108 Iowa L. Rev. 1923 (2023)
Abstract
In January of 2021, GameStop Corp., a struggling brick and mortar retail video game company, saw its share price increase by 2,700 percent. This Note looks at the prevailing forces that caused this meteoric rise and how the law should respond. Ultimately, such price volatility is detrimental to the stability of the securities market, so regulators should bring action against any bad actors that cause this type of volatility. This Note concludes that the price increase was the result of market manipulation on the part of retail investors who were communicating through social media. Under the current approach in most jurisdictions, however, these retail investors fail to satisfy a claim for market manipulation; therefore, this Note argues that courts and regulators need to rethink the approach to market manipulation by expanding the scope of unlawful manipulative behavior. Specifically, this Note argues that courts must universally recognize that open-market manipulation violates securities law.