Retail Investors IRL: Activism for a Transparent Stock Market
🟣 Scroll to the very bottom to see the Social Media Campaign.
Disclaimer:
Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Topics Covered: Market Reform Regulation and Transparency, Investing Communities, Market Leadership and Influences, Investing, Stock Market Corruption, Geopolitics, GameStop, Bed Bath and Beyond, Buy Buy Baby, Teddy, MMTLP, AMC
This started as online discussions and is becoming the most powerful movement in financial history. Years ago, retail investors like myself came across multiple stocks (GameStop, AMC, BBBY, MMTLP) and noticed similar patterns of market manipulation. Widespread naked short selling (basically, counterfeiting shares) has exposed serious market oversight by regulators. Events like this continue to move online communities to real-world action.
It's not just about liking some random stocks – it's about reforming the entire system.
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Click on these sentences to get hyped!! (also, someone recently told me I look like him 😂😂😂 - but… I get it. 😂)
Okay - back to business below!! Carry on.
Initial Conference Thoughts - Why Attend? This event was so incredibly exciting to attend. After over four years of loving these stocks in isolation, it was my chance to meet a bunch of people and get a better feel for a community that I’ve invested so much time and attention into.
Overall Conference Ratings: Venue (4/5), Food (3/5), Speaker Content (5/5), Networking (5/5), Likeliness to Return (5/5)… (more below)
Photo Collage & Commentary
A Few Key People to Know About:
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Though unable to attend, (twitter was saying he was attending a football game nearby this weekend!), he strongly supports this retail community.
Ryan is known for his experience in with strategic corporate turnarounds, business innovation, and prioritizing customer service.
He previously founded Chewy, the pet food delivery company. Currently he’s the CEO of GameStop, and rumored to be creating a huge Amazon competitor that is also similar to Berkshire Hathaway… he has spoken many times on how he want to create huge businesses.
People are especially curious on his involvement with the recent BBBY bankruptcy.
Ryan’s is a valued-focused man. He often speaks highly of his mentors and father, the values they instilled in him consistently.
He has been starting businesses since he was a child, with his fathers’ help.
He bravely advocates for the rights of animals and children. “Children and Animals must be protected at all costs.” This claim has led many to research on their own, what could he be talking about?
Well, there is a dark world of trafficking and suffering happening each day. It blends right into our world and is so easy to ignore when you don’t know any better.
Some wonder if he’s truly standing brave enough to shine light on this situation and help co-lead its rescue, as well.
His advocacy for humans, exceptional services, and “the little guy” makes this an exciting person to follow. He may be able to really help with a lot (and he may plan to, w’re just watching it all unfold) as we fight to change a lot of problems with the stock market.
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Multi-generation businessman and philanthropist. Conference organizer and prominent retail investor advocate. Friend of Ryan Cohen, they both are not a fan of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) nor the current stock market regulators. They also have strong role models in their grandfathers, instilling strong values and work ethic in their character. He wrote a book about it here.
Also, Ryan Cohen has “liked” more of Bill’s Twitters than anyone else’s. This is a strong indication RC is a fan of Pulse’s work. Many feel that Pulte is proving himself to be a strong companion in this fight.
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Conference co-host and truth seeking journalist/influencer. Millions of followers on instagram/tiktok/etc. Known for his understanding of sharing market mechanics and breaking down complex topics into more simple, viral videos.
Notes from the Conference —
Btw… it’s one thing to watch this being said on YouTube or read it on Twitter… it’s another to hear it in person -IRL. It was surreal and incredible.
In what other business can you sell what you don’t own?
The Power of the Retail Community 💪
“This is a bunch of outliers in a room. It’s up to us to use this money to continue building what we’re building.”
“You’re here fighting for everyone who is not nerdy enough to pay attention.”
This is a room of investors driven by the righteousness to put your money where your mouth is and stand for what you believe.
We are all a victim of naked short selling, even the people who don’t care or want to know about it.
But “we are on the precipice of change “ as Ian Carroll said.
This is much like the civil rights movement. Picking away one case at a time.
It took Dr King over 15 years but we got up to the Supreme Court. We are doing the same thing and it’s not going to take 15 years.
Create an actual populous influence. We have the power of doing it.
Gather all of retail, share synergy, create the pressure - we all can.
“These guys in the new administration are watching this community. I’m positive.”
If we come together as a collective and have a regulator that is accountability,
We are just regular dudes, obsessed with digging. Synthasizing due diligence.
We have to make real change. We’ve been conditioned to be passive in our life but we need to stop taking whatever is just in front of us. We’ve been conditioned to be scared.
Find where you can lift, and lift. We’re not passengers in life. We need to be active.
All of our stocks have the same kind of model. A mafia bust out using other people’s money to do what they want and spend it. All the money is infiltrated through the boards with nefarious people.
Taking ACTION on Wall Street Regulators
This new administration is about to fire a whole lot of politicians. Everything is going our way in the world - Doug Cifu has something coming.
We thought we were just to buy a stock and find out everyone in the industry is exposing naked shorts. How many stocks are naked shorted?
How much of the ‘value’ in our world is made up?
This is not just about one stock, it’s about everybody. Everybody is getting stolen from and getting taken advantage of.
This change is going to change all of America.
One of the biggest things we can do is transition people out of mutual funds. If they want diversification in their stocks, that’s great. Maybe they can be in similar mutual funds that don’t have the power to vote. Many mutual funds have voting power and they use it against the best interest of shareholders and individuals. They do this maliciously.
Some mutual funds are trying to kill America some are not. Make that change
We need more accountability. The lack of accountability had led to exploitation of the system.
Communicating the Message
How can we get the message across? What is the elevator pitch?
Let’s say you have the opportunity to to meet a state attorney general.
In the process, trying to make it clear the 3 or 4 problems, what he can do, how it benefits him:
Most companies are worth more dead than alive.
The whole economic infrastructure of your state is being attacked. One by one they’re being targeted as companies and they counterfeit shares.
They made 50B shorting Washington Mutual. When would WM make that amount of money on their own? They wouldn’t.
There the builders of the better world and destroyers.
It’s very lucrative to destroy but there won’t be anything left. We need to make the change in the world.
The future is bright and exciting.
This Community’s Influence 🙋♂️
What are we trying to say? Look at any stock community. Look at the knowledge info that’s growing and generated. There’s tremendous gain from the hive mind and collective consciousness with the goal to improve everyone’s base level knowledge.
If we can all get to the next level of professionalism we can have an enormous influence on everything. We’re fighting centralized powers. The central bank.
For us to decentralize that power, it’s never happened before. The history of the world is the history of power . We have to support each other and all step up.
Learn from each group with immense gratitude to know what you need to do to perfect change in your local government.
We have the ability to grow at an exponential level and make immense progress.
“We are the perfect example of a group of people, refusing to stop digging and persistant to get the best information available.”
We love to talk to anyone who’d like to learn. We should be expanding and really make real change.
Society stays more civilized when we give people the chance to talk and negotiate.
Nothing more powerful than large groups of people with large amount of knowledge and knowing how to apply it.
We have a long journey but there are a lot of allies in the inside and outside who can hopefully change wallstreet.
The Purpose of these Events
Pulte on stage talks about hosting these events. He brings up that last time he had an event similar to this, Vivek came as a surprise guest. Back then, he was given a lot of sh*t for bringing Vivek, “but now Vivek is working with Elon on the Department of Government Efficiency. “
Lately Pulte is spending time with Elon, “especially these past two weeks.” Pulte says “Elon is a very great listener. He’s a machine.”
lol… I bet this whole topic came up once or twice…
He also said that “Ryan Cohen was supposed to come to this event” but about a month ago realized he needed to cancel. He thinks Ryan would be okay with him saying that “RC is a big fan of this community.”
Lack of Accountability from Congress 😮
MMTLP, the stock, was illegally halted and then deleted. All of the investors money vanished.
However, as a result their community has done a great job coming together and making sure this is not ignored.
Their community has been the first to get congress’ attention. At first, they “called the cops”, the regulators, finra, sec… but they were all in on it.
FINRA is held accountable by the SEC. Gary Gensler has been actively working against the individual investors this entire time, against America. Neither the SEC or FINRA are helping the investment community.
FINRA is an unelected, self-reglatory body. None are gov employees. They answer to no one but their employers. “Their time is coming. We’re coming for them.”
They’re supposed to have oversight for everything they do but they don’t. We have to go and turn the tables.
It’s like the fox guarding the hen house.
We’re playing a sports game “on the road”, and so the refs are on the opponents side. But now administration is changing and Gary Gensler is out.
Soon we have home field advantage now. But we have to put in the work. But now we need to organize effectively as a community and do work.
Investors started completely unorganized because, at first, everyone was strangers. Over time, they got to know each other and got to work.
Retail investors are beginning to come together as a larger retail powerhouse and affect change.
“Twitter spaces were a godsend to the community.” Feed allowed them to educate themselves and others and keep taking the next steps with congress.
Only a few tens of thousands of investors had bought into this company, but they all got screwed. They got together and have been working hard ever since.
Even these days, their community is making impact. Trump referenced MMTLP’s letter and demanded answers.
A few people from their community went and met with specific committee members. Like a SWAT team, members of the community living in close proximity of DC. They walked the halls, like lobbyists. They got some resistance and learned the only people who can issue change there are gatekeepers sitting in the way of the system. Fall 2023, eventually every rep and senator in congress asked “what do we want?
We want transparency and accountability in the stock market.
The Latest with BBBYQ
Where are we at with bbby? Seems Chewy is indicating this is held up.
I don’t know when we get our shares back our money. But it’s not “if” now. We know that.
The plan says this.
Most problems are complex. It takes looking at a second time.
Perspective from a Second-Generation Financial Advisor
A lot of people got into this since 2021 and a few had financial literacy interest.
For him, his allowance had compound interest. He grew up in stock market family.
As a financial advisor, he realized everything he’d learned about the market, and been taught his entire life, was all bullsh(t… watching the GameStop “buy button” get removed in 2021.
His clients lost millions in minutes when they turned off the buy button. While he’s supposed to protect money on this fair system.
“We need an entire market reform for this to become real.” We have congress insider trading.
Market makers do 90% of orders, get to choose to route on the LIT market or not, or not, and also these people run the options market and have multiple hedge funds.
Almost everything is IOUs except for DRS (DIRECT REGISTERED SHARES, like ComputerShare.com is the transfer agent for GameStop —- and AMC - and they hold the shares even more securely than buying them in a brokerage - so if you want to DRS your shares and make them held in YOUR NAME not in CUSTODY BY OTHER BROKERAGES, ask your brokerage (call) to DRS your SHARES. Just learn more about it if you want by researching and do your own research).
Everyone is here for a fair market. We currently have an unfair market with unlimited liquidity and counterfeit shares. Watching clients accounts get f*cked. Now working to figure out how to protect clients not to get screwed every day.
We want this to end up being an actual movement. We don’t want them on Wall Street laughing at us. We want people that are on this same side as us, wanting to be at these events speaking.
The interview Twitter space call he hosted with Patrick Byrne “was nuts a few weeks ago.” Patrick Byrne has been fighting Wall Street for 20 years.
No matter which stock you own, everyone here is fighting corruption.
Everyone is sharing DD every day. Information being spread every day. People see this community has power, finally.
Keep fighting every day until the market is finally fair.
“Bear Trap” Documentary
We’ve all seen how the media loves to paint the narrative and lie. F(ck dumb money. Making Keith’s brother look like a criminal. Leaving out the removal of the buy button, the naked shorts, Ken Griffin lying under owth
But the Bear Trap documentary is being made by this community for this community. A labor of love.
We’ve seen what happened when big Hollywood tries to come in and tell our story. We were here. We know the story. We’ve been following it ridiculously and it’s complicated. Not just the story of GameStop of BBBY. It’s the story of this whole saga.
What was each community’s most bullish moment?
Two goals- tell the actual story through retails eyes. It includes everyone. Friend and family calling us crazy. Shills. Us. Want audience to live this process the way we’ve lived it
The story of a father, Ted Cohen who instilled his values in his son. These values have been exemplified by Ryan Cohen and we are the first disciples of Ted Cohens son’s testament to his fathers.
We hope Ryan Cohen will shed a slight tear and say we told the story right. It’s up to us to tell it.
How do you tell this story? Who was right? Everyone interpreted it differently.
We are up against a machine of high frequency trading. In “real time” we can never beat them.
We needed to trap them in a bankruptcy so that their advantage of time stops. It’s part of the trap. They can’t outpace in that environment. We outstripped their advantage. And this bankruptcy destroyed them.
All your friends and family who think you’re crazy, you’re gonna be the market expert in a few weeks.
We all believed in something no one else believed in because we did the work. When we saw something wrong we stood up for what we thought was right.
We need to believe in ourselves and act on the belief.
Purpose of Investing and Holding
Start companies, DRS, do something after this so it’s better payday but it’s for the world. It’s bigger.
Healing for the whole world. Guide those needing direction heal the division.
We all want the same things. Together we can make this world a better place.
Leaders and mentors are risking their lives to shares this info and fight with others.
The real skill of putting life together with making a difference is being able to walk in all worlds. In Reddit, congress, in-person events.
You can be an investor and a yolo-er.
Pulte giving the space creating it again and again.
Ryan was shooosed to come but dropped out a month ago.
GameStop has 4B in cash and is NOT ducking around.
“The company is coming. MOASS is real.“
“Ryan is the real deal.”
Pulte introduced RC to Trump.
People are sick of the status quo. People are getting screwed and they’re sick of it.
You’ll be looking back at this event in ten years. We’re making history.
Stay principle minded. Support each other. You’re changing the whole thing.
People don’t understand this is changing the world.
The censorship and attacks have forced us to us migrate across subreddits, platforms. All communities. That’s why coming together in person is so valuable.
We’re trying to change a whole corrupt market.
Collectively we work together and share data.
“We’re onto something we just need to keep going “ - Bill Pulte
BEYOND THE EVENT -
What else was going on in Ft. Lauderdale outside this single Tin Roof event? Let’s see what we could find:
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I arrived at 7am, what can you do then? Well… I took my time leaving the airport then head out taking the busses into downtown then over to the beach. I soaked up some sun and then head over to AMC to watch two movies before the event. The first movie I really wanted to watch, and the second I was seeing for a second time… and ended up napping (to make up for my overnight flight). Plus my hotel wouldn’t let me check in until 4pm - with the party starting at 4:30!
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After the main event was lots of networking! First we all hung out at Tin Roof till it opened to the public, after we headed to an after party. This lasted till past 4am. I think everyone was so excited to talk and talk and talk about these stocks. Most people in our lives don’t want to hear about it. But this group could talk about it limitlessly haha.
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I spent the morning taking the River Walk. It was so fantastic and beautiful. I only think they’re missing a grocery store/market/healthy quick stop. Especially with how many boats pull up, it would be so smart. Plus “young people like me” love this type of thing. Also maybe more classy coffee shops to work. Everywhere was just sit down brunch… (and their view were not even taking advantage of their super exclusive location next to the water, what the heck! lol")
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I did some work and then walked more around downtown. I wanted to see if I could go see interstellar at AMC’s partner: IMAX - but it was all sold out 😏. So, instead head out back to my favorite place, AMC! For a second cobb salad. I went to go see another movie. Though it was about 3 hours long, so I figured worse case I could nap again before another long night. This was my 4th movie of the week, but the show was matinee and well worth the nap opportunity. Do you think I took it? Those chairs were so comfy! It was my second day in a row napping at AMC. I just went to the front row and fell asleep discretely, hahaha.
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I grabbed some snacks for tomorrow’s flight and then head over to meet with a bunch of the people again. We played poker and talked about many things again. It was a situation that is very very hard to describe, you know? These are people I have looked up to and learned so much from over the years, yet I have value to add too… It was so many things: surreal, amazing, valuable, fun, funny, enjoyable, etc etc etc. Very cool.
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The socializing went past midnight, so I rode a taxi home that morning to catch a few hours of sleep before my flight. I mostly packed with my flights in mind, so with two mini pillows, a blanket, and many snacks, the 6 hour flights… flew… by :D bye baby!
Conference “Overall Rating” Further Elaboration:
- - - - Conference Overall Ratings: Venue (4/5) - Food (3/5) - Speaker Content (5/5) - Networking Opportunity (5/5) - Likeliness to Return (5/5)
- - - - Conference Overall Ratings: Venue (4/5) - Food (3/5) - Speaker Content (5/5) - Networking Opportunity (5/5) - Likeliness to Return (5/5)
VENUE - 4/5
Room for Improvement: Excellent facilities with minor noise management challenges. The only problem was that a lot of people were excited to socialize during the speeches. So, it would have been smarter to have some place where people can chat and it doesn’t make the speeches so interrupted. Though, idk if that’ll ever be possible. Haha, this group was chatty but also plenty of people were paying attention the full time.
FOOD - 3/5
Room for Improvement: Well I missed the memo that there was dinner… I also just wanted to listen to every moment of the presentations. So by the time the speeches were over, there was only dessert. I couldn’t find a grocery or market or anything. So, I didn’t end up eating as much as usual but I’d brought a lot of tea from home. There were very good nearby restaurants with Mexican food. I found myself so happy with all of the Reggaeton playing throughout the streets of Ft. Lauderdale.
SPEAKER CONTENT - 5/5
Room for Improvement: The topics and speakers were outstanding. I was kinda blown away by what was being said outloud…. I’m so used to only hearing these things in Youtube World, you know?
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES - 5/5
Room for Improvement: Absolutely. Unparalleled community building. As I said, I think I spent like nearly 20 of 48 hours talking to people about stocks and the world related. We had so much fun getting together and learning more about each other, alongside speculating all that we’ve learned so far.
LIKELINESS TO RETURN - 5/5
Room for Improvement: This is a topic I’m so passionate about and a group of people that I really enjoy spending time talking with. There is strong, unanimous support for future events. It will be a lot of fun to return and I’m happy to hear that everyone enjoyed this event so much. We are finding our feet as a community.
Social Media Campaign:
Kelly’s Remaining Questions:
What stopped Ryan Cohen from attending the event today? Did he have fun at the football game?
How can retail be most useful at the moment? What type of goals can we work on specifically?
What types of things have Bill and Elon been talking about?
Is this real life? (half joking) And MOASS hasn’t even happened yet. 😁
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time.
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
