Growing up, I remember my dad watching Jim Cramer all day yelling about the stock market on cable TV. Ah, simpler times.
It seems like now, all it takes is following Twitter, especially Elon Musk, to see where the market is going. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing — I’m just a marketer with some risk-adverse investments. And I draw cartoons.
This week, the stock market stories gave me inspiration for a couple of doodles about stock market influencers, a new people vs. the rich narrative, and unlikely unity.
Stock market influencers
Fashion and beauty influencers (ie Arielle Charnas of Something Navy and Kylie Jenner) can sell out a whole line in minutes. But they have nothing on stock market influencers who can have an actual lasting impact on the economy. With the power of social media, the stock market is moving faster than fast fashion.
Last week, there were a couple of examples of this. Besides the group of “Wall Street rebels” on reddit, one person stood out — Elon Musk. He can give a fashion or beauty influencer, or an economy, a run for their money.
He has the ability to move markets with a single tweet.
He must be bored. Are there not enough rockets to fly or Teslas to produce? So he took to Twitter to rave about Etsy — he loved the Marvin the Martian hat he got for his scruffy pup — and change his profile. If I did this, it would make absolutely no difference in the world. But, when he did it, he sent Etsy stock up about 9% in a day.
When he added #bitcoin to his profile, that stock went soaring too. And apparently, he did make an impact on the encrypted messaging app, Signal, as well.
I guess that’s the idea of a fun day for a billionaire stuck at home in a pandemic with a newborn. If I were him, I’d probably try to rouse up some chaos on the Internet and in the economy, too. Why not?
Democracy and unity in the stock market
A Wall Street subreddit — a group of seemingly powerful influencers — also started a chaotic underdog movement online when they bought up the shorted GameStop stock. Musk was along for the ride, tweeting about the “Reddit rebellion” to bring attention to it.
And once Robinhood got wind of it and shut down buying stocks, Musk had more to say about this democratic, for-the-people app gone bad.
But this time, he wasn’t alone. A group of odd bedfellows had a moment of unity agreeing that Robinhood was up to no good. Everyone from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Donald Trump Jr. to Barstool president, Dave Portnoy, and even Ted Cruz spoke out against the investing app’s actions. I drew them having their “kumbaya” moment, and I made a video with screenshots of all of their reactions.
It doesn’t seem like the scandal will lead automatic unity, SEC reform, or distributed wealth, but, maybe we’re one step closer?
