‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort lauds ‘brilliant' stock revolt: ‘This is a paradigm shift'

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'Wolf of Wall Street' lauds 'brilliant' revolt by retail investors

Author and ex-stockbroker Jordan Belfort joins 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' with reaction to tumultuous week on Wall Street

Jordan Belfort, the former stockbroker whose 2007 memoir "The Wolf of Wall Street" became the basis for the hit 2013 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, lauded last week's "brilliant" revolt of retail investors in a Monday appearance on "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

The share price of video game retailer GameStop surged dramatically last week after a group of Reddit users teamed up to buy up the struggling retailer's call options – hurting market short sellers.

"I believe this is a paradigm shift right now," Belfort, who spent 22 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of securities fraud and money laundering, told host Tucker Carlson.

"The little guy finally is equipped, information travels instantly now, it used to only be the big guys, they paid the analysts ... so now the little guy finally has the ability to play that same game, at least somewhat," Belfort explained. "And there is going to be a radical change, it’s not going to be the same." 

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Short sellers, Belfort added, are investors who speculate that the price of a stock or security will fall in value. Their strategy involves borrowing shares in order to sell them with the hopes of buying them back at a lower price in the future.

"My hat's off to them...it's brilliant what they did."

— Jordan Belfort

"There are the hedge funds that gang up and literally will short a stock almost down to zero, out of business. They try to spread negative news, investigations, and that’s what is seen with GameStop," Belfort said. 

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"I think everybody knows there’s something wrong in the pit of their stomach. You can silence people, you can de-platform people ... and get away with it. Everybody knows — Republican or Democrat — there’s something wrong. That’s why both sides of the aisle united on this one thing," he continued. 

Belfort praised "angry as hell" small-time investors who were "sick and tired of being stomped out by Wall Street, which they have been forever."

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"My hat's off to them, by the way," he told Carlson. "It’s brilliant what they did. They found a real inefficiency in the market and a gap where something had been dramatically over-shorted and they could actually get enough buying power. They finally now have some ammunition to fight back.

"The danger," he warned, "is it’s gonna end badly for these stocks and I hope people don’t lose money in the process."