Skip to content

Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

How to buy, sell and short GameStop shares

GameStop shares are back on the agenda in 2024. Here, we explain how to buy, sell and short GameStop shares.

Chart Source: Bloomberg

How to buy GameStop in the UK: investing and trading

Investing in GameStop stock means you’ll take direct ownership of the shares – making you a GameStop shareholder. When you’re investing, you’ll profit if the GameStop share price increases above the price at which you bought them. With us, you can buy GameStop shares from zero commission on our share dealing platform.1

Trading refers specifically to speculating on GameStop’s share price with derivatives like spread bets and CFDs. These are financial derivatives, which means they let you take a position on GameStop without having to take direct ownership of the company’s stock.

Remember, when you take a position on any stock, you could get back less than you put in and past performance is no indicator of future returns. When you trade on leverage, your risks are magnified because you're opening a position worth more than the money you put in.

This means you could gain or lose money much faster than you expect, and you could lose more than your initial deposit.

As 'meme stocks' like GameStop (GME) tend to experience large amounts of volatility, this risk is even greater. Make sure you have risk management strategies in place before you open a position, and bear in mind that guaranteed stops are not available when you trade GME.

Investing in GameStop shares

  1. Create or log in to your share dealing account and go to our trading platform
  2. Search for ‘GameStop’
  3. Select 'buy’ in the deal ticket to open your investment position
  4. Choose the number of shares you want to buy
  5. Confirm your purchase and monitor your investment

Trading (buying) GameStop shares

  1. Create or log in to your leveraged trading account for spread bets or CFDs
  2. Go to our trading platform
  3. Search for ‘GameStop’
  4. Choose your position size
  5. Select buy and monitor your trade

How to short GameStop shares

Shorting GameStop means that you’re taking a position with the expectation that the GameStop share price will fall.

When you short sell, you theoretically open yourself up to the risk of unlimited losses - because there is no limit to how high the share price can go. Be aware of the risks before you trade.

Shorting GameStop shares

  1. Create or log in to your leveraged trading account for spread bets or CFDs
  2. Go to our trading platform
  3. Search for ‘GameStop’
  4. Choose your position size
  5. Select sell and monitor your trade

How to sell your GameStop shares

Selling means that you’ll be exiting your investment position. This can be to either take a profit, or to cut a loss.

Selling GameStop shares

  1. Log in to your share dealing account and go to our trading platform
  2. Search for ‘GameStop’
  3. Select 'sell’ in the deal ticket to open your investment position
  4. Enter the number of shares you want to sell
  5. Confirm the sale

How to trade GameStop options

Trading options on GME means having the right, but not obligation, to buy or sell GameStop shares at a set price, if GME moves beyond that price in a given timeframe.

With us, you can trade GameStop options using our spread betting account or CFD account. Just open an account, navigate to 'Options' and select GameStop.

This means that your positions will be leveraged, exposing you to risk that you could gain or lose money quickly. When trading options, you could lose more than your initial deposit.

Here are the ways you can trade options with us:

Buying options Selling options
Buy a call Buy a put Sell a put Sell a call
Long or short Going long Going short Going long Going short
Maximum upside Potentially unlimited Strike price value x position size The premium received The premium received
Maximum risk The premium paid The premium paid Strike price value x position size Potentially unlimited

What’s the story behind GameStop?

GameStop shares became a favourite with users on internet message boards – especially the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets, in 2021, leading to the stock price seeing significant volatility as part of the meme stock craze.

Before the buzz, GameStop had been a company in decline with investors and traders alike. Market conditions meant that games started to go digital rather than offering physical discs. So, because GameStop’s business model was deeply seated around pre-owned and used games, digital downloads affected the company’s bottom line.

The drop in operating income was reflected in the company’s share performance from 2016 to 2020, which saw GameStop’s weekly share price fall by more than 80% from January 2016 to July 2020.

But, the company experienced a new lease of life following the popularity of the stock with so-called ‘millennial investors’. This saw huge swings in the share price.

In May 2024, the 'Roaring Kitty', Keith Gill, reappeared on X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time since mid-2021, seeing the stock price rise again.

How to analyse the GameStop share price

You may wish to use both technical analysis and fundamental analysis to analyse the GameStop share price.

  • Technical analysis is concerned with chart patterns, technical indicators and historical price action
  • Fundamental analysis is based on the fundamentals of a company, including its net revenue or profit and loss statements

You may wish to use a mix of both of these forms of analysis when assessing GameStop’s share price – especially since the company’s share price could be volatile for the foreseeable future. That’s even more true if short sellers begin cashing in on the expected share price crash.

Learn more about analysis with an IG Academy course

Footnotes:

1 Our best share dealing commission rates apply to clients who opened three or more positions on their share dealing account in the previous calendar month.


This information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Markets Limited. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. Although we are not specifically constrained from dealing ahead of our recommendations we do not seek to take advantage of them before they are provided to our clients. See full non-independent research disclaimer and quarterly summary.

Explore the markets with our free course

Learn how shares work – and discover the wide range of markets you can spread bet on – with IG Academy's free ’introducing the financial markets’ course.

Put learning into action

Try out what you’ve learned in this shares strategy article risk-free in your demo account.

Ready to trade shares?

Put the lessons in this article to use in a live account – upgrading is quick and easy.

  • Trade on over 13,000+ popular global stocks
  • Protect your capital with risk management tools
  • React to breaking news with out-of-hours trading on 70 key US stocks

Inspired to trade?

Put your new knowledge into practice. Log in to your account now.

What is the number one mistake traders make?

We reveal the top potential pitfall and how to avoid it. Discover how to increase your chances of trading success, with data gleaned from over 100,00 IG accounts.


For more info on how we might use your data, see our privacy notice and access policy and privacy webpage.

You might be interested in…

Find out what charges your trades could incur with our transparent fee structure.

Discover why so many clients choose us, and what makes us a world-leading provider of spread betting and CFDs.

Stay on top of upcoming market-moving events with our customisable economic calendar.