According to their most recent SEC FILING … Citadel LLC is currently holding quite hefty position of Gamestop Corp options. This might be seen as a surprise to some due to the intense history and entanglement citadel has had with Gamestop and other meme stocks like AMC stock in the past. Citadel Securities in a statement released back in September of 2021 said they “rejected “Internet conspiracies and Twitter mobs” that have again accused the firm of pushing Robinhood Markets Inc. and other brokerages to limit trading in GameStop and other meme stocks on Jan. 28, a move that resulted in losses for many small investors.” Even after this very “Messy” past between Citadel and Gamestop the recent Sec filing does show some positions are still active.
Citadel currently holds multiple positions in both calls and puts when it comes to gamestop stock. A “call option” according to investopedia are “financial contracts that give the option buyer the right but not the obligation to buy a stock, bond, commodity, or other asset or instrument at a specified price within a specific time period. The stock, bond, or commodity is called the underlying asset. A call buyer profits when the underlying asset increases in price.” They are also holding “put options” which are defined from investopedia as “A put option (or “put”) is a contract giving the option buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell—or sell short—a specified amount of an underlying security at a predetermined price within a specified time frame. This predetermined price at which the buyer of the put option can sell the underlying security is called the strike price.” So, in theory they are hoping that gamestop stock stays within a certain trading range within a certain number of days in order to sell the positions for profits.
Gamestop Stock fails to deliver rise 1350% as of one of the recent SEC reports which has retail investors questioning what is truly going on behind the scenes. In a recent report Gamestop shows that there is a clear increase in shares failing to deliver which could mean a number of things, one of them being Naked Short Selling.