In the field of finance and particularly in the stock markets, or any other type of market where financial instruments are exchanged, there is a dishonest and high-risk practice called Dark trading, which damages negotiations mainly because of the impact it has on the price action.

However, historically, financial regulators on a global scale have been concerned about this malevolent practice, mainly due to the negative effects it tends to have on trading and price formation, as it has been shown that Dark trading at high levels is proportionally related to harmful effects for any financial market.

A clear example of the harmful effects of dark trading is precisely the one related to the mass hysteria unleashed around GameStop by the controversial Youtuber Keith Gill, who using the social network Reddit promoted GameStop shares with the aim of deceiving retail investors into buying inflated shares.

According to multiple portals, Keith Gill's strategy to promote this famous chain of video game stores and U.S. micro-marketing, was intended to benefit from the price action that GameStop would experience.

In this sense, it is important to mention that Keith Gill's outlandish practice of Dark trading, beyond all the stock market and financial madness that it awakened, is an additional example of the power that social networks are acquiring in the world. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

[1] Fordea C., and Putniņš T Dark trading and price discovery. Journal of Financial Economics. 2015; 118; 1: 70 - 92. Article: Online access

[2] El Economista La histeria por GameStop saca a la luz el creciente fenómeno del 'dark trading'. 2021. Article: Online access

[3] Bass A., Pleggenkuhle E., Winchester C., and West T GameStop’s next play: reconfiguring the value offering. The CASE Journal ahead-of-print. 2019. Article: Online access