But the squeezes could end up accidentally strangling themselves.

Sure, squeezing is quite old idea.

There's recently become popular on social media sites like Reddit.

First, you find a company that's heavily shorted, like games retailer Gamestop.

This just means that a bunch of hedge funds have placed bets that its share price will go down.

Now a big enough gang of squeezes can actually put these hedge funds in trouble by forcing the price to go up.

Instead, they just do this by buying some options contracts, which basically forces some market middle men buy the shares themselves.

Now the hedge funds who was shorting the company will be in trouble because the share price has gone up instead of down, they will try to limit their losses by buying the shares.

But you guessed it.

This just pushes the price up even further, effectively tightening the squeeze.

So all in all is basically a feedback loop in the market, where higher prices can feed on themselves, be getting even higher prices.

So what's the problem?

Well, one risk is that the squeezes won't be able to squeeze indefinitely trading platforms like Robin Heard.

An interactive brokers have placed restrictions on Gamestop.

For example, regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission might also take a dim view of the volatility that squeezing creates.

The other problem for squeezes is that hedge funds usually short companies for a reason.

They're bad investments.

So if the squeezes try their trick, but then they fail to push prices upwards, they'll just end up owning shares in a company that's actually maybe a bad company.

That could happen, for example, if major institutional investors start selling in as prices rise, or if just not enough squeeze is joining the game.

In other words, the risk from trying to squeeze too often is self efficacy ation.