Opinion | The GameStop movement shouldn’t stop there. Use that power for social good.

You probably know the outlines of the story — hedge funds positioned large bets on GameStop’s inventory falling, retail traders (in different phrases, individuals not allowed anyplace close to a hedge fund) determined to work collectively as patrons to make the inventory rise and — shedding no tears — punish all these rich short-sellers. These small-time traders crushed the long-held sentiment that it’s futile to attempt to outplay the massive cash on Wall Street. If you possibly can’t beat ’em, be a part of ’em . . . and then beat ’em.

I taught myself about investing 15 years in the past and have been impressed and enthused to see retail traders flood the inventory market. This is generally because of Robinhood, the brokerage that pioneered commission-free buying and selling.

Retail traders, like me, not need to lose our hard-earned coin paying $6.95 per commerce. With a free buying and selling app, we are able to seize a inventory tip from Reddit or TikTok, click on a number of buttons and bam — we’re within the recreation. But, Robinhood isn’t with out its issues. It shut out GameStop patrons on Thursday, inspiring speak of darkish Wall Street conspiracies, however the transfer apparently was necessitated by a liquidity crunch brought on by the entire volatility. After raising a billion-dollar investment and a $500 million line of credit score in a single day, Robinhood unfroze GameStop inventory purchases on Friday and the rocketing resumed.

Yes, there’s the likelihood, some would even say the chance, that we retail traders will get damage when the GameStop inventory settles down. That’s a danger of investing. Plenty of institutional traders on the GameStop purchase facet, together with BlackRock, are additionally taking a danger. The distinction is that these are particular person Americans exerting their will. If hedge funds have decreed that GameStop’s inventory is a loser, are all of us purported to salute?

We’re a brand new class of traders, with entry to highly effective markets. And the GameStop brief squeeze — as with inventory for BlackBerry and the AMC theater chain — underscores simply how a lot power we have now to collectively transfer these markets. I believe that a giant a part of the inventory market’s sky-high valuation and rampaging bull run is because of retail traders.

Now, it’s no coincidence that the newly democratized finance trade has grown in tandem with one thing far much less inspiring. The bullish inventory market has solely poured extra riches into the laps of the 1 p.c. The pandemic has been tough for the typical American, however our billionaires bought a lot wealthier.

Inequality has been uncontrolled for years, however when tens of millions of Americans immediately misplaced their jobs whereas David Geffen varieties rode out the virus on their megayachts and huge estates, it went from the background to blaring in our faces sooner than you possibly can say “tone-deaf.”

The uber-rich will all the time exist. The downside is that many highly effective individuals — those that govern the nation, run its firms and exert affect — acquired that power on account of their wealth and privilege (or typically their mother and father’ wealth, as a result of compounding works like gangbusters once you’re already swimming in piles of cash).

Or, worse, the uber-rich are pulling political strings to assist themselves get even wealthier. The Post’s Christopher Ingraham explains that America’s excessive wealth hole is “consolidating power in the hands of the nation’s billionaires, who are increasingly using their riches to purchase political influence.”

Could an answer exist with us, the retail traders, shopping for 5 shares right here and 50 shares there? Collectively, tens of millions of us may exert management with our purchasing power and doubtlessly shift the stability of power.

Now think about using that collective power for social good, as a manner of signaling help for — or, alternatively, of boycotting — an organization’s items, providers or enterprise practices, however doing it with inventory and choices. For a boycott, traders may even double down and purchase shares from a competitor.

If a company’s inventory plummeted 20 to 30 p.c in a single day, that would ship a transparent and resounding message to its board of administrators, principal shareholders and senior management staff, i.e., the decision-makers.

Publicly held firms reply to those entities, and what these entities care about is inventory costs. Companies are sometimes more beholden to shareholders than to their workers, even when some try to shift that paradigm. And to C-level executives, the general public “optics” matter.

I hope my fellow retail traders will make GameStop simply the beginning — and use our newfound power to assist firms and company leaders discover a conscience. Eventually, they’ll begin listening and understanding that placing their communities and their workers first can enhance enterprise and nonetheless profit shareholders.