Irish investor joining in controversial trades

The US stock market has been volatile as of late, with stocks such as GME, NAKD and AMC reaching triple-digit percentage gains after being targeted by a message board forum known as “WallStreetBets” on the popular website Reddit.

Through apps such as DEGIRO, Revolut and Etoro, Irish citizens have been investing in these extremely unstable US stocks. One Irish Reddit user, known as “Carl95M” on the platform, purchased around €15,000 of GameStop stock at €260 a share using DEGIRO.

With GME going up in value by 173% and AMC rising 54% in one recent week, the stocks show no signs of decreasing their turbulence. This follows a collapse that saw the stock prices crashing below a quarter of the peak they hit after the first rush at the end of January.

Speaking to The Liberty, Ryan Maher, a financial advisor working on behalf of askpaul.ie, advised against purchasing any of these volatile stocks.

“In the case of GameStop (GME) and AMC, I wouldn’t be investing a single cent that I wouldn’t be happy to lose.

“A lot of investors are going to and have been burned here, personally it couldn’t appeal to me less.”

Key players in the GME case, notably Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev and retail investor Keith Gill, recently testified before the House Committee on Financial Services on their involvement in the GME stock.

Both have also been involved in class action lawsuits, with Gill being sued for alleged security fraud and Robinhood being sued over GameStop trading restrictions.

Robinhood was not the only trader to pull the buying of stocks from its platform, with Revolut and Etoro also restricting the buying of stocks in the past month.