It seems everywhere you turn today, there is something new going on in the stock market. We caught up with Local Financial Coach and founder of WomenCents Vanessa Stockbrugger and she broke down what is going on.

“Essentially what's happening is that when you short a stock or sell short a stock that means that you believe the price is going to go down. What is happening is the big guy institutions were selling stock that they didn't own. That's what it means by short selling. Then, when the little guys came in, the retail investors, they all got together and said let's buy the stock. They started buying so that puts upward pressure on the stock, as it starts to go up, then the short sellers have to cover, it's called, which means they have sold the stock that they don't own, and then they have to be going and buying it.”

“As the price goes up, they have to then go and buy the stock and now it's more expensive. What they want to do is sell it, say at 10 bucks and have it go down to five and then they cover it and they say well, I sold it at 10, but I can go buy it today for five.”

Earlier this year, a community from the website Reddit called  r/wallstreetbets, which is full of amateur investors who started to buy stocks in American video game retailer Gamestop. This caused the stock price to jump from $43 all the way to being the highest valued stock on the market.

This sudden jump has caused hedge funds to lose billions of dollars.

Should I be buying these stocks? Stockbrugger advises against it. “The whole idea of what's happening right now is so contrary to what investing is really about it. This is so speculative. People are even trading, like in the bathroom like a joke.”

 “If you are so tied to the timing, and it's that risky and not focused on when you get in, that is not long term investing. The idea is you should be buying companies that you believe in and investing in their growth over the long term.”

“Unless you want to play around with a few dollars, and you're interested in it, but this is not a long term wealth building strategy for people and as soon as it starts hitting the news like this. You're too late”