The kerfuffle over sharemarket short squeezes is receding almost as quickly as it arose. For GameStop traders, it’s game over. Despite first impressions and lurid headlines, nobody is taking down Wall Street, there are no systemic threats from short-selling and the episode shows that social media is nowhere near as powerful a market force as some of its users believe.

To recap: a company called GameStop runs a network of bricks-and-mortar video-game retail outlets. The distribution of video games is going digital. The conventional wisdom held that GameStop’s business is in big trouble, and professional investors, including hedge funds, short-sold the stock to epic levels.