英文

Editorial:Retail investors fighting hedge funds 'for justice'

【明報專訊】The drama of an online army of retail investors battling hedge funds on Wall Street for the last few days has aroused hot discussions everywhere. In the era of financial globalisation, big funds call the shots, and there are endless tales of them making huge profits by short selling. Retail investors often end up as the losers as the entire set of rules of the game is always tilted in favour of the big investors. In the latest incident, the online army of retail investors has managed to amass a huge sum of capital to defeat the hedge funds by means of ''short squeezing''. Their subversion of the conventional order on Wall Street is a proof of the mightiness of civic empowerment in the social media era. The fund industry cannot practise ''heads I win, tails you lose'' and forbid retail investors to win money. However, it must be pointed out that there are a lot of subjective and objective conditions behind the victory of retail investors. Those who think that social media has already changed everything and the drama can be copied anywhere think so at their own peril. In the US, wealth is increasingly concentrated in a handful of people. The battle between retail investors and big funds this time carries a heavy tinge of a populist rising against the establishment. As the antagonism between the elites and the common people aggravates, there may be even more serious social crises ahead.

上 / 下一篇新聞