GameStop stock trading documentary premiering in theaters next week

It was almost one year ago when shares of GameStop spiked to around $500, after starting 2021 at $17, thanks to amateur day traders. A new documentary hits theaters next week to explain how this stock craze happened. 

GameStop: Rise of the Players takes a look at why shares of the video game retailer shot up in price, and who were the players involved in one of the biggest Wall Street stories of the year. The film comes from director Jonah Tullis, who directed Console Wars, a documentary that looked at the video game battle between Sega and Nintendo during the '90s.

In late 2020, traders on the subreddit r/WallStreetBets began taking note of GameStop's low share prices, which were in the single digits for most of the year, and they saw a grown number of bets saying the stock was going to go even lower, known as a short sell. These traders began buying more and more of the retailer's stock, which in turn led to investment firms that bet against the stock having to buy more stock in order to avoid losing a huge sum of money, which is referred to as a "short squeeze." 

The result was shares of GameStop reaching record levels, peaking at $483. What followed was multiple congressional hearings over what happened, and the questioning of investment app companies such as Robinhood, which halted trading GameStop shares when the price kept going up. 

GameStop: Rise to the Players hits theaters on Jan. 28.