Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of struggling social media platform Truth Social, is began its long-delayed journey as a public company at Tuesday’s opening bell under the ticker symbol “DJT.”

The stock surged about 56% at the open, to $78, and trading was briefly halted for volatility. Trump Media shares have since stabilized at around $70, marking a 40% increase from Monday’s close.

Wall Street is assigning Trump Media an eye-popping valuation of around $13 billion — a price tag that experts warn is untethered to reality.

The skyrocketing share price comes despite the fact that Trump Media is burning through cash; piling up losses; and its main product, Truth Social, is losing users.

“This is a very unusual situation. The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, who has been studying initial public offerings (IPOs) for over 40 years.

    • Sc00ter@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Short term options are currently valuing almost 400% volatility. Your gonna pay out the ass for put options or for the margin required for a short sale. I wouldn’t go anywhere near this.

      As they say… that’s priced in.

      • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        This guy trades. Can confirm. Puts are outrageously overpriced. U gotta hate trump a whole lot to buy weekly puts

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Trump hit with huge fine he can’t pay -> Rumors of Trump trying to raise money from foreign governments -> Lawyers push back, say ‘you can’t just accept half a billion from foreigners to pay the fine, there are rules!’ -> Truth Social IPO raises a bunch of money that (foreign) investors are willing to ‘loose’ when the stock inevitably collapses -> Trump puts up the stock as collateral to pay the bond to pay the fine.

    What? He can’t sell his stock for 6 months? No, he isn’t selling it, he is putting it up for collateral, totally legal, totally won’t be investigated by the SEC until he gets elected and fires the head of the SEC and the lawsuit goes away.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      He can’t use the stock as collateral for 6 months either or the other shareholders can sue. This dude is not a financial genius. People smarter than him have tried to game the system. Some win but there are a ton of laws and ways to sue for it.

      • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Ah yes, thank GOD for the failsafe financial regulations in this country! There are LAWS!

        Like, wow.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        or the other shareholders can sue.

        Being on the wrong side of a court proceeding (or several) doesn’t seem to be much of a disincentive to Trump doing whatever he wants.

        • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Not to mention if the foreign investors are using this to curry favour with the potential next POTUS, the ‘investment’ isn’t in the $DJT stock, it’s in what trump will do for them if elected. They won’t sue unless he loses.

  • stanleytweedle@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The logic is it’s a megaphone plugged directly into the earholes of a shitload of very dumb, very angry people with plenty of disposable income. They might not give their money directly to Truth Social but Truth Social can give them lots of great ideas for who to give their money to.

    • edric@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      with plenty of disposable income.

      I would even wager a lot of those people don’t have the disposable income but they dispose it anyway.

      • stanleytweedle@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        True, yeah I guess the money they should be paying in child support or just feeding their kids isn’t technically ‘disposable’, but if Truth Social can get to it before the kids do… I guess they owned the libs…

      • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Oh absolutely. They buy into his bullshit products because they think it will make them money, but in the end they’re worse off than when they started.

    • resetbypeer@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The best and most expensive megaphone. It’s so great. You can write all these beautiful letters on it and you know folks, I can see those letters. Millions and millions of letters, in fact we have the best letters in the entire alphabet, it’s true. Nobody on the internet has such a beautiful letters as I have. I practically invented them. And you can own some of those letters by buying the best stock on the market. It comes with a special orange colored email when you buy them. Just that email will be worth a gazillion because of contains my letters.

      Make the internet GREAT AGAIN, folks !!!

  • garretble@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Pretty much all of these tech valuations are made up bullshit.

    But is this one of the most made up bullshittiest? Only time will tell.

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    “This is the usual situation. The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals,” said Jay Ritter

    FTFY

      • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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        8 months ago

        a popularity contest that a huge percentage of us are forced to have our retirement accounts through. awesome.

        the stock market is a scam in which we are forced to participate

          • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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            8 months ago

            Mine is locked into the stock market by way of a former employer and worker’s comp (I’m Canadian).

            I can’t move them to GIC’s or any other form of investment. :(

  • Steve@startrek.website
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    8 months ago

    Look around, its not that unusual to be untethered from fundamentals.

    GME , AMC , NVDA , SMCI , TSLA , RDDT ,

  • Veedem@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    This is a roundabout way to billionaires to donate to Trump without him having to necessarily disclose everything.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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      8 months ago

      No, it’s not.

      To do that they could’ve just paid him $x to “advertise” on truth social.

      Buying shares this way nets him nothing. He can’t do anything with these shares, by the time he can they will be worthless.

      • sharkaccident@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        He can’t do anything with these shares, by the time he can they will be worthless.

        Didn’t Musk teach you anything? You never sell the shares you borrow against them.

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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      8 months ago

      That’s it in a nutshell. The rich want him because he’s malleable and will obey their every command.

        • pachrist@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          When Trump decides the best way to handle a border crisis is to charge down the “wildlings” on horseback, he’s going to get his ass shot.

              • John_McMurray@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                You know it’s strange, I’d almost be tempted to say Trump has been the best republican president since I’ve been alive. Certainly less catastrophic effects on foreign nations. (Note, I’m not American, and this is talking about actual track record, not his annoying fucking voice)

            • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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              8 months ago

              He did however, set the precedent that workers in some jobs simply wouldn’t be allowed to strike because they’re “too important”, when he forcibly broke an air traffic controller strike.

              Unions and by extension workers, started to erode pretty quickly after that, in such a short time that they became relatively unheard of until recently.

              He also un-funded state run mental hospitals. What to do with all those folks who mentally struggled to function in society? “Dunno! If they can’t make money. Put em’ on the street I guess!” was the Reagan solution. The following step is to “Endlessly ostracize and complain about the unhoused.”

              He pushed the idea of the “wellfare queen”, a charicatured, often minority, character, who had a bunch of kids and used government money to do drugs all day instead of work. This nonsense was used quite effectively to discourage and shame the use of social safety nets, as his administration dismantled them altogether.

              There’s innumerable social ills and societal failings that can be traced back to some policy Reagan and his ilk pushed. Very similar to Thatcher across the pond. He’s largely to thank for corporations having more rights than people, and “Maybe you should just individually work harder” being the answer to everyone who is constantly whipped about by “market forces.”

              Thanks to people like him and Thatcher, people STILL believe that corporations making unlimited riches will somehow lead to higher wages and more days off, instead of going to a hoard in some offshore account, driving wages down, and normalizing mass-layoffs.

              That guy labored endlessly to destroy the so-called “American dream.” But hey, he didn’t invade Iraq!

  • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Could it be powered by massive fraud? Experts say things like “slammed,” “mystified,” and “dazzled!”

    • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I am shocked hearing people say that out loud even. Isn’t that extremely, painfully, provably obvious to everyone? No. It is not. It is a matter of “both sides” debate, apparently.

      “Hi, I sell snake oil. It cures cancer!”
      “Oooh, I LOVE not having cancer! I’ll buy 1. No, wait, 1000!”

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      guarantee this is Russian financing

      Fair more likely it’s Saudi or Israeli money, given how Russians have been cut off from the SWIFT banking system through sanctions.

      • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        The Saudis, the Israelis, and the Chinesis all have old “trade” agreements with the US.

        One other country has joined the club, only they snuck in the back door to burn the whole thing down.

        None of the others’ intent is to overthrow US democracy, because they depend on it for not living like Tuskan Raiders in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

    • aidan@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Russian financing how? They can’t access banks, I doubt they’re wasting precious foreign currency on this.

      • Rob T Firefly@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Just because they’re not allowed to access banks doesn’t mean they can’t.

        Lots of people, organizations, and even governments do all sorts of crimes even though they’re really not supposed to. Conceptually speaking, money laundering is a fairly simple crime to do and, like so many crimes, it becomes easier to get away with the more powerful you are.

          • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            And if you’re gullible it’s easy to reframe them as part of the “nothing is happening in the world and geopolitics are not a thing” conspiracy theory.

              • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Yeah, us communists are all the same, just repetitive propagandistic slogans and dumb soundbites led by an uncharismatic moron telling us what to do.

                Go build a wall, or bridge or whatever.

                Edit: Wait, wait, you weren’t being sarcastic? If so my bad.

        • aidan@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Every dollar you launder still has a risk of being caught, like I said, they have more pressing things to spend foreign currency on.

          • guacupado@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            What? Their money has literally impeded us continuing to give aid to Ukraine. Their investments are paying insane dividends.

          • Kaefor@lemmy.ca
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            8 months ago

            More pressing than possibly owning the next American president? No, they don’t.

      • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        They can still trade in rubles with other countries that are willing to trade with them. It’s not inconceivable that they can ‘launder’ a trade via, say India:

        1. Russia buys a few billion-ruble toothbrushes from India

        2. India invests the equivalent in USD with $DJT (minus a cut)

        3. India uses those rubles to trade at market value for goods with other countries that also trade in rubles

        Replace India and Saudi Arabia with any 2 countries on this list: https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/bangladesh-among-over-30-countries-approved-trade-rouble-russian-embassy-705798

        • aidan@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Cluing in many people into conspiracies like that would require makes them much harder to keep secret

      • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I doubt they’re wasting precious foreign currency on this.

        Their EXISTENCE hinges on winning the US election right now.

        It’s literally ALL they are “wasting precious currency” on.