In 2021, a group of small investors, starting on a Reddit forum called r/WallStreetBets, launched a movement targeting Wall Street's large investment funds. This movement caused a sudden spike in the value of GameStop shares.

GameStop was a leading video game retailer in the 2000s. However, in the 2010s, with the rise in popularity of digital games, the company's sales began to decline. By 2021, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Wall Street's major investment funds, anticipating GameStop's bankruptcy, began shorting the company's stock. This meant that they expected the value of GameStop's shares to fall.

Small investors on the r/WallStreetBets forum thought that GameStop would not go bankrupt and that the value of its shares would rise. Therefore, they started buying GameStop shares.

With the purchases of small investors, the value of GameStop shares began to rise rapidly. In January 2021, the value of GameStop shares went from $18 to $500. This was a major victory for small investors over large investment funds.

As a result, large companies that had taken short positions in anticipation of a fall in the price of GameStop shares were forced to suffer serious losses.

The GameStop event marked an important turning point in the financial world. It showed how individual investors could use social media to build collective power and put big investment funds in a difficult position.