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GameStop Shares Drop, Extending 80% Slump From Last Week

An illuminated logo inside a closed GameStop Corp. store in Frankfurt, Germany, on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg

GameStop Corp. extended its decline Monday after its worst week on record as the video-game retailer’s recent roller-coaster ride continues.

GameStop fell as much as 9% to $58.02 in New York trading, after whipsawing between gains and losses earlier. It slumped 80% last week, a drop that followed three weeks of dizzying gains.

Robinhood Markets Inc.’s move late last week to end buying limits on GameStop has had limited impact on the stock, which has lost most of its gains since touching an intraday high at $483 on Jan. 28. Inflated levels of short interest that triggered a squeeze on the shares have declined after a number of hedge funds closed positions and incurred huge losses.

Short interest in GameStop has fallen back to levels seen since 2010

“Extremely elevated short interest is a pre-condition for a major short squeeze to occur,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists wrote in a note dated Feb. 5, saying that GameStop — on which short interest had exceeded 100% of the float of the company — has been a “highly unusual” situation.

Volumes in GameStop options remained high, with open interest in puts and calls rising further last week as the stock price tumbled. While calls open interest has climbed, volumes on the bearish put contracts have jumped to almost five times the amount.

Trading engagement remains high with puts soaring and calls near highs

GameStop Was as Fun as Pulling Teeth by the End: John Authers

“While the GME game may have come to an end — at least for now — its after-effects will linger,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, wrote in a note. “New regulations are likely to arise, and we can only hope that they are sensible.”

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  • Johan Buys says:

    The short interest (shares sold short but not yet covered) has plummeted from over 110% to under 30%. Roughly speaking looking at mid Jan to now, the shorts got wiped to the tune of about $12b. Nice!

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