The real lesson of the GameStop story is the power of the swarm | Brett Scott

Rather than retreating from the company's over-valued shares, traders have embraced them with nihilistic exuberance

When I worked in high finance it was a running joke that day traders - small retail traders - were like beetles sifting through the dung of the big funds that truly drove the markets. They are in a weak position, given their lack of capital and coordination, but an entire retail brokerage industry - nowadays exemplified by companies such as Robinhood - is designed to cultivate a myth of their heroic status.

That's why the GameStop story stands out. In his book Liar's Poker, former Wall Street trader Michael Lewis described powerful traders who work for big investment banks as big swinging dicks", but the folk appeal of the GameStop saga stems from the fact that a swarm of little swinging dicks" have seemingly banded together to become a giant swinging dick, defying gravity to push the price of a stock far beyond its actual underlying value.