GameStop Investors: Don’t Get Mad, Git Gud

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Wayne Duggan

Thu, Jan 27, 2022, 4:00 AM 4 min read

On Jan. 28, it will be exactly one year since GameStop (NYSE:GME) stock hit its all-time high of $483. Just days after the peak, I wrote a story in which I said meme stock traders and speculators should have fun trading the stock. But I also said there’s “absolutely no reason to be holding GME stock as a long-term investment.”

A Gamestop video game store in the Herald Square shopping district in New York

Source: rblfmr / Shutterstock.com

A year later, GME stock is down roughly 80% from its January 2021 highs. The year hasn’t gone the way GameStop investors wanted.

The turnaround plan hasn’t changed the company’s struggling fundamentals. A year ago, meme stock traders were talking about GameStop hitting $1,000 per share.

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At this point, GME stock investors have two choices. They can learn from the mistakes of the past year and try not to repeat them again in the future. Or they can keep making excuses for themselves and the company while the stock price continues to fall.

Where Is the GME Stock Turnaround?

First of all, I’ll be the first to congratulate any of the early GME stock traders who cashed out of the stock at or near $483. That may very well have been the trade of a lifetime. But for anyone who held on for a year while 80% of those gains went away, there’s no good reason to continue losing money.

In the most recent quarter, GameStop reported a $105 million net loss. It’s revenue was down 9.8% from 2019 levels and nearly 40% from peak levels back in 2013.

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GameStop bulls said Ryan Cohen is transforming the company into the Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) of gaming. Some have argued that GameStop will be the next social media platform or streaming platform for gaming. Others say it will be an online hub for NFT and cryptocurrency trading.

In reality, a year after the GME stock bubble peaked, GameStop is still none of those things. The question every GME stock investor needs to ask themselves at this point is whether they want to wait through another brutal year in the hopes GameStop becomes a completely different company.

Excuses Are a Crutch

I’m not here to judge anyone who got burned on GME stock. I realize a lot of GameStop investors are relatively new to investing. Of course, many are not as well. Either way, I’ve made plenty of bad trades in my day. Anyone who never makes bad trades would be a billionaire in no time.

But at this point, when I read social media posts and commentary from GME stock bulls, I see a lot of excuses. I see people blaming naked short sellers. I see people blaming hedge funds. I have personally been accused multiple times of being paid off by hedge funds, or Citadel Securities or GME stock short sellers to write negative stories about GameStop. In reality, I have not been paid a single dime by anyone to write negative stories on GameStop.

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else,” Benjamin Franklin once said. If you want to be good at investing, gaming, marathon running or anything else in life, the first step is letting go of the tendency to make excuses when things don’t work out.

Don’t Get Mad, Git Gud

I have always loved the popular “git gud” meme in the gaming community. Not only is it a harsh way to troll newbie gamers, there’s an implication that the only way to win is to put in the work to improve and learn the game better.

I was far from the only person pounding the table throughout the past year that GME stock was a terrible long-term investment. Jim Cramer, for one, has dealt with so much grief from a handful of meme stock trolls throughout the past year simply for telling them to sell GameStop. A year later, it turns out Cramer was right. But lashing out at me or Cramer or Andrew Left or Vlad Tenev on Reddit will not make GameStop’s stock price go back up to $483. It also won’t make you a better investor.

It sucks to lose at a video game or at trading stocks. But the people who win at either in the long-term don’t make excuses, lash out in spite or make the same mistakes over and over. They accept their L, analyze their mistakes and git gud.

Cut Your Losses

In the long-term, fundamentals always matter when it comes to stock price. A story can only get you so far.

GameStop certainly could end up being the Amazon or Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) of gaming. It could end up being the eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) of NFTs. But it seems very unlikely any of those scenarios will happen at this point.

The stock is still extremely overvalued based on its current business and its long-term trajectory. I say the one-year anniversary of the GameStop frenzy is an excellent opportunity to cut your losses in GME stock.

Use what you’ve learned from GameStop and move on to your next investment idea.

On the date of publication, Wayne Duggan did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Wayne Duggan has been a U.S. News & World Report Investing contributor since 2016 and is a staff writer at Benzinga, where he has written more than 7,000 articles. Mr. Duggan is the author of the book “Beating Wall Street With Common Sense,” which focuses on investing psychology and practical strategies to outperform the stock market.