Clarence Saunders, the eccentric founder of the Piggly Wiggly grocery chain, accidentally ruined his own life by trying to trap Wall Street bankers in a massive short squeeze in 1923.

HERE’S THE INTERESTING PART

From the Stacky collection1 min read

A closer look

Clarence Saunders, the eccentric founder of the Piggly Wiggly grocery chain, accidentally ruined his own life by trying to trap Wall Street bankers in a massive short squeeze in 1923. He noticed traders betting against his company's stock, so he secretly borrowed millions of dollars and bought up almost all the available shares to force the price to the moon. He almost got away with it and was briefly the undisputed master of the stock exchange, until the wealthy establishment simply changed the trading rules mid-game and gave the bankers extra time to find the shares. Saunders went entirely bankrupt in a matter of days, teaching retail investors a valuable historical lesson that the free market is only truly free until the rich guys start losing at their own casino

Topics in this factstocksshort squeezemarkets

One discovery leads to another.

Keep exploring facts in this topic.

Economy →

ONE MORE DISCOVERY?

Keep exploring

All in this topic →

Economy

Porsche secretly acquired a massive stake in the much larger Volkswagen group in 2008, using hidden financial derivatives to control over seventy percent of the company's shares.

Porsche secretly acquired a massive stake in the much larger Volkswagen group in 2008, using hidden financial derivatives to control over seventy percent of…

Discover more

Economy

Short squeezes force massive institutional panic buying

There is a unique, deeply satisfying joy in watching multi-billion dollar hedge funds scramble for their absolute lives. A short squeeze occurs when heavily…

Discover more

Economy

How Domino’s stock beat tech giants for a decade

If you had invested $1,000 in Domino's Pizza in 2010, you would have made vastly more money than if you threw it at top-tier Silicon Valley tech giants. After…

Discover more

Economy

Corporate stock buybacks artificially boost shares

Why innovate when you can just buy your own stock? Companies frequently use excess capital to purchase their own shares from the open market, reducing the…

Discover more

Economy

First publicly traded company in recorded history was the Dutch East India Company, which officially established the Amsterdam stock exchange in sixteen oh two to crowdfund their incredibly risky global spice voyages.

First publicly traded company in recorded history was the Dutch East India Company, which officially established the Amsterdam stock exchange in sixteen oh…

Discover more

Economy

Why a stock split makes shares look cheaper

Cutting a single chart into eight slices instead of four does not give you more chart, but try telling that to the financial sector. Corporations perform…

Discover more

StackyMore discoveries in the app

Download on the App Store

Clarence Saunders, the eccentric founder of the Piggly Wiggly grocery chain, accidentally ruined his own life by trying to trap Wall Street bankers in a massive short squeeze in 1923.

A closer look

A bigger world.One discoveryat a time.

Keep exploring

Porsche secretly acquired a massive stake in the much larger Volkswagen group in 2008, using hidden financial derivatives to control over seventy percent of the company's shares.

Short squeezes force massive institutional panic buying

How Domino’s stock beat tech giants for a decade

Corporate stock buybacks artificially boost shares

First publicly traded company in recorded history was the Dutch East India Company, which officially established the Amsterdam stock exchange in sixteen oh two to crowdfund their incredibly risky global spice voyages.

Why a stock split makes shares look cheaper

A bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.