Posted by All aboard! Just don’t be the last one to get off the rocketship. Traders this week continued to buy up tickets to memeland, sending in fairies to circle the usual darlings.
Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) popped 40% on Monday as a record 120.5M shares changed hands, after gaining 30% in the previous session. GameStop (GME) was also halted for exchange for volatility, while AMC Entertainment extended another big rally. Further outsized gains were recorded by Express (EXPR), Overstock.com (OSTK), HEXO Corp. (HEXO), Vroom (VRM), Waitr Holdings (WTRH), Wayfair (W) and CarLotz (LOTZ).
The latest catalyst appeared to sprout out of the astounding rise and fall of AMTD Digital (HKD), which surged 32,000% since going public on July 15. The offbeat Hong Kong-based fintech priced its IPO at $7.80, and while it topped out at $2,540 last week, the movement was enough to remind the WallStreetBets crowd of skyrocketing moves. AMC (AMC) also announced plans last week to issue a special dividend via preferred equity units that will trade under ticker symbol “APE,” which is an online moniker for enthusiastic meme traders. Don’t forget the recent rebound on Wall Street that has infused some risk back into the market, while heavy short interest has set the stage for a meme comeback (more than half of Bed Bath shares available for trading are now currently sold short).
Go deeper: A lot of the meme names that are now seeing a resurgence are still down heavily since the initial fever of January 2021. Some still swear by the technicals, which have created countless day trading channels and messaging platforms, while others are quick to point to the eye-popping fortunes being posted online – but don’t forget the whopping losses that get far less coverage. As an outgrowth of the YOLO trade, meming is partly a strategy (short squeeze), partly a gamble (remember binary options?) and partly a middle finger to Wall Street (little guy vs. the suits), which has been compounded by the gamification of stock apps and access to commission-free trading.
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