According to
- Allison Morrow, Everything you need to know about how a Reddit group blew up GameStop's stock, CNN Business, January 28, 2021.
the subreddit r/wallstreetbets is buying, en masse, stocks that are being shorted by institutional investors. How does this benefit the members of r/wallstreetbets?
Once they decided to move onto another stock them all selling, at the same time, will mean they'll all stand to lose a lot of money, i.e., they won't be able to sell the shares for what they paid for them.
If it was a bunch of people with a high disposable income who were willing to throw away $100 / each to "stick it to the man", that'd be one thing as it's not monetary gain they're looking for, anyway. But if that's what it is then it seems to me that the problem will eventually self correct as the /r/wallstreetbets/ community eventually runs out of money?