美国国家公共电台 NPR 美股GameStop暴涨做空损失巨大引关注

Now to events on Wall Street this week, where small stock traders made a fortune outwitting big institutional investors¹. They did it buying stocks in GameStop. Its price hovered² around $4 a year ago. Now over $300. They essentially³ willed this to happen by creating a buzz on social media. Online brokers⁵ tried to stop the wild ride, but yesterday, more twists and turns. NPR's Uri Berliner, senior editor on our business desk, has been following all this. I'm sure he can explain it. Thanks for being with us, Uri.

现在来关注本周华尔街发生的事件，相比大型机构投资者，小型股票交易者赚到了更多的钱。因为他们购买了游戏驿站（GameStop）的股票。一年前该公司的股票价格徘徊在4美元左右。而现在其股价已经超过300美元。他们基本上是通过在社交媒体上制造轰动来实现这一点的。网上券商试图阻止这种狂飙，但昨日，出现了更多一波三折的情况。NPR新闻财经组高级编辑乌里·柏林纳一直在关注事态发展。我相信他能解释这一切。谢谢你和我们连线，乌里。

URI BERLINER, BYLINE⁶: Hey, Scott.

乌里·柏林纳连线：你好，斯科特。

SIMON: Can you give us a recap of all the ups and downs this week?

西蒙：你能概述一下这一周的跌宕起伏吗？

BERLINER: Yeah, well, let's start with GameStop. It's a retailer⁷ of video games. And it's a familiar story. It hit hard times. It was in a lot of malls — wasn't a good place to be. And a bunch of hedge funds said, you know, that it's only going to get worse for GameStop. So they bet against the stock. It's called short selling. At the same time, though, the online communities where a lot of people have taken to online trading, there were people who were — they were GameStop fans. Maybe they had bought stuff there as kids. And there were a lot more people trading online during the pandemic. And they started buying up the stock when it was really pushed down. And it just started picking up steam, totally proliferated⁸ this week. And it became kind of a mass movement. It sent the stock price in the stratosphere. And the big hedge funds took a lot of losses.

柏林纳：好，我们先从游戏驿站说起。这是一家电子游戏零售商。接下来就是我们熟悉的故事了。这家公司经历了困难时期。该公司在很多商场有实体店，但经营情况不太好。大量对冲基金表示，游戏驿站的境遇将每况愈下。因此他们开始做空股票。这也称做卖空。但与此同时，在很多人参与网上交易的网络社区里，也有一些人是游戏驿站的粉丝。也许他们小时候买过该公司的游戏。新冠疫情期间，网上交易的人越来越多。当股票下跌时，他们开始买进。这种行为刚开始活跃后，本周就全面扩散。这演变成了一种群众运动。继而导致股票价格飙升。大型对冲基金也遭受了巨大损失。

SIMON: I mean, that's the point. Some people make money. A lot of people lose money. Who winds up paying the price?

西蒙：这就是重点。有人赚钱。但也有很多人赔钱。谁最终付出了代价？

BERLINER: Well, so far, it's the hedge funds, the short sellers. They've lost a lot of money — billions. But that could all change. If the GameStop stock tumbles back to Earth, like, for example, where it was at the beginning of the year, it could be really painful for a lot of people who've joined these message groups, in a place called WallStreetBets, where they gather. They push up the stock. It's been kind of a jubilant atmosphere. But if the stock starts falling, they could get hurt pretty badly.

柏林纳：到目前为止，付出代价的是对冲基金和卖空者。他们损失了很多钱，大概有几十亿。但这一切都有可能改变。如果游戏驿站的股票跌到底，比如年初时的水平，那对于很多加入信息群和聚集在WallStreetBets论坛的人来说，可能真的很会痛苦。他们提高了股票价格。这是一种欢乐的气氛。但如果股票开始下跌，他们可能会受到相当严重的伤害。

SIMON: Should we expect greater controls on these rollercoaster trades to come in now?

西蒙：我们是否应该期待对这些过山车似的交易进行更严格的控制？

BERLINER: Well, we saw some during the week. The popular online broker⁴ Robinhood restricted trading in GameStop, stopped people from buying the stock. There was a huge backlash against Robinhood. People were saying there was a blatant⁹ double standard against small investors. Robinhood opened up trading again on Friday.

柏林纳：我们这周看到了一些这类措施。备受欢迎的在线经纪商罗宾汉限制了GameStop股票的交易，阻止人们购买股票。这使人们对罗宾汉产生了强烈的反感。人们认为其对小投资者有明显的双重标准。罗宾汉周五再次开盘交易。

Beyond that, there should be hearings in Congress. And the Securities and Exchange Commission put out a warning, says it's on the lookout¹⁰ for market manipulation. But there's no public evidence of that so far in this situation. There's nothing illegal or wrong about being enthusiastic about a stock. Now, if there's evidence the stock price was artificially inflated¹¹, that would be a different story.

除此之外，国会应该举行听证会。而美国证券交易委员会也发出了警告，称正在留意市场操纵行为。但目前的情况尚没有公开的证据。热衷于一只股票并不是违法或错误行为。现在，如果有证据表明股价被人为抬高，那情况就不同了。

SIMON: How much has Wall Street been shaken by this, by seeing how — I don't want to say how easy because I'm sure it's not easy — but how this could happen so unexpectedly?

西蒙：这令华尔街有多震惊？我不想说这有多容易，因为我确信这并不容易，但这件事怎么会发生得如此出人意料？

BERLINER: It's a seismic¹² shift. The power was in the hands of small investors for once. You know, Wall Street firms have had a lot of advantages in markets. That's led some people to think they're rigged. And this time, the amateurs got the upper hand. Where this goes, we don't really know. There could be some paring back of short selling, but really we don't really know where this is headed.

柏林纳：这是一个巨大的转变。权力一度掌握在小投资者手中。华尔街公司在市场上有很多优势。这让一些人认为他们被操纵了。这一次，业余选手占了上风。我们真的不知道这是怎么回事。卖空交易可能会有所减少，但我们真的不知道这将走向何方。

SIMON: NPR's Uri Berliner, thanks so much for being with us.

西蒙：以上是NPR新闻的乌里·柏林纳带来的报道，非常谢谢你。

BERLINER: Thank you.

柏林纳：谢谢。

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 hovered   

鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• A hawk hovered over the hill. 一只鹰在小山的上空翱翔。
• A hawk hovered in the blue sky. 一只老鹰在蓝色的天空中翱翔。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

5 brokers   

n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• The firm in question was Alsbery & Co., whiskey brokers. 那家公司叫阿尔斯伯里公司，经销威士忌。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• From time to time a telephone would ring in the brokers' offices. 那两排经纪人房间里不时响着叮令的电话。 来自子夜部分

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。

8 proliferated   

激增( proliferate的过去式和过去分词 )； （迅速）繁殖； 增生； 扩散

参考例句：

• Books and articles on the subject have proliferated over the last year. 过去一年以来，论及这一问题的书和文章大量涌现。
• Influenza proliferated throughout the country. 流感在全国蔓延。

9 blatant   

adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的

参考例句：

• I cannot believe that so blatant a comedy can hoodwink anybody.我无法相信这么显眼的一出喜剧能够欺骗谁。
• His treatment of his secretary was a blatant example of managerial arrogance.他管理的傲慢作风在他对待秘书的态度上表露无遗。

10 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

11 inflated   

adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• He has an inflated sense of his own importance. 他自视过高。
• They all seem to take an inflated view of their collective identity. 他们对自己的集体身份似乎都持有一种夸大的看法。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。