Peter Hann CFA is one of those rare breeds of Apes who doesn’t have to give the “I am not a financial advisor, this is not financial advice” disclaimers, because he is one. And he has been very active recently especially on LinkedIn, posting about the AMC/GME fight between Apes and Hedgies. Two very particular posts have revealed his thoughts on how the memestock wars are playing out at the moment, and they are very telling indeed.
Firstly, he argues that the technological developments over the last 30 years or so have created a kind of karmic leveller for financial institutions, that you could argue was just a matter of time before they played out. Technology is a double edged sword he says, and he’s absolutely correct.
No matter how this meme stock play ends up, I think Wall Street needs to understand something. Technology is a double edged sword. It drives efficiency…..(but)……it has created many grey areas. Grey areas which when examined under a bright light actually look very dark and suspect. Its easy to see how cutting corners leads to some ventures into the grey zone. The desire to grow profits however makes it habit forming and then a dependency.
Peter Hann (abridged post for brevity)
Whilst the tech has created great efficiencies in the trading markets, it has also allowed a new, smarter, generation of retail investors to emerge, and these people have become the Apes. We are dogged, we are angry and we aren’t going away. And there are a lot more of us than there are of them.
This really is the cruz of the issue: today’s retail traders are a different breed (he compares them to the “fat cows” of the 1990’s era) with the modern retail investor being tech savvy, unwilling to rely on the mainstream media to give them accurate information, and totally distrustful of the banks and financial institutions, particularly after the 2008 financial crash.
On the flip side, the typical retail trader today is not the fat cow of the 1990’s day trading era. Many of this generation of traders are very tech savvy. More importantly, many have a distrust of institutions, and a chip against banks due to 2008. And they are determined to level the playing field anyway they can.
Peter Hann
He then goes on to make an extremely important point about the difference between the Apes and the Financial institutions when it comes to research. There are about 5 million of us, and only a handful of analysts in most of the firms. Ergo, the collective ability for DD and research which Apes have is significantly higher, and added to that, because we are doing all our DD in the public domain, pure, real time, critical peer review (albeit by Smooth Brained Apes) is continuously forthcoming.
Add to that some really awesome personalities on YouTube who are then able to quickly aggregate this information and disseminate it to a wide audience really quickly, both as TL;DR segments, and also with much more deep analysis, and Apes are firmly in the drivers seat when it comes to keeping eyes on criminal activities…. Potentially 5 million eyes! In fact he acknowledges in his last sentence that “The collective brainpower of the retail sector is scary, and they are owners and so are motivated.”
“a typical hedge fund has about what, 50-100 people. Take away support, leaves with a few dozen VP’s, associates and Analysts. They can’t be everywhere, only so much time in day, even if they aren’t burnt out like their bulge bracket friends at JP or Goldman.
There are about 5 million #AMC shareholders, and toss in other meme holders. The most active holders communicate on social media platforms. A lot of them also view finding out new information as a highly competitive process….“
Peter Hann (abridged for brevity)
What really got me interested in what Peter Hann had to say is that this post seemed to be a follow on post to one he posted just four days previous to this one, where he gives a clear nod to the Apes, and declares his position and why he believes the AMC price isn’t going back to $10.
Peter Hann: We won’t see this thing collapse
What makes me so confident we won’t see this thing collapse to $10? The same thing that got me to buy in the first place, the amount of retail ownership. 80% ownership and at likely 5 million individual owners. Even if this move wipes out 2 million holders (which I highly doubt) the core retail base of 3 million won’t sell until real extra ordinary gains are made. They didn’t sell at $8, didn’t sell at $70. They are true gems, these apes. I put up with the paper hand name calling abuse because this Hodl mentality is what will cause the price to potentially skyrocket.
And why will that happen? Aside from the current known short of 100mm shares (which will be very hard to get from the core retail base at these levels), the unknown amount of synthetics, which was got me involved in March, is now, 4 months later, possibly of ridiculous size given the constant retail buying, day after day.
Peter Hann, Linked In post 15 July 2021
Yes, Peter Hann has got it, and it’s a great boost to the Ape community to have someone who can actually say that he IS a financial advisor. He does, probably quite rightly, go on in his posts to mention that he is not binding his company to his opinions, and makes it quite clear that these are indeed his own personal thoughts, but we expect that, and think it’s a prudent move. He acknowledges his AMC sells above $50, and goes on to say that far from being paper-handed, he is now buying the dip again.
Naturally, some in our community may well still have criticism of Peter Hann, but it’s certainly interesting that we have a notable insider amongst our ranks, and one who is prepared to publicly speak out about the hedgefuckery that’s going on.
Link to Peter Hann’s original Linked In posts are here:
“Technology is a double edged sword” – July 19 2021
