They are gorillas.
This is not monkey work. Reddit group members – who gained national attention for their role in increasing January’s trade frenzy GameStop (GME), AMC (AMC) and other meme stocks – soared over the weekend to use their earnings to symbolically “adopt” gorillas through donations to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.
Why gorillas? It’s kind of an inside joke: WallStreetBets members refer to themselves and others on the page as “monkeys”, as part of the group’s internal jargon.
It all started on Saturday, when a member of WallStreetBets
adopted a baby gorilla named Urungano of the organization on behalf of GameStop. Since then, Dian Fossey has received thousands of new adoptions and more than $ 333,000 in donations, compared to about 20 adoptions on a typical weekend, according to a spokesman.
“He used unrealized earnings from GME to adopt a gorilla,” said a poster for WallStreetBets on the website.
“Monkeys saving monkeys,” said another.
WallStreetBets investors sent GameStop shares by shooting more than 1,500% earlier this year, squeezing the hedge funds that had sold the shares and sparking a conversation about whether the access of individual retail investors to Wall Street is equal to that of large institutional investors.
A poster from WallStreetBets said on Monday that the increase in donations to help save gorillas pointed to the benefits of making stock trading more accessible to individuals. In the past few days, some members of the group have also discussed donating some of their “trends” (or earnings) by trading GameStop shares to employees of retail game stores.
“The monkeys on Reddit will use (the earnings) to donate to good causes, pay medical bills, help the needy in their communities,” said the user. “I can’t wait for the wealth to be returned to the boy and for everyone to benefit from it.”
GameStop’s stock plummeted after its peak of around $ 350 during the January trading frenzy. But in recent weeks, the stock has started to rise again and was trading at around $ 200 on Monday, up more than 66% since the beginning of this month. Many WallStreetBets members say they are still holding the shares, in the hope that earnings will continue.
The Dian Fossey Fund
said in a tweet topic that gorillas are actually “a big investment”, adding that the funds will go to track, monitor and study wild gorillas and their habitat. The fund claims to be “the oldest and largest gorilla conservation organization in the world”.
“Gorillas live in the Congo Basin, the second largest rainforest in the world and a natural defense against #climatechange,” said the group. “When we save gorillas, we save the planet. How’s that for #ROI?”
The organization’s CEO, Tara Stoinski, also posted a video on WallStreetBets, thanking the Redditors who helped fuel the donations.
“Hello WallStreetBets … I just heard that you have been adopting gorillas through our website,” said Stoinski in the video. “I just wanted to say thank you very much for this incredible support.”
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