Published 15:51 IST, January 30th 2021
10-year-old boy makes $3,200 by selling GameStop shares gifted to him in 2019
10-year-old boy was a stockholder of 10 GameStop shares in December 2019 and decided to sell them after gaming company's shares surged between $112 and $483.
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A 10-year-old Texas boy on January 29 cashed thousands of dollars after he sold his GameStop stocks gifted by his mother for Kwanzaa two years ago. Jaydyn Carr, the youngest San Antonio investor, sold the shares amid the Wall Street frenzy as GameStop stocks skyrocketed from less than $20 in the month’s start to $350 Wednesday after small Reddit investors revolted the big firms’ monopoly over the share market. Carr became the stockholder of at least 10 GameStop shares in December 2019 and decided to sell the stock after Gamestop’s stock value surged between $112 and $483, closing down 43.2 percent at $197.44. The stocks closed at 60 percent after-market trading. The youngest investor from San Antonio sold his shares for more than 50 times the cost price.
According to the sources of The Associated Press, as the Reddit community wall street bets surged GameStop’s shares value, Carr’s mother alerted her son amidst his virtual classes. She had bought the stocks for over $60 in 2019, as a means for her son to learn the nitty-gritty of cooperative economics.
“It’s just to teach them economics or financial responsibility” Jaydyn’s mother Nina told AP. “That was the way that I could fuse his interest in video games with economics.”
Struggling gaming company’s shares 'skyrocketed'
When the influx of investors with no prior experience in stocks started trading, the 10-year-old boy sold his GameStop shares for three thousand dollars. Managing director at Burton-Taylor International Consulting, Andy Nybo told AP that the brokers “were forced to take action because they would be in the firing line if an unsophisticated investor loses money.”The struggling gaming company’s shares value skyrocketed to triple digits, shaking the Wall Streets and the US White House, which prompted the fifth-grader to avail the opportunity of selling his first stocks.
"My phone was going off because I have GameStop on my watch list," the mother of the 10-year-old told AP as the GameStop’s prices shot up. "I was trying to explain to him that this was unusual, I asked him 'Do you want to stay or sell?". Her son, after selling his stocks for $3,200, transferred the funds for his savings. "Any time I learn something, I show him as well," Nina, the fifth grader’s mom said, according to Associated Press. "I wanted to pass on the knowledge I have now because I learned it late in life. I want to give him a step up.” the family has decided to use $1,000 of the total funds to buy more stocks, while $2,200 will go into Carr’s savings.
15:53 IST, January 30th 2021