Wednesday - August 10, 2022

Today's newsletter will take 4.04 minutes to read.

DRS UPDATE: 51.763*% (estimated percent of shares direct registered) 

*source: Computershared.net

All streaks must eventually come to an end.

But something about yesterday's price action was unsettling. Both GameStop and Bed Bath and Beyond had a tremendous amount of momentum coming into the trading day, but an exorbitant amount of borrowable shares appeared early this morning and impacted our run. No worries, we'll dust ourselves off and play again.

Speaking of Bed Bath and Beyond, earlier this morning I dropped my phone in the bath.

It's now syncing. /joke

Ok, one more - What did the camel say when he met his friend in the Sahara? “Long time no sea.”

We're on a roll this morning! Now onto this morning's edition.

Ok, we'll stop now.

Good Morning! This is Mother Squeezer, the fun newsletter bringing you life improving updates and insights along with pertinent information about our favorite Activist Investor, Ryan Cohen, and our favorite stocks - GME and BBBY.

The July 2022 CPI (Consumer Price Index) came out about half an hour ago. 8.7% year over year is what was expected. We came in at 8.5% this morning. Let's see how this affects today's trading. The DOW Futures are trading up over 400.

The casino opens in half an hour and we're sitting at the table ready to play! Days like yesterday are just part of the journey. It's just a reminder to direct register your shares. Lots of brokers get paid to lend out YOUR shares! Many of these are the same shares that are used to short our beloved stocks. On to yesterday's trading recap.

BBBY started the day up, but was aggressively shorted down. It seems the naked shorts may be at it again - more on this below. It closed the day at $9.79 after bottoming out at $8.63. Before the drop, it peaked out at $11.99 on higher than average volume. It ended the day exchanging over 73 million shares. This has brought our average volume up to just south of 32 million.

There were 150,000 shares at its peak to borrow. The cost to borrow has been sliding a little, down to 5.75%.

Let's see how these CPI numbers affects todays trading. Also, since max pain for Friday is currently $9, let's see if BBBY is able to break out of this downward force.

GameStop closed down 7.09% ending the day at $40.37. On Tuesday, we exceeded the average trading volume for the second time week. There were just shy of 7 million shares exchanged, coming in just above our average trading volume of 6.35 million shares. We're still looking for one of those volume busting days that we haven't seen lately.

There was a massive 950,000 shares available to borrow at its peak yesterday, We ended the trading day with 150,000 available. The cost to borrow is currently 29.2%. This morning, we're starting out with 350,000 available. We continue to monitor to see if these shares get borrowed and are used to aggressively attack the stock price. Get ready for the battle for Wednesday!

Since things cooled off a little yesterday, it's a good time to give GameStop a plug. Also, the talk of naked shorts has us feeling a little cold. This GameStop Logo Unisex Hooded Sweatshirt is sure to be the cure for now or this winter, and it's on sale for $21.97. It's an 80/20 blend and available in sizes S-2XL. Get one while supplies last!

Did you know?

Bed Bath and Beyond began in 1971 in Springfield, NJ and was originally called Bed 'n Bath. As of August 2022, there are 716 stores in the US.

Naked Shorting

We talk about naked shorting like we all know exactly what it means. It occurred to us that some of our readers may not be incredibly familiar with the term, so let's look a little deeper for a better understanding of naked shorting and how it harm stocks.

What is naked shorting you ask? Let's head over to our trusted friend, Investopedia for a concise explanation:

Naked shorting occurs when hedge funds/market makers (ie- "the bad guys**) sell shorts on shares they do not own. Think about it like making a wager with a friend - to see who can eat the most slices of...let's say a Mother Squeezers fruitcake. The winner gets $20. Now imagine finding out your friend never had the $20 to pay you in case they lost. Would you still make that wager?

That's what naked shorting is like.

Investopedia goes on to say:

Seeking Alpha tells us: "While short selling is legal, naked short selling is not. The reason for this is that naked shorting involves the shorting of shares that do not exist, which is a practice that has been banned by the SEC. Naked shorting contrasts with normal short trading, where the short seller borrows shares with the intention of returning them at a later date."

Now you know. This is what we're referring to when talking about the criminal behavior from the bad guys.

** not all hedge funds and market makers are bad

Pre Market

GameStop is trading up about $0.97 to around $41.34, an increase of about 2.40% and Bed Bath and Beyond is inching higher, trading up $0.75 to around $10.54, up around 7.81% in pre market.

Ryan Says

While we wait to hear from Mr. Cohen, we'll share a throwback tweet to almost a year ago:

Nice shorts! Our beloved Chairman has a great sense of humor which we greatly appreciate. He makes being a billionaire look fun :)

Have a great Hump Day and we'll be back in your inbox tomorrow morning so leave the light on!

Spread the Word

We love Ryan Cohen and think he's the greatest Activist Investor of our generation. We are passionate followers of his moves and words and would love for others to know more about this great leader. We feel strongly that life is all about learning who to follow. If you have someone that needs more RC in their life, share Mother Squeezer with them!

This is one bro we actually trust

Have something to share? Let us know!

Financial Disclaimer: None of this is meant to be financial advice. We love Ryan Cohen, RC Ventures, GameStop and Bed Bath and Beyond, and like learning and sharing these insights and commentary.