WallStreetBets founder of subreddit on stock swing: I enjoy it from the sidelines

“I do not envy anyone for that,” WallStreetBets founder Jaime Rogozinski told Julia Chatterley on CNN on Thursday. “I enjoy it from the sidelines.”

He later added: “I did not predict the course of events, but I did not predict the timing or the size.”

Rogozinski founded the Reddit group in 2012, but he was removed from the platform because he allegedly took advantage of the WallStreetBets brand, which he denied in an earlier interview with CNN Business.

He is writing a book called ‘WallStreetBets: How Boomers Made the World’s Biggest Casino for Millennials’, and is ‘actively involved in technology and startup communities’, according to his personal website.
WallStreetBets, which now has more than 4.5 million fans, sits behind the jaw in stocks such as GameStop (GME), AMC and others. The protest confused Wall Street and prompted some trading platforms to restrict transactions on highly volatile stocks, but the day traders took to Reddit.

The run-up to GameStop is partly unprecedented because of the way non-compensated programs like Robinhood have democratized investment, giving armchair investors far away from traditional banks free access to sophisticated trading instruments, such as options.

The process is being ‘played entirely on people’s cell phones’, Rogozinski said.

Rogozinski, along with much of the financial world, was shocked by the rally. “I can not imagine that I would ever see this happen,” he said, adding that “there are many forces at play that have never been tested.”

The turning point, for him, came on Wednesday when White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the government was monitoring the situation.

“Nobody is willing to deal with it on the regulatory side, the government side or on the actual forum,” Rogozinski said.

GameStop’s wild ride – which has risen more than 600% since the beginning of January – showed no signs on Thursday. The stock was extremely volatile, causing the New York Stock Exchange to strike.

Robinhood, the trading app used by many in the WSB subreddit, said it restricts transactions on GameStop, AMC (AMC), BlackBerry (BB), Bed bath and beyond (BBBY), Nokia (NOK) and others due to the volatile trade. “We are constantly monitoring the markets and making changes where necessary,” Robinhood said in a statement.

CNN’s Allison Morrow and Paul R. La Monica contributed to this story.

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