Hiding In Plain Sight - A bi-weekly blog & podcast that sprouts every other Friday :-)
Quinn & Finley Mulligan joined me to discuss their new movie, Apes Together Strong (release date: June 5, Amazon).
In January 2021, during the height of the pandemic, visitors to websites such as Reddit and Wall Street Bets were educating one another on how Wall Street hedge fund companies were heavily “shorting” (i.e., betting against) companies like GameStop and AMC Theaters.
In response, Quinn and Finley Mulligan, together with scores of retail investors saw a unique opportunity to buy into GameStop, driving its stock price to over $500/share. This created a major problem for institutional investors like Melvin Capital which was obligated to cover its bet against GameStop at a loss of millions of dollars.
Then, on January 28, online brokerages, such as Robin Hood, pulled the rug under average investors by deleting the “buy button” on their apps and tanking the price of the stock.
Despite retail investors’ due diligence, much of the news coverage of this event portrayed the Apes as “incompetent” and “impulsive”.
The twin brothers pitched the idea of creating a movie on the GameStop “short squeeze” from the Apes’ perspective. They got a clear message back from the Ape community — “Yes, please make this movie!” and they also received thousands of dollars from people across the world who wanted their stories documented.
The Mulligan brothers made Apes Together Strong to tell the Apes’ side of the story. My interview with the Mulligan brothers covers the story behind the making of this movie.
Links:
New York Times review of the movie (June 5th)
Jon Stewart speaks out on Reddit-GameStop frenzy
We the Investors petition to reform Payment for Order Flow
Ideas on reforming the current system
17. Meet the apes