MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota man turned his good fortune into a good deed as his GameStop stock went through the roof.
"It was a better feeling than waking up in the morning and seeing that GME was on the moon," said Hunter Kahn, a small investor.
Let's break down that sentence from Kahn.
"GME" is the market symbol for GameStop stock.
And "on the moon" means the stock went way up last week.
Kahn cashed in big on it, but the "better feeling" he's talking about was the one he got using that money to donate six Nintendo Switches and other games to Children's Minnesota Hospital.
"I love video games," Kahn said. "I know it would be terrible being a kid in the hospital with, like, no joy helping them through."
Kahn's post about his donation has received more than 175,000 likes on Reddit. He's comfortable on the social media site, home of the online forum called Wall Street Bets, that helped propel GameStop stock to its dizzying heights.
The rally resulted in many amateur investors like Kahn beating wealthy hedge funds at their own game.
"A lot of people are saying that this is somewhat like a transfer of power, but if the money is going from here just to the other side, there is no difference, if we just are acting the same way as the people that were criticizing. So I think it's important that we don't become men in suits ourselves, and use our money for good."
Legal experts say the GameStop story shows the power of the internet. But can this populist investing movement sustain itself?
"Getting a mob to move in one direction is a tough thing to do," said Paul Vaaler, a business and law professor at the University of Minnesota. "In this case, they did. Don't hold your breath that it's going to happen again soon."