Better have stronger doors than the cardboard hollow core bullshit they put in houses these days, too. #solidcoregang

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Here's the summary: **The core insight:** A 2020 Barclays report documented how the rise of commission-free trading caused retail investors to flood the options market with short-dated, out-of-the-money call purchases — and Wall Street figured out exactly how to profit from that predictable behavior. **How institutions exploit it:** Retail's heavy call-buying inflates implied volatility and flattens skew, creating a volatility risk premium that dealers harvest by selling options and delta-hedging with the underlying stock. That hedging flow alone accounts for roughly 30% of volume in the most active names. **Why it still matters in 2026:** Options volume keeps breaking records (15.2 billion contracts in 2025, up 26%), retail still makes up \~half of all options volume with a persistent call-buying bias, and academic research continues confirming the same mechanics are in play. **The takeaway for retail traders:** You can use the same publicly available data (IV rank, IV vs. historical vol, unusual flow scanners) to avoid being the predictable mark. Practical suggestions include going longer-dated or higher-delta, only entering when IV is reasonable relative to expected moves, pairing options with actual share ownership, and doing fundamental research rather than chasing hype-driven lottery tickets. The overall message is essentially: Wall Street published the playbook for farming retail options traders — so read it and stop being the farm.

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I’m long. So, it’ll drill to the core of the Earth. 

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Look at the flat periods on my chart, my positions usually last more than a month, typically two to three, and I sell covered calls and puts to trade the ups and downs while using the share position as the core, exactly like how Pentwater did. You can call that hedgies think alike. And options premiums for something like this (with IV at \~1.0) are huge.

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I keep seeing ads on linked in with the CEO. Long Puts on SNAP. Can’t underestimate the market to do some short term fuckery to pump in bs. But it’s been slowly dying for years I think it’s actually a dying company. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts eat into their core product All these companies cutting their workforce under the guise of AI. It isn’t AI. It’s trying to drum up profits while revenue is falling or anticipation of economic slowing.

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I guess ath for meta is now impossible in the years ahead. Is this it? Is the company done? I could hold and watch my investment go to 0 or if I sell it goes up. Happens every time I hold any stock I sell it goes up I hold it craters to the earths core.

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* GameStop is preparing a potential bid for eBay as part of a broader transformation strategy. * CEO Ryan Cohen is driving the push to scale GameStop into a $100B+ company, expanding far beyond gaming and collectibles. * GameStop (≈$12B market cap) has been quietly accumulating a stake in eBay (≈$45–46B market cap), signaling serious acquisition intent despite the size gap. * A formal offer could come within weeks; if rejected, GameStop may appeal directly to eBay shareholders (hostile approach). * Cohen’s compensation is heavily tied to performance, with potential stock gains up to ~$35B if valuation targets (including $100B market cap) are achieved. * Influential investor Michael Burry has supported the idea of using GameStop’s cash for transformative M&A. * GameStop’s stock is up ~30% YTD, partly on deal speculation; eBay’s stock has risen >50% over the past year on improved business focus. * eBay has been strengthening its core categories and recently acquired Depop from Etsy for $1.2B. * GameStop holds a large cash position (~$9B), providing firepower for acquisitions, though still below the scale needed for a full buyout without financing.

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Even with tariff threat, market data that came out this week should still outweigh that news, but you never know with war news and Trumps posts lol. \- Housing: Starts jumped to 1.502M in March (beat) \- Durable Goods Orders: +0.8% MoM (beat) \- GDP Q1: +2.0% (solid growth) \- Personal Income: +0.6% (beat) \- Personal Spending: +0.9% (strong) \- Core PCE: +0.3% MoM (on target) \- ISM Manufacturing PMI: 52.7 (expanding)

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