u/Waste_Departure7479

For the August 21, 2026 expiration, the options data shown here currently puts $GME max pain at $20.00.

The screenshot shows roughly 110,583 calls vs. 23,172 puts in open interest for this expiration, with a put/call OI ratio of 0.33.

Max pain isn’t a price prediction, and it can move as positioning changes before expiration. But with GME trading below that level in the screenshot, $20 is an interesting number to watch heading into Friday.

Does GME gravitate toward $20 by expiration, or does max pain miss this week?

According to the latest 13F disclosure, BlackRock added roughly 864,000 GameStop shares, bringing its reported position to approximately 36.7 million shares of $GME.

Another major institutional position worth keeping an eye on.

Trump says he plans to declare the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States, arguing that U.S. forces effectively control passage through the waterway.

This is a statement of intent, not an actual territorial change.

For markets, the bigger issue is what this signals about the U.S.-Iran standoff. Hormuz sits at the center of global oil flows, so anything that increases uncertainty around control or shipping through the strait can feed directly into oil prices, inflation expectations and broader risk sentiment.

Politics aside, this is one geopolitical headline energy markets probably can’t ignore.

According to the latest 13F figures, Winton Group reported 231,000 GameStop shares valued at roughly $5.1 million at quarter-end.

Winton is the quantitative investment firm founded by Sir David Harding.

The important 13F caveat: this is a backward-looking snapshot, not a live position, and the reported $5.1M value shouldn’t be treated as Winton’s exact purchase cost.

Still, if confirmed in the new SEC filing, that’s a notable new institutional $GME position.

According to TASS, the Bank of Russia added Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT to its approved list for public trading on domestic exchanges.

Starting September 1, 2026, non-qualified investors can access eligible crypto after testing, with purchases capped at ₽300,000 per year per intermediary.

Russia is clearly moving toward regulated retail crypto access.

Big adoption milestone, or mostly a domestic policy shift?

GameStop is swapping approximately $1.4 billion of convertible notes for equity.

Meanwhile, the noteholders have a 35-day VWAP window hanging over the transaction.

So imagine agreeing to that deal and then watching a Ryan Cohen headline hit $GME right in the middle of the pricing period.

Could be nothing. Could materially change the exchange math.

Either way, I’d be watching that VWAP very closely if I were holding those notes.

JUST IN: China’s central bank injected 18 billion yuan through 7-day reverse repos.

That’s short-term liquidity going into the banking system.

The bigger question isn’t one operation by itself — it’s whether the PBOC keeps adding liquidity from here and whether that starts showing up across Chinese equities, the yuan, bonds, and commodities.

Worth watching the trend, not just the headline.

JUST IN: WSJ reports President Trump would be willing to end the Iran war without securing a nuclear deal, provided the Strait of Hormuz reopens.

For markets, that condition matters more than the political framing.

A reopening could potentially reduce one of the largest geopolitical risk factors hanging over energy supply, shipping and inflation expectations.

Nothing is resolved yet, but this gives markets a much clearer condition to watch.

Carl Icahn is now reportedly demanding a major overhaul at eBay.

His activist campaign is specifically focused on eBay’s board, governance, and PayPal.

That matters because Ryan Cohen already has a well-known relationship with Icahn.

So now the pieces look like this:

Ryan Cohen → GameStop
Carl Icahn → eBay activism
eBay → PayPal

Does that mean Cohen and Icahn have some secret agreement?

No evidence of that yet.

But Icahn independently showing up in the same eBay/PayPal situation makes the $GME × $EBAY × $PYPL connection a hell of a lot more interesting than it was before.

Senate leadership has now filed cloture on the motion to proceed with the CLARITY Act, setting up the first procedural vote when lawmakers return in September.

This still isn’t final passage, but it’s the furthest the bill has made it in the Senate so far.

After years of crypto regulation living in limbo, this is finally starting to look real.

GameStop closed Friday down 0.36% at $19.16, with a market cap around $8.60B.

Meanwhile, GME warrants closed at $1.53, down 10.00%

The new QB Club Power Pack is live for a limited time.

Leopold Aschenbrenner is reportedly making a $400 million bet on an unnamed private company.

Apparently the comeback strategy starts with removing the sell button.