“ Frenzied finance ” stock gamblers have accumulated immense lines of Amalgamated . The same sensational rumors of a great rise to come flood Wall and State Streets as in 1901 . They have asked me to join in creating a wild market upon which all the Amalgamated taken in at lower prices may be turned out upon the public .
It would be millions in my pocket to assist , but — I see the handwriting on the wall which the “ frenzied financiers ” of Wall Street do not yet see . It reads : “ The people will not stand plundering any longer .” And I have decided .
I advise every stockholder of Amalgamated stock to sell his holdings at once before another crash comes . Another slump may carry it to 33 again , or lower .
Sending missives that confirmed the suspicions of the masses — that Wall Street and large corporate interests were taking advantage of them — proved combustible . In the days after Lawson ’ s advertisements , Amalgamated sank from just over $ 80 per share in the days before the newspaper campaign to just over $ 60 in under two weeks .
And this was not a haphazard dumping of the equity . As David Zimmerman wrote in Panic !:
What unnerved critics , in fact , is that these followers were extraordinarily disciplined , carrying out their general ’ s commands immediately and efficiently . Lawson ’ s followers were dangerous precisely because their actions and desires were prompted and guided not by market imperatives but rather by Lawson ’ s directives . Moreover , their speculations did not demonstrate their loss of self-control or their dispossession by the market ; their speculations showed , instead , their collective sense of power as an insurgent class . If they were unusually excited , it was because they imagined themselves assuming control over the vast , capricious machinery of the marketplace , a privilege only the system and before it , the most powerful financial barons , had enjoyed .
Yet where Gill did demonstrate leadership of the sort that bears comparison to Lawson is in the unfolding of the GME trade . As the stock rose , he made his commitment to the long position crystal clear to other WSB members . And within that culture , courage and fortitude are highly valued attributes . The description “ diamond hands ” is high praise indeed , characterizing a WSB participant as demonstrating unflinching perseverance in the face of unrealized losses or a drumbeat of negative news .
Gill would not sell , he told other members of the Reddit thread and YouTube watchers , and take quick , massive and life-changing profits . Rather , he would hold fast or even add to his long position , which he did . And in so doing , he inspired other WSB traders to stand fast on , or even add to , their long GME positions as well . One of his many appreciative WSB followers commented :
Your steady hand convinced many of us to not only buy , but hold . Your example has literally changed the lives of thousands of ordinary normal people . Seriously , thank you . You deserve every penny .
And quite a few pennies were made , indeed . Gill ’ s stock and options positions were worth tens of millions at the end of January 2021 from what started less than two years earlier as a $ 53,000 position . Lawson is said to have cleared some $ 46 million ($ 1.4 billion in 2021 purchasing power ) from a short position in Amalgamated when he recommended that his followers dump it .
Birds of a Feather ?
Comparisons between Gill and Lawson are mostly apt , if stretched a bit . There is a showmanship inclination to both men through different media choices reflective of their era : newspaper advertisements then , YouTube videos today .
On the topic of advocacy , whether in favor of a particular security or in contempt of the alleged masters of mammon near Broad and Wall , Gill has claimed , in interviews , to not in fact be against high finance . His is not an anti – Wall Street crusade . By his own assertion he is less an activist than an individual who , having had a prescient investment idea , found himself unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight .
Lawson , on the other hand , had vindictive goals and forced his way into the limelight to realize them . And appreciation among his followers for his indignant , widely-broadcast stock campaigns to right the wrongs of the System ( or at least bring them to public awareness ) according to Fayant are summarized in the following way by an adoring member of his invisible legions :
When America needed a father , God raised up Washington . When America needed an emancipator , God raised up Lincoln . It is my belief that , for the troubles that beset the country at this time , God raised up Lawson .
But despite Gill ’ s distancing himself from broad-based disparagements of high finance , there is certainly a Lawsonian concept of a “ System ” within WSB . Referring to fellow WSB members as “ apes ,” one battle cry implored :
If you or your parents ’ lives were destroyed in 2008 , do you remember who were held responsible ? I don ’ t ! Cause no one was ! Who cared about the little people ? No one ! Little people , apes now , have to stick together ! GME and AMC together ! We are family !
To others , the “ System ” manifested as hedge funds and their trading algorithms . Counseling vigilance , a WSB poster wrote :
Power to the players . Power to the people . Remember , the Hedgie Algo ’ s are based on the underclass being motivated by fear . When the population no longer lives in fear , revolution is possible . Make no mistake , this is a financial revolution .
Power to the players . Power to the people .
Perhaps like “ The Man in the Moon ” or art , market campaigns are more a matter of pareidolia than an explicit tenor .
Lawson and the Dot Com Gurus
A closer parallel can be made between Lawson and the first wave of internet trading “ gurus ” who appeared on sites like Silicon Investor , Raging Bull , InvestorsHub , the Yahoo ! Finance message boards and others . Between the mid-1990s and early 2000s , online message boards were teeming with stock gurus who , for a monthly fee , would make real-time stock trading recommendations . In certain cases , the individuals pitched their services as not only being a product of expertise but , more akin to Lawson and the account superimposed upon the WSB short squeeze
www . MoAF . org | Summer 2021 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 21