Ben Gilbert/Business Insider
- Billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen has seen losses of nearly 15% at his firm Point72, driven by the gravity-defying surge in GameStop stock, according to a report in the New York Times.
- Hedge funds have lost over $5 billion on their bearish bets on GameStop since Reddit’s WallStreetBets crowd jumped on the trade.
- Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, called the GameStop saga a “bottom-up revolution.”
- Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
Frenzied buying of GameStop stock is taking a toll on renowned hedge funds.
According to a New York Times report, Point72, run by the Mets owner Steve Cohen, lost nearly 15% this year as the company’s investment in Melvin Capital backfired.
Point72 managed close to $19 billion in assets and held a roughly $1 billion investment with Melvin Capital prior to the GameStop feeding frenzy.
In recent weeks, Melvin became the victim of historic short and gamma squeeze conditions after retail traders, led by Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, piled into shares of heavily-shorted stocks like GameStop.
Melvin had a significant short position in the struggling video game retailer, and as GameStop shares surged more than 1700% in January, losses piled up. The firm was eventually was forced to accept a $2.75 billion investment from outside sources to stabilize what was once a top-performing fund.
One of those sources was Steve Cohen's Point 72. The firm was reported to have added $750 million in cash to help stabilize Melvin earlier this week.
But GameStop's stock has continued to jump on strong volume despite the historic rise in share prices and valuation throughout January.
The continued bull run has caused short sellers to incur losses of over $5 billion in the name since retail traders first piled into GameStop on January 11.
On the other hand, GameStop's rise has led some retail traders to phenomenal returns. One trader has turned an investment of just $53,566 into over $11 million.
Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, called the GameStop saga a "bottom-up revolution" in an interview with CNBC on Thursdaty. Ohanian argued this is a seminal moment that pits the everyman against hedge funds and other powerful institutional investors.
"Just looking at the comments around the internet, it's something that's very personal for a lot of people and a chance for Joe and Jane America, the sort of retail buyers of stock, to flex back and push back on these hedge funds," he said.
As far as Point72, Melvin Capital, and other institutional investors are concerned, the Reddit phenomenon has been a disaster.
GameStop traded down considerably Thursday morning, and Robinhood customers said they had been locked out of buying additional shares of GameStop and other popular stocks including AMC.
Shares of GameStop traded at $415.05 as of 9:56 AM EST Thursday morning.