by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
This whole Nikola phenomenon was only possible in a market gone willfully blind and nuts.
Shares of the electric truck maker Nikola that hasn’t made a single truck — not even a working prototype that uses its own technology — started trading on June 4, 2020, through a reverse merger with special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) VectoIQ Holdings – the boom in SPACs being another phenomenon that shows how nuts this market has gotten. By June 9, Nikola’s market capitalization had vaulted to $29 billion as day-trader fans were going nuts over it, trying to get rich quick on this supernatural phenomenon.
Then the collapse began, the collapse in every aspect, including the collapse of hype.