Wow. I actually read the whole article. A well written Op-Ed on how social media can shift the market from a data driven market to cattle rustlers causing chaos in the herd. Even though meme-stocks, as you pointed out, existed before the 2020 insurrection, they have similar roots.
Just like the internet who founders envisioned an electronic virtual utopia, they were sadly disappointed. Just like in the animal kingdom, mobs like wildebeests in the Lion King or lemmings in reality, they don't consider the numbers, the financials or rational democracy. We get what we sow.
I have no beef with meme-stocks. The stuffy financial analysts taking care of your nest egg is feeling the brunt of the insurrection by the mob. They are often the one's shorting meme-stocks saying that GME couldn't go higher, which it did.
Earning's, , P/E, ROI, etc.. have become CNN's fake news. I wonder if meme-stock traders have a poster-child like Trump. It seems like a good old fashion witch-hunt, but instead of Lame Duck cracker spooking the Right-Wing rioters, was this a spontaneous event like CoViD-19, or is there a Castro fighting the good fight?
I applaud the actions of meme-stock traders. They are just doing their job like viruses in the system. You wrote that "the current stock market has lost touch with reality." I guess we should include democracy? Another victim of social-media?
I would venture to say our version of reality has lost touch not only with the stock market but also reality itself with the birth of fake news. Pundits have said social media actually narrows a person's world-view rather than expanding because we read only what titillates us on Twitter instead of digesting balanced news. Like the New York Times which also has been bullied by the mob on Twitter & Facebook, so too balanced financial analysis.
Last thought if you will indulge me: If human-free ETF has dominated the market based purely on numbers free from human speculation, aren’t ETFs more like conservative Republicans and stuffy financial analysts? Then meme-stocks (Mob-Traded Funds - MTF) must be 2 sides of the same greedy coin? Like CoVid-19 & physicians swamped by the pandemic?
These Meme-Traders should start a mutual fund or an MTF so that retirees can gamble with their nest egg. I’d buy some shares, but I never short if that was an option ;)