GAME OVER?

Summary

• Market observers and participants have been temporarily distracted in the past week by the battle between Reddit's plucky retail investors and lazy short-selling hedge funds over the fate of GameStop.
• People with time on their hands, and a stimulus cheque(?), have decided to take a punt.
• In the boring and dusty world of global macro trading, investors' eyes are still focused on the long bond in the U.S.

Market observers and participants have been temporarily distracted in the past week by the battle between Reddit's plucky retail investors and lazy short-selling hedge funds over the fate of GameStop(NYSE:GME). It won't be the last time the world stops to watch such an event in the same way that people, who would otherwise never watch a race, are glued to the screen when F1 drivers crash into the barrier or each other. Pundits have tried to turn this into more than it is, but until people turn up with actual pitchforks in front of Mr. Griffin's $60M penthouse pad in Chicago, I am inclined to side with George Pearkes' take on the matter; move on, nothing (much) to see. People with time on their hands, and a stimulus cheque(?), have decided to take a punt. On the face of it, they have been successful, but most will have bought and sold too late to avoid the gut-wrenching losses that are all but inevitable in the context of the kind of volatility, which GameStop has exhibited recently. Meanwhile, in the boring and dusty world of global macro trading, investors' eyes are still focused on the long bond in the U.S., where it is, or isn't, going, and what this means for other asset classes, the economy, not to mention the Fed's reaction function? Friday's NFP report was, as ever, a case in point.