This seems to be a particularly polarizing topic and I may have some insight into why.
There's a supreme value to the widely-held belief that 'the market' just 'works' and is 'fair' or 'free' or something. The only way features like liquidity were possible to offer in the early days of the emerging globalized financial markets was by appointing Market Makers, Authorized Participants, and other privileged positions that could self-regulate and influence the market. There were all kinds of (legitimate) limits to creating a truly 'free' or 'fair' system during the bootstrapping phase. So the system was justified, once upon a time at least...
So that's how we got here: What now?
Well... many of us still expecting a GME squeeze believe that Market Makers got greedy and instead of contenting themselves with the profit channels they were conceived to capture they used their central position to extract revenue from some less scrupulous places than the bid-ask spread. Once MMs realized the haul they could extract by selling shorts throughout the deaths of certain 'surely dead' companies, it doesn't take a stroke of genius to think about inciting these kinds of events themselves. Here's where the rub comes in: Because of the way things were bootstrapped, most of these Market Makers are self-regulating bodies that self-report a lot of critical positions if they even have to report it _at all_. Regardless of how we got here, the reality is that many privileged positions such as Market Makers do NOT need to report their short positions. Even if they were 'required' there are so many ways to 'hide' the position on a balance sheet that I honestly cannot imagine paperwork exists that would conclusively DISPROVE the possibility of a MOASS.
Many others hold the belief that 'the market' is 'working' just 'fine' whatever those words mean to the individual espousing that belief. Their belief is, in general, that the rules of the game are to be trusted. They don't just quote the SEC report citing Self-Regulating Organization short interested coming in at 0% right after Jan 2021, they actually BELIEVE it. They don't even question that these self reporting organizations may be lying. I mean, with their immaculate records how could you not believe them?
So there you have it: One group believes mostly on principle that markets are 'good' or 'functioning correctly' thus MOASS couldn't happen and anyone still awaiting MOASS is doing so because of ideological reasons more than a single piece of evidence.
There's a supreme value to the widely-held belief that 'the market' just 'works' and is 'fair' or 'free' or something. The only way features like liquidity were possible to offer in the early days of the emerging globalized financial markets was by appointing Market Makers, Authorized Participants, and other privileged positions that could self-regulate and influence the market. There were all kinds of (legitimate) limits to creating a truly 'free' or 'fair' system during the bootstrapping phase. So the system was justified, once upon a time at least...
So that's how we got here: What now?
Well... many of us still expecting a GME squeeze believe that Market Makers got greedy and instead of contenting themselves with the profit channels they were conceived to capture they used their central position to extract revenue from some less scrupulous places than the bid-ask spread. Once MMs realized the haul they could extract by selling shorts throughout the deaths of certain 'surely dead' companies, it doesn't take a stroke of genius to think about inciting these kinds of events themselves. Here's where the rub comes in: Because of the way things were bootstrapped, most of these Market Makers are self-regulating bodies that self-report a lot of critical positions if they even have to report it _at all_. Regardless of how we got here, the reality is that many privileged positions such as Market Makers do NOT need to report their short positions. Even if they were 'required' there are so many ways to 'hide' the position on a balance sheet that I honestly cannot imagine paperwork exists that would conclusively DISPROVE the possibility of a MOASS.
Many others hold the belief that 'the market' is 'working' just 'fine' whatever those words mean to the individual espousing that belief. Their belief is, in general, that the rules of the game are to be trusted. They don't just quote the SEC report citing Self-Regulating Organization short interested coming in at 0% right after Jan 2021, they actually BELIEVE it. They don't even question that these self reporting organizations may be lying. I mean, with their immaculate records how could you not believe them?
So there you have it: One group believes mostly on principle that markets are 'good' or 'functioning correctly' thus MOASS couldn't happen and anyone still awaiting MOASS is doing so because of ideological reasons more than a single piece of evidence.
Disclaimer: I hold some GME