Hedgefund managers and other traders were scrambling the final week of January when GameStop and other lackluster stocks were being purchased in unprecedented amounts.

The push was led by Reddit group WallStreetBets, an online community that discusses stocks and trading. The community also attempts to manipulate the market by countering “short” investors who are betting on the stock to decrease in price. 

WallStreetBets was able to accomplish their goal on the GameStop (GME) stock, after seeing investors start to short their stock. WSB, a community of over two million people, had thousands of members buy GME to create losses for the shorters, and it worked. The resulting chaos saw GME stock start at $19.95 on January 14th and jump all the way up to $347.51 by January 27th.

NASH senior Matt Turzai, a stock trader, owned GME prior to the spike.

“I bought in at thirteen dollars, which was in mid-December—way before I had even thought something like this was possible,” he said. “To my major regret, I sold it after its initial bump to thirty-three dollars.”

With the frenzy around GME, other stocks such as Nokia (NOK), soon saw similar spikes after WSB also pushed prices up. 

Braeden Young, a NASH senior, was among the traders who benefitted from the rapid increase in prices. 

“I was already in NOK before it was being pumped,” the senior said.

The massive spikes in prices created a large amount of volatility in the market, as investors could not accurately pinpoint usually predictable trends in the market. As these unusual trends continue, investors are now using new resources to grow more confident in their investment decisions.

“I’ve definitely started using forums and social media a lot more to find new stocks,” Turzai continued. “It’s not enough just to see a name mentioned online. I still definitely look into the stock before I would buy it.”

Even with the market’s recent volatility, other student investors don’t see the late-January events as a reason to change their long-term strategies. 

“I would not say that anything has changed drastically due to the explosion, but I sold everything I had when it first started because I saw the uncertainty and volatility the market had that week,” Young said.

Stock company Robinhood was under intense scrutiny after restricting trade to the pumped stocks, with some claiming the company was helping hedge fund managers who were shorting GME and losing billions of dollars as a result of the spike. 

As CNBC reported, Politicians from both sides of the aisle, including Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, criticized the company for halting trade in the market. Both called for a probe into the companies action. 

Robinhood lifted restrictions on GME on February 5th, and the stock already saw a sizable increase in price once full trading was allowed. 

The market has seen changes that had never before been seen. Independent groups that were almost unheard of outside of internet circles, such as WSB, showed how outlandish the market can be. The recent events gave light to a new group of investors who were attracted by the frenzy.