Fox Business host Charles Payne shreds Wall Street for 'whining' about GameStop losses

Fox Business host Charles Payne on Wednesday blasted Wall Street for "whining" about the retail investor squeeze of hedge funds that tried to short GameStop, AMC Entertainment, and BlackBerry.

Payne, the host of "Making Money," defended the rights of retail investors to make money by reading the market and outwitting hedge fund investors in a discussion on GameStop's incredible stock price surge. GameStop's stock price increased by more than 1,000% in about one week before falling slightly Thursday after independent small-time investors on the internet discussion board WallStreetBets campaigned to buy up the stock in response to hedge fund plans to short-sell it.

The retail investor campaign was wildly successful, causing those short-selling GameStop and other stocks popularized on the discussion board to lose over $70 billion on their bad bets. But it was not without critics who accused the users on WallStreetBets of manipulating the market and called for new regulations to mitigate their influence and protect hedge fund short-sellers.

Payne was having none of it.

"First of all, all of the nonsense, all of this noise, all of this whining by Wall Street – it's making me sick," Payne told Fox Business host Neil Cavuto on "Cavuto Coast to Coast," pointing out that hedge funds were able to short 140% of GameStop's stock.

"I didn't hear one person on TV complaining about Wall Street trying to crush GameStop," he said. "I told my subscribers: Buy this stock. And they made a fortune."

He added that he also told his audience to buy other stocks including Virgin Galactic Holdings, National Beverage and Tanger.

"You can't allow Wall Street to short 75% of a stock – and nobody says anything – crush these companies into the dirt, and then when the individual investor makes money, everyone's up in arms," Payne cried.

He dismissed hand wringing from Wall Street investors and financial analysts over the risk that some of GameStop's investors will lose money when the bubble bursts.

"People are ringing a register! I have a kid who bought a house, he made $50,000 and bought a house!" Payne said. "So yeah, some people are going to lose and some are going to win. But if they want to change the rules of the game now because the general public is making money after decades of the shorts crushing thousands of stocks into the dirt — I've watched stocks being crushed completely to zero and no one ever whispered anything because those stocks didn't have Wall Street sponsorship.

"The shorts have had their way with the market for decades," Payne continued. "So I am thrilled. If you're going to try to destroy a company by shorting 140% of its stock, you have to accept the fact that individual investors are playing the same game, and now you're losing."

Watch:

Payne sounds off on Wall St over GameStop: All of this whining is making me sickwww.youtube.com