Amateur traders have helped boost the value of troubled games retailer Gamestop.
The Texas-based retailer has 5000 shops across the US and Canada, as well as Australia, New Zealand and Europe. It had been suffering as computer gaming moved online, and had become a target for short-sellers.
Now it has become a rallying flag for those wanting to “stick it to the shorts”, amateur traders on Wallstreetbets who are driving up share prices, which have risen 1,400% over the year. So far this has cost short-sellers more than $5bn.
Gamestop has denied that it was planning to close stores prior to the rise of its share price.
