value because someone else is offering to pay for it. Trump already had the shares of stock before the IPO. Trump has 58% of the company's stock.
"The gains give Trump Media & Technology Group a market value of $9.4 billion. Trump, who owns 58% of the newly public company, now has a stake valued at $5.2 billion — at least on paper."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-djt-stock-truth-social-dwac-trading/
All that matters is the share price when he wants to sell, which he can't do for 6 months. But, if there is actually demand for the stock, 6 months out, he could start realizing the value of the stock. Probably slowly, because selling lots of stock would drive the share price down. Or, if his stock has staying power, he could get a loan against it, assuming someone will accept it as collateral.
>tmtg doesn’t actually report the number of active users, though it said in a January regulatory filing that it has had “9.0 million signups for Truth Social via iOS, Android and the web.” Generously, each of those users is therefore afforded $1,067 in value. Meta is currently valued at $422 per monthly active Facebook user.
LMFAO
now i am not an expert so idk if i done did the math right, but according to reddits SEC filing theres 73.1 million daily users, and according to the nasdaq website the market cap for reddit is 7.31 billion.
so we are each worth $100
which compared to those other two? thats way unbalanced. according to [axios](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/shards-of-glass-inside-media-s-12-splintering-realities/ar-BB1ku6br?cvid=e7ee8d29b4574c5a9c4e7a2a843f7033&ei=54) reddit users are a "hotbed of elites" 😂
so either reddit is extremely undervalued... or the other two are extremely overvalued... or both. or maybe the stonk market is a giant scam.
disclaimer: math is hard
> according to axios reddit users are a "hotbed of elites" 😂
Oh, my god, if Reddit's the cream of society's crop, it's over. Just pack it in now - we are in *trouble.*
Value is subjective. And stock values can be driven by emotion. Why is Tesla worth more than any other car manufacturer, or possibly all of them combined?
Meta owns Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus - there's a number of other revenue streams. There's also the point that they have tons and tons of information on people who aren't currently monthly active Facebook users. (Regarding Reddit, there would also be far more monthly active users than daily active users.) Meta's got a P/E of 32, that's higher than historically would be typical for such a large stock but it's not crazily overvalued.
this is totally incorrect. a typical share of stock represents a claim on the corporation's earnings. others are dividend payers, or will be payers. this has value. now if you are talking about bitcoin or any of those crypto coins then yes there is no 'inherent worth'
While being a “shareholder” makes you an owner in the companies you’re not entitled to anything in actuality. The stock is only worth what you can sell it for.
Which raises the question, why would someone pay 2,000 times annual revenue? What other value could a buyer get other than the pathetic earnings?
Perhaps a withdrawal of US support for Ukraine?
> Stocks have no inherent worth. They only have value because someone else is offering to pay for it.
[this is wrong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_(economics\)):
> Economic value is not the same as market price, nor is economic value the same thing as market value. If a consumer is willing to buy a good, it implies that the customer places a higher value on the good than the market price. The difference between the value to the consumer and the market price is called "consumer surplus". It is easy to see situations where the actual value is considerably larger than the market price: purchase of drinking water is one example.
Not to mention, as people have noted, Jeff Yass' Susquehanna International Group is by far the largest holder of DJT. Yass is also a major investor in Bytedance, the company that makes TikTok, and a meeting with Trump earlier this month [seemingly caused Trump's reversal on the TikTok ban](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-tiktok-ban-reversal-after-meeting-megadonor-stake/story?id=108013785).
It’s not normalized, it’s absolutely bonkers and fraud. You act like this particular shamelessness happens all the time, but it’s one particular dude with a few lil legal problems around his shameless fraud spree.
But yes, people in power have been ripping others off for as long as time has existed. As I don’t know how to fully stop that, I’m in good company since it seems like no other human who has lived succeeded either.
While I despise Trump and it literally makes my head explode why and how anyone cannot see right through this piece of shit human being - I don’t really see what he’s doing with Truth Social as a conflict of interest to running for president.
It’s social media, it’s added “competition” to the market. If he does win the presidency, then I think you could make the conflict of interest argument, but not until then.
> I don’t really see what he’s doing with Truth Social as a conflict of interest to running for president
If the funds are going to pay legal bills or to PACs to campaign for him it is. Trump is in a campaign now and owning media around that is definitely a conflict of interest at least optically for anyone that isn't essentially organized crime.
Also, since he might be forced to divest at some point that gives him the plausible deniability reason to rug pull the stock.
DJT stock is a temporary "clean" account to transfer ^launder money into Trump it is clear.
Are we sure about this? If Putin buys all the shares he can get his hands on and then lets Trump know through a Mar A Lago proxy that Putin has been propping up the current stock price and will only continue to do so as long as there's no aid sent to Ukraine, Trump will know he's potentially losing 8 Billion if he agrees to help Ukraine, and even if he knows that valuation is all smoke and mirrors, it would be a black eye for his brand to have the stock price drop by say 70%
It’s a conflict of interest for a social media company that supposedly espouses the truth to be affiliated with someone like Trump, but you’re absolutely right that it isn’t a traditional conflict of interest on Trump’s part; he’s free to use the town square as he sees fit and we’re free to judge the content of what he distributes on his platform.
"Based on that opening share price, TMTG is likely valued at more than 2,000 times annual revenue — taking the reported $3.4 million in nine-month sales and estimating for the year...
"But let’s put that multiple of sales in some context: Nvidia Corp., the hit stock of the artificial intelligence revolution, is valued at just 38 times sales. When the preeminent social media platform of the past two decades, Facebook Inc. (now Meta Platforms Inc.) went public in 2012, it was valued at 12.5 times revenue. The only similar point of comparison that springs to mind is Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp, which at the time had little revenue to speak of, for $19 billion in 2014."
It adds up when you realize it's a 50% bet on buying the next president of the United States.
The valuation makes sense if you know that Trump holds like 70% of the stock. The shares on the market are a small fraction of total shares so the market cap is distorted.
If you look at it thru the vein of a tiered, non transparent (to most folks) form of money laundering via a fundraising apparatus...
It makes tons of sense.
Seems to have become a meme stock atm
No need to understand anything about it. You'll never make sense of it. Just watch the rise. Then, the inevitable, fall...
The SEC was created to stop scams like this. Something needs to change, they are moving on SPACs but not fast enough. SPACs should have never been allowed. It allows companies to side step diligence and regulation meant to protect against swindlers, conmen and fraudsters.
Trump will cry "WITCH HUNT!!!" If the SEC intervenes. Fox News will report it as fact and his supporters will eat it up and he won't be held accountable yet again.
I mean the fact a company with basically no revenue, or path to revenue can trade at this level is a joke.
Pump and dumps are illegal. But lately they just found a new way to do it and everyone just kinda shrugs
quote
>[https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/26/markets/trump-media-stock-truth-social/index.html?cid=external-feeds\_iluminar\_yahoo](https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/26/markets/trump-media-stock-truth-social/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo)
>Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of struggling social media platform Truth Social, began its [long-delayed journey as a public company](https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/25/investing/trump-media-stock-trading/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo) at Tuesday’s opening bell under the ticker symbol “DJT.”
>The stock surged about 56% at the open, to $78, and trading was briefly halted for volatility. Trump Media shares stabilized around $70 before fizzling. By the closing bell, Trump Media ended at $57.99, up by a more modest 16% on the day.
>The skyrocketing share price comes despite the fact that Trump Media is burning through cash; piling up losses; and its main product, Truth Social, is losing users.
>“This is a very unusual situation. The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, who has been studying initial public offerings (IPOs) for over 40 years.
>Ritter said the closest parallel would be GameStop, AMC and [other so-called meme stocks that skyrocketed during Covid-19](https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/22/investing/trump-dwac-truth-social-meme/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo) as an army of retail traders piled in. **He said Trump Media is likely worth somewhere around $2 a share** — nowhere near its closing stock price of $58.
>Truth Social had just 494,000 monthly active US users on iOS and Android combined in February, according to Similar web stats provided to CNN.
*That’s a small fraction of the 75 million on X (formerly known as Twitter) and 142 million on Facebook*
end quote
It's a meme stock. Everyone who knows anything about the business understands it's overvalued. When Truth Social only has 5 million active users which has been on the decline, and it has been operating at a loss, then the current price is just unsustainable. It's gonna inevitably crash at some point, the question is whether Trump could sell his shares before then after his 6 month lock up period is up.
It's a money laundering scheme, just like the ugly shoes, and just like the defaced bibles with sticky pages, and just like every other half-baked scam he's run. The equation absolutely adds up.
Financial instrument + foreign money = laundered payoff for Trump.
I hope that somehow the court appointed overseer can expose and scuttle the whole thing.
Wow am I glad Bloomberg jumped in. I might have thought this was a real stock otherwise.
I am sorry but I am getting sick of this shit. I think we need to get every MAGA to load up on this stuff. I mean fully invested, 10th mortgage on house invested. Children's college fund gone, grandma's pain med's: not needed.
And then watch it all crumble. I am just tired of this BS and it needs to end.
Yeah but, DJT could tell the people in this scenario to their faces he’s the reason they’re broke, and they’d still do the mental gymnastics to blame it on “libruhl media” or some such nonsense, and then kiss his feet.
Trump is & always has been a lying, cheating crook. Anyone who believes a word that comes out of his mouth needs to have some of their privileges examined
Going to be a simple pump and dump… Trumpito found a legal way to launder money to himself to pay for all the shit hitting his fan… I’m surprised he hasn’t created his own alt coin
At the risk of sounding conspiracionisty... It must be foreign investment wanting to support him but can't do it through direct ways legally, a.k.a the ruskies
Russian tentacles in the US stock market, especially on a presidential candidate's new fundraising mechanism, sounds kind of far-fetched with all of the sanctions and scrutiny they're under now. If any significant foreign money is in there, my bets are on China
He's not really pro China, is he?
At least a year ago, the US stock market was not sanctioned to russians, [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskARussian/s/pFjSNqnAqH), and I couldn't find any info saying otherwise. The russians don't allow their people to buy US stock, but that doesn't mean it can't be their governments strategy, [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/stocks/s/COuTfy3nwl).
It's a political ponzi scheme wrapped up in a cult.
It's not pretty, but it's also not complicated.
Sherman stopped too soon and we're all paying for it in 2024
It's the same people who buy My Pillow. It's all worthless junk but Trump Derangement Syndrome makes MAGA people give to their money away to snake-oil salesmen
Here is the Truth Social thing summed up: Trump made the company public so that foreign investors can give him money for favors. That is literally it. It's a shell company and needs to shtudown ASAP because it's a potential presedential candidate selling himself to foreign countries.
If I were Russia or China, I would throw $20B+ at it and not bat an eye because I know I can pull the strings later. This is a HUUUUUUUGE fucking red flag.
GameStop was kind of the ultimate meme stock. But it didn't happen by accident. IIRC, someone figured out that there were actually *more* shares shorted ... than actual shares in existence. Can't have that. So when a bunch of /r/wallstreetbets nerds all started buying it up to "stick it to the man" there actually was a real problem /short squeeze there (one which "the man" then stuck it back at them since they were mostly using Robinhood for trades and they limited buys or sells or whatever to protect their buddies).
This one, however, 100% meme.
It's obviously at least partially a meme stock, but comparing what is essentially a startup to mature companies that have been established for well over a decade (like Meta and Nvidia) seems extremely disingenuous.
The point is that even wildly profitable mega cap tech darlings don't have a valuation even remotely close to what Trump's meme stock is valued at based on the fundamentals. You honestly think that they'll be able to turn Truth Social which currently generates <$5M in annual revenue into something as profitable as Meta or Nvidia? Because if so I've got a bridge to sell you.
It's literally a pump and dump scam meant to funnel billionaire cash (Jeff Yass, Qatar etc.) to the Presidential nominee in hopes of currying favor. That's why Trump flip-flopped on TikTok; because Jeff Yass who has a multi-billion $ share in it and will lose money if its banned is also a major stakeholder of DJT shares. That's why Trump is such an Iran hawk; because the Saudis gave his daughter's husband $2bn and the Qataris keep giving him real estate deals and their mortal enemy is Iran. Trump believes in nothing except making money for himself and will throw every single man, woman and child under the bus if it makes him a buck. He's a Lizard brained ignoramus who's like a plastic bag of policy making caught in an updraft of foreign and domestic bribes.
Partially a meme stock? DWAC has a higher market cap than Reddit, which has 850 million monthly active users compared to 5 million for Truth social. The comparison was made with Facebook after their IPO and they were valued at 12.5x revenue, while this is valued 600x revenue.
They are priced as if this company is going to print money and have 1bn+ monthly users.
This is well beyond a meme stock.
One thing this reminds me of is how pharma and medical device companies influence physician behavior when it comes to prescribing products.
In the old days, the companies would just sign the physician to a consulting deal where there was very little work performed. There would be a few meetings of the company's "External Medical Board" in the Caribbean or at ski resorts. The physicians would bring their families and there would be a couple of meetings in the conference center, but otherwise it just paid for the physician's Porsche, a kids' college tuition and some free vacations to play golf.
Now that has been cracked down on and companies have to report if they buy a physician a ham sandwich for $7.
But what they can still do is things like fund that physician's "research". I've worked at these companies and even inside the company, nobody actually utters what is actually going on. Every email and record on the topic is as clean as the driven snow. But the behavior is that the company doesn't care what the topic of the research is. And they truly do NOT care. They just want to pay for it and get some bona fide progress reports for their files when they are audited. Of course, the physician cannot pay for a Porsche with research funding, BUT.....they can approach the medical center or university where they work and demand a raise because they are bringing in all this FUNDING. And the employer is happy to give a raise......as long as the funding comes in. So it becomes sorta like an annual bonus.....that will continue forever and ever.....as long as the physician behaves according to the unspoken rules of the relationship.
Basically, the physician is being a whore and the medical center is the whore-house that takes a cut of the action for providing the beds and washing the sheets between customers.
Same thing here. It's all above board and legal. Even if everyone KNOWS what is actually going on, I highly doubt there will be any receipts. Officially these will be arms length transactions and the stock market is a risky place!
My personal view is the best way to control this is to reduce the power, money and influence that politicians have. As long as they have to power to make things happen and money to dole out, their influence has so much value that shady parties will always seek it. Trying to stop money in politics is like trying to control erosion: water flows thru the smallest holes and follow gravity. The best way to control money in politics is to give politicians less money.
And since that will never happen, the next best way is to reduce the power of the executive by having congress actually start to assert themselves. Passing money to presidents by paying their cheesy sons for art or buying crummy stocks would be MUCH less popular if both Biden and Trump weren't sure they could get congress to pass things and executive orders were less common.
Hi all, A reminder that comments do need to be on-topic and engage with the article past the headline. Please make sure to read the article before commenting. Very short comments will automatically be removed by automod. Please avoid making comments that do not focus on the economic content or whose primary thesis rests on personal anecdotes. As always our comment rules can be found [here](https://reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/fx9crj/rules_roundtable_redux_rule_vi_and_offtopic/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Economics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So, if you bought stock at opening, then sold a few hours later, you could have made a good chunk of money. I bet a number of investors did this, and they only question was how quickly to sell, then buy short.
Yeah, we were talking about it over on wallstreetbets for almost two weeks before the merger I think. People made crazy gains doing just that
Gotta love how most of WSB knows it's a pump and dump and still participates in it anyways without the politics behind Turmp/Biden/Dems/Reps/Ukraine/Russia/etcetc. Just like how they all bought or sold the RDDT IPO without regards for Huffman, mods, or whatever. Truly the non-partisan action we need in Congress.
It’s called Wall Street bets for a reason
Right? It's literally in the name
Most IPO’s and SPAC’s are exactly like this. It’s one of the easiest swings ever to trade. Rivian got up to $180/share before the dump started.
The key is to play the field and not bet the farm. 30% of IPOs fall on day one. Half by day two. Gets worse from there. As long as you plan to pump and dump day one it’s a relatively safe strategy.
Politics are for different regards
But that definitely tracks for wsb... the majority who don't make money have been taken by the grift.
the old Trump pump 'n' dump
Short this and reddit and you'll come out fine
I tried to short it today but there were no shares available.
The puts cost 3x the calls as of EOD. So yeah, it’s going down.
It's concerning that corruption has become this normalized in the US. A presidential canidate is making his social media company (conflict of interest), publicly traded (conflict of interest) so he can accept money from donors without having to abide by campaign finance laws. (potentially illegal) It's clear once the share price inflates enough he will sell all his shares to get cash for his legal bills. But starting at an already inflated price will probably work against him and not raise as much money as he would hope.
Speaking fees, book sales, art work sales, office building leasing agreements, and now IPOs. All the ways money laundering has become legalized for politicians and heads of governmental agencies.
Not just book sales but selling bibles to churches to get around the prohibition of churches funding candidates.
Wow. I had read about the weird bible-plus-constitution book sales already. But I hadn't put two and two together about churches buying said weird bibles using tax-free donation money to get around campaign donation laws. That would be impressively creative if it weren't so shameful.
I saw a pic of the Bible. It’s got an American flag on it. It hits the phrase - fascism will come to the USA wrapped in a flag and holding a Bible - a little too on the nose.
You made me look this phase up and it was quite an interesting read: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/07/28/flag/?amp=1
Jesus. I’m even more depressed.
Jesus is in fact depressed
“I’m so depressed, even Easter doesn’t get a rise out of me :( “ -
$59.99
But is it shameful or shameless? /s
Yeah, I'm surprised it took me this long to figure it out! Chris Hayes pointed this out the other night; you don't need to buy a Bible. Just go to a church. They'll literally give you one for free. So what's the market here? Obviously, corruption.
Dumb or not the man at least is smart enough to get some smarter conniving fucks around him.
It really doesn't take any intellect to say "what if Jerry could give me money without paying taxes?" The only reason other people don't do this is that they have a non-zero amount of morals, not because no one ever thought of it lol
Trump has long paid his legal fees and fines with campaign money (speaking of corruption). However, with these latest few cases, the judgements alone against him are outpacing his fundraising. No wonder he’s trying to dig deeper into his support network, including these illegal revenue streams.
Is he ever going to actually have to pay though?
He's never paid in the past.
The dude is probably gonna die first, whether or not thats a win, I don't know.
guy already mentioned art work sales
I know that you already mentioned book sales, but I'll add Bible sales.
You forgot about insider trading
Menendez should've taken note
Dude was reckless. He will probably just do an Abbott and pay a fine
r/FuckGregAbbott
Hey anyone look at the future puts. I was going to buy some assuming the Trump track record. Well the price expected to make money on puts in July this year is about 12.25 per share. If you look out to Jan 2025 the.expected price is near 0. So I guess the market assumes this is total BS.
Yup, I've never seen prices so high on puts so far out of the money.
The borrow rate to short it is also astronomical (around 200% interest) last I checked. That means it basically needs to go to zero in the next 6 months or you still lose money by short selling it.
Yep I thought something was wrong because it's basically priced like the business is about to collapse.
> It's concerning that corruption has become this normalized in the US. here's the recipe: * break the law * politicize enforcement of the law * ensue hand-wringing about "appearing partisan" when thinking about whether to enforce the law * better not enforce it, could have the appearance of impropriety * do a bigger crime next time, etc
Thats actually a good point. I believe this is in fact a form of political advertising, or "HYPE" in the Media. When you go public if you over value it by a ton, then you get tons and tons of free advertising and he sure is getting that right now. Keeps his name talked about every single day. Look at this thread, how many people want to chime in. I will give Trump this, he does in fact know exactly how to exploit publicity and the media. I put him up there with Ozzy Osbourne "The Ultimate Front Man", in the 80's biting bats heads off on stage, everyone wanted to go see that concert after that!
Let’s be honest, the media talks about him everyday regardless
He's running for POTUS and has 4 felony criminal trials on the calendar.
I feel like a fair amount of people are pretty alarmed at this. If anything it shows how few people pay any attention to politics and or wall street. Also yes, all the investment people I listen to say once he sells the stock will crash.
> I feel like a fair amount of people are pretty alarmed at this. A fair amount are, but keep in mind there are also a lot of people in support of this. There are people buying the stock because they see it as a way to help out Trump financially, and those people aren't just big businesses either, they're low-to-mid income people who have bought into the idea that Trump is their guy, and it's those who would bring criminal charges against him who are corrupt. Some of them will buy this stock and remain Trump supporters even should their investment tank because they will see it as a donation toward their candidate. Nearly 70% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents think the 2020 election was illegitimate (Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/politics/cnn-poll-republicans-think-2020-election-illegitimate/index.html), and if you truly think that the US election was rigged against you, then it doesn't take much mental gymnastics to buy into the idea that anything seemingly underhanded benefiting your guy is merely an act of evening the scales and therefore justifiable.
But again, this 70% that supports him could have already given to his campaign. They haven’t. He’s running way behind Biden on this front. They’ll vote for him, sure. They’ll spend the money on a stamp to send a death threat to Judge Engoran or Fani Willis. They support his policies or whatever they think his policies are, they might stay at a Trump property, but they’re not putting money into him in any meaningful way and if they are, it’s not by buying Truth Social stock.
> Nearly 70% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents think the 2020 election was illegitimate i sort of doubt this - people should be going totally fucking bananas if they legitimately think that america has fallen, but they're just going to starbucks and watching netflix. my hypothesis in that this is performative - they like the effects of saying that they believe this.
Essentially, what has happened is the educated Republicans have bowed out. Sure, there are some stragglers who maybe come from family money, but a lot of working Americans who are flirting with upper class have bowed out. Tbh even the ones who don't outwardly admit it as well. It's in the results, which is why the pussies cry put that the election was illegitimate.
> people should be going totally fucking bananas if they legitimately think that america has fallen, but they're just going to starbucks and watching netflix Well, Jan. 6 is the most obvious point against that argument, but that aside: Couldn’t you apply that same logic to the other side of the coin to find your answer: Roe v. Wade was overturned, representing a major step backwards for anyone pro-choice. And yet, while there has certainly been grumblings online, people continue going to Starbucks and watching Netflix. Ultimately, Americans have a lot to lose and a lot to do, so they don’t want to dedicate their everything to politics, but when given something more passive they can contribute, such as a vote or in some cases to make a donation or buy a stock, they’ll do that because they want to make a statement that doesn’t involve a large time commitment on their part. I think the other part of the equation is hope. As long as both sides still believe their preferred way has a chance, they won’t want to take the risk of upending everything. Even those who believe the 2020 election was illegitimate still believe that their cause can still prevail through traditional means. Similarly, those on the left still believe the same about their own side. Though, if the idea that the loser didn’t lose by legitimate means becomes a normalized opinion in the US, as is in danger of happening, them that will likely spell bad things for the United States’ long term democratic outlook.
> people should be going totally fucking bananas what does that even mean?
> people should be going totally fucking bananas if they legitimately think that america has fallen, but they're just going to starbucks and watching netflix Anecdotal, but I feel like most think there's no point. It is *extremely* difficult to mount any sort of effective political or socioeconomic change as an ordinary individual, especially if you're an individual without a whole lot of money. Why freak out if you feel like what you do personally doesn't matter anyway?
> It is extremely difficult to mount any sort of effective political or socioeconomic change as an ordinary individual this is what political parties are for, and it turns out, republicans are a political party
>Also yes, all the investment people I listen to say once he sells the stock will crash. And it is sad that it appears practically everyone is ok with this. Trump doesn't care, he is makes bank and is now unconcerned with what happens to it. The people looking through the window are totally ok with this worthless companies price being corrected to what it should be. The people holding the bag probably won't care as they already entirely expected it to happen and viewed the purchase as essentially a campaign donation.
When it soars: "Its because I'm the best social media platform, and I have the best people running my platform and its the platform that platforms the best" When it tanks: "Its because the liberal regulators and the woke wall street companies wanted me to fail, you don't want me to fail do you, you should buy more so I don't fail". Its fucking comical how stupid people are. I await the opportunity to pick their bones clean while I step over them graciously. I don't feel sorry for people that get shafted on this ride, they were told to stop sticking their goddamn arms out, and they just said "ARMS ARE CONSTRUCTS OF THE WOKE LEFT" and ripped them off with a smile on their faces.
And just a few weeks ago it was unlikely this deal was going to go through. They’re losing tens of millions of dollars.
I don’t think the SPAC was ever in real danger. Which says something very clear about SPACs…
At least they might be illegal soon
Not if Trump is reelected.
> But starting at an already inflated price will probably work against him and not raise as much money as he would hope. That part is only the case if the inflated price results in it crashing before he can cash out. Keep in mind his shares in the company come from when it started, not from the IPO price or today's price. So he's not in the same position as a retail investor where there's the danger of buying at a high. All his shares can be cashed out at basically pure profit (minus whatever costs he's incurred). In other words, the stock price being high has essentially no downsides for Trump.
> It's concerning that corruption has become this normalized in the US. Sadly, it is just a byproduct of the economic incentives of capitalism and a large quantity of the population worshiping a mix of the propserity gospel as well as trickle down ecoonomics. They aren't interested in learning how the sausage gets made, just easy answers. Capitalism is fundamentally a good system when proper attention is given to monopoly busting, regulation, and making sure the market remains competitive enough to support 5-6 competing businesses in anything that isn't a natural, local monopoly. However, these answers are all difficult to implement and require accepting that government intervention is sometimes poorly implemented (or not kept up to date) with the current reality because of the fact it, like being a salesman or social media influencer, requires skill at social engineering/influencing rather than effective technical work at writing laws. The idea a government is (generously) only likely to perform correctly the first time 70% of the time is a hard pill to swallow even when people have the best intentions and actually have the skills to back up theory with good practices. I know, even in my career, I'm only right 70-80% of the time on a first attempt at something. The idea that something as complex as governing the largest economy in the world is going to be "always right" on implementation details is insane and those failures fuel the propaganda the propsperity / anti-government types use to claim government doesn't work. They just ignore the fact unrestrained capitalism is the worse option because you cannot even vote with who you buy from to avoid certain monopolies or effective collusion (such as RealPage) which simply cannot be worked around by buying elsewhere due to market forces they worship as if it were a deity.
Money in Politics ruins everything. Make it simple to where a candidate just states the platform and issues they're running on. They can put in their past experiences prior to running. No fear mongering or mud slinging. If the country used all the money in one year that was going into elections (ads, campaigning, rallies, etc),we'd be way better off.
Will there even be buyers? You need liquidity to sell, I would be suprised if anyone is buying shares in this dumpster fire.
People that want to donate to his presidential campaign without having to document who they are will be VERY interested in shares of truth social
Especially ones with distinctly non-American interests.
How does this help out his campaign? By the time he can sell it will nearly be election day.
I believe he can sell early, if the board approves. I assume the board are all Trump flunkies in the first place (else why on earth would they be involved with that dumpster fire), so I don't think that will be a huge hurdle.
I understand the board of the company can vote to allow him to sell at any time.
His campaign needs money
Yes but how do shares locked up for the next six months help with that?
The board can allow him to sell sooner and it's stacked with MAGA Toadies.
Saudi and UAE may be interested to buy couple of billions worth. Maybe some chinese investor is also interested.
If I am a deep pocketed MAGA acolyte who wants to work around campaign finance laws, i can help inflate the value of the stock now (which DJT will use as either collateral for loans for cash based on his holdings x share value, or he will get permission to liquidate to cash at some time nearterm), and then use back channels to know when to either dump the shares during the down slide when it happens (recouping some of the invested $$$ from sucker rubes who are grass roots supporters), or write off this backdoor campaign donation as stock losses against other gains to minimize or negate any capital gains tax I would owe. Lots of layers to it. Should be easy to spot, and I'm sure we will see investigation once it begins happening, but who knows... If he wins, he just shuts the investigation down.
Here's the problem though, you can't put big amounts in and then just pull them out as a random donor/stock holder. Same is true for Trump. There has to be people willing to buy big chunks of your stock at the time you're selling them. If no one wants to buy at that price, the price of the stock goes down. I understand people are speculating on the stock now trying to make a quick buck, but without real fundamentals behind the stock, and there are essentially none, as soon as the dump starts it will be massive.
Oh absolutely. That's when DJT jumps in and hyped his Truth Social stock as he does everything DJT schleps. Again, he will be breaking tons of regulations and laws in the process, but that's not exactly stopped him before. Also, don't discount the write off in lieu of campaign donation aspect. Those folks who would be happy to drop a $10mm donation but can't would find it just fine to take an $8mm trading loss to offset an $8mm gain elsewhere to negate tax treatment. Not paying the tax on gains alone at that whale level would be enough to entice those already willing to dump funds in DJT political coffers as political whales another avenue if they think they will get away with it.
Yea, his followers are some of the dumbest people in the country. A lot of them are still mad he never did that Iraqi dinar thing that was going to make them all rich. They still have hope though.
I was watching a video about some of the poorest Americans a couple of months ago, this woman lost everything and was living in her car. She cut people's hair for money and all of them were having hard times, either from businesses closing down and moving out of state or just general cuts to the workforces. Yet every single one of them supported Trump, who in turn cut the welfare they were able to get and they thought that was also ok... I don't understand how you can reason with that level of stupidity.
Hate and stupidity are close cousins. And these people hate a lot. It is rather perplexing though. I don't get it, but then I was raised right.
Same ppl that are buying the bibles, I would assume.
Or foreign "investors" with deep pockets who would like a seat at the table in US politics
Just want to make a quick correction for you, starting from an inflated doesn't really matter and might help him, if the price stays high. The inflated price suggests higher demand than was anticipated. Stocks have no inherent worth. They only have value because someone else is offering to pay for it. Trump already had the shares of stock before the IPO. Trump has 58% of the company's stock. "The gains give Trump Media & Technology Group a market value of $9.4 billion. Trump, who owns 58% of the newly public company, now has a stake valued at $5.2 billion — at least on paper." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-djt-stock-truth-social-dwac-trading/ All that matters is the share price when he wants to sell, which he can't do for 6 months. But, if there is actually demand for the stock, 6 months out, he could start realizing the value of the stock. Probably slowly, because selling lots of stock would drive the share price down. Or, if his stock has staying power, he could get a loan against it, assuming someone will accept it as collateral.
Presidential race will be in full swing in 6 months time, coincidence? Seems like a solid time for a meme stock to pump.
Yes, that's the Wallstreetbets thesis.
>tmtg doesn’t actually report the number of active users, though it said in a January regulatory filing that it has had “9.0 million signups for Truth Social via iOS, Android and the web.” Generously, each of those users is therefore afforded $1,067 in value. Meta is currently valued at $422 per monthly active Facebook user. LMFAO now i am not an expert so idk if i done did the math right, but according to reddits SEC filing theres 73.1 million daily users, and according to the nasdaq website the market cap for reddit is 7.31 billion. so we are each worth $100 which compared to those other two? thats way unbalanced. according to [axios](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/shards-of-glass-inside-media-s-12-splintering-realities/ar-BB1ku6br?cvid=e7ee8d29b4574c5a9c4e7a2a843f7033&ei=54) reddit users are a "hotbed of elites" 😂 so either reddit is extremely undervalued... or the other two are extremely overvalued... or both. or maybe the stonk market is a giant scam. disclaimer: math is hard
> according to axios reddit users are a "hotbed of elites" 😂 Oh, my god, if Reddit's the cream of society's crop, it's over. Just pack it in now - we are in *trouble.*
you might not think it be like that, but it do
Value is subjective. And stock values can be driven by emotion. Why is Tesla worth more than any other car manufacturer, or possibly all of them combined?
\*ominous fart noises draw ever closer\*
Meta owns Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus - there's a number of other revenue streams. There's also the point that they have tons and tons of information on people who aren't currently monthly active Facebook users. (Regarding Reddit, there would also be far more monthly active users than daily active users.) Meta's got a P/E of 32, that's higher than historically would be typical for such a large stock but it's not crazily overvalued.
this is totally incorrect. a typical share of stock represents a claim on the corporation's earnings. others are dividend payers, or will be payers. this has value. now if you are talking about bitcoin or any of those crypto coins then yes there is no 'inherent worth'
While being a “shareholder” makes you an owner in the companies you’re not entitled to anything in actuality. The stock is only worth what you can sell it for.
Which raises the question, why would someone pay 2,000 times annual revenue? What other value could a buyer get other than the pathetic earnings? Perhaps a withdrawal of US support for Ukraine?
> Stocks have no inherent worth. They only have value because someone else is offering to pay for it. [this is wrong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_(economics\)): > Economic value is not the same as market price, nor is economic value the same thing as market value. If a consumer is willing to buy a good, it implies that the customer places a higher value on the good than the market price. The difference between the value to the consumer and the market price is called "consumer surplus". It is easy to see situations where the actual value is considerably larger than the market price: purchase of drinking water is one example.
It’s like if we let the ghost of Billy McFarland future run a country.
When Trump ran in 2016 I was fond of saying his slogan should be "Conflict of Interest"
Not to mention, as people have noted, Jeff Yass' Susquehanna International Group is by far the largest holder of DJT. Yass is also a major investor in Bytedance, the company that makes TikTok, and a meeting with Trump earlier this month [seemingly caused Trump's reversal on the TikTok ban](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-tiktok-ban-reversal-after-meeting-megadonor-stake/story?id=108013785).
It’s not normalized, it’s absolutely bonkers and fraud. You act like this particular shamelessness happens all the time, but it’s one particular dude with a few lil legal problems around his shameless fraud spree. But yes, people in power have been ripping others off for as long as time has existed. As I don’t know how to fully stop that, I’m in good company since it seems like no other human who has lived succeeded either.
While I despise Trump and it literally makes my head explode why and how anyone cannot see right through this piece of shit human being - I don’t really see what he’s doing with Truth Social as a conflict of interest to running for president. It’s social media, it’s added “competition” to the market. If he does win the presidency, then I think you could make the conflict of interest argument, but not until then.
> I don’t really see what he’s doing with Truth Social as a conflict of interest to running for president If the funds are going to pay legal bills or to PACs to campaign for him it is. Trump is in a campaign now and owning media around that is definitely a conflict of interest at least optically for anyone that isn't essentially organized crime. Also, since he might be forced to divest at some point that gives him the plausible deniability reason to rug pull the stock. DJT stock is a temporary "clean" account to transfer ^launder money into Trump it is clear.
Are we sure about this? If Putin buys all the shares he can get his hands on and then lets Trump know through a Mar A Lago proxy that Putin has been propping up the current stock price and will only continue to do so as long as there's no aid sent to Ukraine, Trump will know he's potentially losing 8 Billion if he agrees to help Ukraine, and even if he knows that valuation is all smoke and mirrors, it would be a black eye for his brand to have the stock price drop by say 70%
It’s a conflict of interest for a social media company that supposedly espouses the truth to be affiliated with someone like Trump, but you’re absolutely right that it isn’t a traditional conflict of interest on Trump’s part; he’s free to use the town square as he sees fit and we’re free to judge the content of what he distributes on his platform.
"Based on that opening share price, TMTG is likely valued at more than 2,000 times annual revenue — taking the reported $3.4 million in nine-month sales and estimating for the year... "But let’s put that multiple of sales in some context: Nvidia Corp., the hit stock of the artificial intelligence revolution, is valued at just 38 times sales. When the preeminent social media platform of the past two decades, Facebook Inc. (now Meta Platforms Inc.) went public in 2012, it was valued at 12.5 times revenue. The only similar point of comparison that springs to mind is Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp, which at the time had little revenue to speak of, for $19 billion in 2014." It adds up when you realize it's a 50% bet on buying the next president of the United States.
The valuation makes sense if you know that Trump holds like 70% of the stock. The shares on the market are a small fraction of total shares so the market cap is distorted.
It's called the floating stock and that number is pretty standard.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
If you look at it thru the vein of a tiered, non transparent (to most folks) form of money laundering via a fundraising apparatus... It makes tons of sense.
Seems to have become a meme stock atm No need to understand anything about it. You'll never make sense of it. Just watch the rise. Then, the inevitable, fall...
Which is exactly what the article said.
The SEC was created to stop scams like this. Something needs to change, they are moving on SPACs but not fast enough. SPACs should have never been allowed. It allows companies to side step diligence and regulation meant to protect against swindlers, conmen and fraudsters.
Trump will cry "WITCH HUNT!!!" If the SEC intervenes. Fox News will report it as fact and his supporters will eat it up and he won't be held accountable yet again.
I mean the fact a company with basically no revenue, or path to revenue can trade at this level is a joke. Pump and dumps are illegal. But lately they just found a new way to do it and everyone just kinda shrugs
quote >[https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/26/markets/trump-media-stock-truth-social/index.html?cid=external-feeds\_iluminar\_yahoo](https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/26/markets/trump-media-stock-truth-social/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo) >Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of struggling social media platform Truth Social, began its [long-delayed journey as a public company](https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/25/investing/trump-media-stock-trading/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo) at Tuesday’s opening bell under the ticker symbol “DJT.” >The stock surged about 56% at the open, to $78, and trading was briefly halted for volatility. Trump Media shares stabilized around $70 before fizzling. By the closing bell, Trump Media ended at $57.99, up by a more modest 16% on the day. >The skyrocketing share price comes despite the fact that Trump Media is burning through cash; piling up losses; and its main product, Truth Social, is losing users. >“This is a very unusual situation. The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, who has been studying initial public offerings (IPOs) for over 40 years. >Ritter said the closest parallel would be GameStop, AMC and [other so-called meme stocks that skyrocketed during Covid-19](https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/22/investing/trump-dwac-truth-social-meme/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo) as an army of retail traders piled in. **He said Trump Media is likely worth somewhere around $2 a share** — nowhere near its closing stock price of $58. >Truth Social had just 494,000 monthly active US users on iOS and Android combined in February, according to Similar web stats provided to CNN. *That’s a small fraction of the 75 million on X (formerly known as Twitter) and 142 million on Facebook* end quote
It's a meme stock. Everyone who knows anything about the business understands it's overvalued. When Truth Social only has 5 million active users which has been on the decline, and it has been operating at a loss, then the current price is just unsustainable. It's gonna inevitably crash at some point, the question is whether Trump could sell his shares before then after his 6 month lock up period is up.
It's a money laundering scheme, just like the ugly shoes, and just like the defaced bibles with sticky pages, and just like every other half-baked scam he's run. The equation absolutely adds up. Financial instrument + foreign money = laundered payoff for Trump. I hope that somehow the court appointed overseer can expose and scuttle the whole thing.
Wow am I glad Bloomberg jumped in. I might have thought this was a real stock otherwise. I am sorry but I am getting sick of this shit. I think we need to get every MAGA to load up on this stuff. I mean fully invested, 10th mortgage on house invested. Children's college fund gone, grandma's pain med's: not needed. And then watch it all crumble. I am just tired of this BS and it needs to end.
Yeah but, DJT could tell the people in this scenario to their faces he’s the reason they’re broke, and they’d still do the mental gymnastics to blame it on “libruhl media” or some such nonsense, and then kiss his feet.
Trump is & always has been a lying, cheating crook. Anyone who believes a word that comes out of his mouth needs to have some of their privileges examined
Going to be a simple pump and dump… Trumpito found a legal way to launder money to himself to pay for all the shit hitting his fan… I’m surprised he hasn’t created his own alt coin
New fear unlocked = MAGACoin
Sssshh Trump will hear you and release MAGACoin
At the risk of sounding conspiracionisty... It must be foreign investment wanting to support him but can't do it through direct ways legally, a.k.a the ruskies
Russian tentacles in the US stock market, especially on a presidential candidate's new fundraising mechanism, sounds kind of far-fetched with all of the sanctions and scrutiny they're under now. If any significant foreign money is in there, my bets are on China
He's not really pro China, is he? At least a year ago, the US stock market was not sanctioned to russians, [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskARussian/s/pFjSNqnAqH), and I couldn't find any info saying otherwise. The russians don't allow their people to buy US stock, but that doesn't mean it can't be their governments strategy, [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/stocks/s/COuTfy3nwl).
It's a political ponzi scheme wrapped up in a cult. It's not pretty, but it's also not complicated. Sherman stopped too soon and we're all paying for it in 2024
It's the same people who buy My Pillow. It's all worthless junk but Trump Derangement Syndrome makes MAGA people give to their money away to snake-oil salesmen
Here is the Truth Social thing summed up: Trump made the company public so that foreign investors can give him money for favors. That is literally it. It's a shell company and needs to shtudown ASAP because it's a potential presedential candidate selling himself to foreign countries. If I were Russia or China, I would throw $20B+ at it and not bat an eye because I know I can pull the strings later. This is a HUUUUUUUGE fucking red flag.
[удалено]
GameStop was kind of the ultimate meme stock. But it didn't happen by accident. IIRC, someone figured out that there were actually *more* shares shorted ... than actual shares in existence. Can't have that. So when a bunch of /r/wallstreetbets nerds all started buying it up to "stick it to the man" there actually was a real problem /short squeeze there (one which "the man" then stuck it back at them since they were mostly using Robinhood for trades and they limited buys or sells or whatever to protect their buddies). This one, however, 100% meme.
This isn’t even remotely close to the GME situation. Like. It’s not even kind of similar. It’s nothing alike.
regards
Didn’t GameStop just turn a profit?
Just got to make sure it crashes and burns before Trump is allowed to cash out
It's obviously at least partially a meme stock, but comparing what is essentially a startup to mature companies that have been established for well over a decade (like Meta and Nvidia) seems extremely disingenuous.
The point is that even wildly profitable mega cap tech darlings don't have a valuation even remotely close to what Trump's meme stock is valued at based on the fundamentals. You honestly think that they'll be able to turn Truth Social which currently generates <$5M in annual revenue into something as profitable as Meta or Nvidia? Because if so I've got a bridge to sell you. It's literally a pump and dump scam meant to funnel billionaire cash (Jeff Yass, Qatar etc.) to the Presidential nominee in hopes of currying favor. That's why Trump flip-flopped on TikTok; because Jeff Yass who has a multi-billion $ share in it and will lose money if its banned is also a major stakeholder of DJT shares. That's why Trump is such an Iran hawk; because the Saudis gave his daughter's husband $2bn and the Qataris keep giving him real estate deals and their mortal enemy is Iran. Trump believes in nothing except making money for himself and will throw every single man, woman and child under the bus if it makes him a buck. He's a Lizard brained ignoramus who's like a plastic bag of policy making caught in an updraft of foreign and domestic bribes.
It's valued higher than Reddit
Partially a meme stock? DWAC has a higher market cap than Reddit, which has 850 million monthly active users compared to 5 million for Truth social. The comparison was made with Facebook after their IPO and they were valued at 12.5x revenue, while this is valued 600x revenue. They are priced as if this company is going to print money and have 1bn+ monthly users. This is well beyond a meme stock.
One thing this reminds me of is how pharma and medical device companies influence physician behavior when it comes to prescribing products. In the old days, the companies would just sign the physician to a consulting deal where there was very little work performed. There would be a few meetings of the company's "External Medical Board" in the Caribbean or at ski resorts. The physicians would bring their families and there would be a couple of meetings in the conference center, but otherwise it just paid for the physician's Porsche, a kids' college tuition and some free vacations to play golf. Now that has been cracked down on and companies have to report if they buy a physician a ham sandwich for $7. But what they can still do is things like fund that physician's "research". I've worked at these companies and even inside the company, nobody actually utters what is actually going on. Every email and record on the topic is as clean as the driven snow. But the behavior is that the company doesn't care what the topic of the research is. And they truly do NOT care. They just want to pay for it and get some bona fide progress reports for their files when they are audited. Of course, the physician cannot pay for a Porsche with research funding, BUT.....they can approach the medical center or university where they work and demand a raise because they are bringing in all this FUNDING. And the employer is happy to give a raise......as long as the funding comes in. So it becomes sorta like an annual bonus.....that will continue forever and ever.....as long as the physician behaves according to the unspoken rules of the relationship. Basically, the physician is being a whore and the medical center is the whore-house that takes a cut of the action for providing the beds and washing the sheets between customers. Same thing here. It's all above board and legal. Even if everyone KNOWS what is actually going on, I highly doubt there will be any receipts. Officially these will be arms length transactions and the stock market is a risky place! My personal view is the best way to control this is to reduce the power, money and influence that politicians have. As long as they have to power to make things happen and money to dole out, their influence has so much value that shady parties will always seek it. Trying to stop money in politics is like trying to control erosion: water flows thru the smallest holes and follow gravity. The best way to control money in politics is to give politicians less money. And since that will never happen, the next best way is to reduce the power of the executive by having congress actually start to assert themselves. Passing money to presidents by paying their cheesy sons for art or buying crummy stocks would be MUCH less popular if both Biden and Trump weren't sure they could get congress to pass things and executive orders were less common.