If nothing else, it seems certain that once this fiasco is over the average person will have much more of an interest in the stock market. Virtually all of my friends and coworkers are talking about this; the ones who previously knew nothing about investing now seem quite eager to figure out how it all works.
This could signal a shift in the investing landscape, with the average American being more actively involved in the market than in years past. I wonder how that will change the game?
Total cynical speculation: I don't think much will change? Much is being made of the little guy punching out a big hedge fund (with good reason!) But on average this is the 1 big win for retail investors, where usually their stock picks are unsuccessful. This is the rare golden goose that had a good case, got noticed by enough people, and had a special way to guarantee returns (the 140% short mistake the hedge funds did.) WSB isn't going to repeat this feat next month.
Meanwhile, hedge funds are demonstrating just how much political power they have compared to the rest of us. We lose money, no one comes racing in with a $2billion loan. We share publicly available data, the media is handed press releases calling us market manipulators. We get our ability to buy arbitrarily frozen by brokerages owned by short sellers and their cronies, while they get no restriction. We can only buy during certain hours, while hedge funds trade in a frenzy after hours to get out of their crap short positions.
If anything, I expect cynicism to increase. Retail was told if we just played the game really good, like the big guys, we could become millionaires overnight (if we got lucky). Now we're seeing that the game is owned by the house, the Fed won't even the playing field, and all of that is a lie. What reason do retail investors have to play the game if what Melvin, Citadel, and Robinhood did is all perfectly legal? I'm seeing crypto surge right now, and I think a lot of it is people losing faith in the financial system. But we shall see where the chips fall today.