Early Gamestop investors made a lot of money on the trade, but only if they ignored the misinformation in /r/WallStreetBets.<p>Wall Street is an easy punching bug, but let's not forget that the misinformation coming from /r/WallStreetBets misled a lot of people into believing that the stock could only go up. The only allowable content in WSB was "diamond hands", rocket emojis, and shaming anyone who dared admit they took profits.<p>It turned into a group pump and dump scheme, but many participants didn't realize that they were supposed to dump the stock before it inevitably crashed back down. The sub is still full of posts encouraging people to hold their stock forever.
Any market is subject to risk which is most likely asymmetrical between market participants. "Wall Street" isn't some homogenous mass that's collectively conspiring as a unit. The most consistent victims of "Wall Street" machinations is "Wall Street". If there's an opportunity to screw the other guy, people take it. It's unfortunate, but attempts at riches rarely includes moral etiquette.