GameStop, the video game retailer that has become the darling of Reddit's r/WallStreetBets community as of late, has stopped its meteoric rise because trading apps will no longer allow people to buy shares, reported Bloomberg. Two platforms, Robinhood and Interactive Broker Group, were the main ways that Reddit day traders members were buying shares of the company, which had the effect of raining cruel and vicious blows against the short-sellers whom the Reddit users were targeting.

Effectively what happened was that short sellers thought they had a sure bet with GameStop, a company that still relies on sales of physical game media, but they did not count on Reddit users countering with boatloads of options, which caused the short sellers to lose literally billions of dollars in just a few days. For the day traders, profit was only one part of their motivation, outweighed heavily by just sheer sadism and glee at hurting short sellers who, before, had seemed unassailable. Ultimately, two of the largest short sellers, Citron Research and Melvin Capital, were forced to abandon their positions, effectively surrendering yesterday in their battle against Reddit's traders.

The move by Robinhood and Interactive Broker Group has cut the legs out from under the day traders' campaign, though, especially since they still allow people to sell their shares. They similarly restricted stock in other companies, such as AMC, that users were planning to target in a similar manner. Robinhood said it did so due to unprecedented demand, but few believe them. The narrative among users is that the trading app is more interested in protecting the hedge funds they were targeting than its own customers, who see the restriction as arbitrary and unfair.