GameStop was climbing early Thursday, continuing another wild week for the videogame retailer.
The stock was up 6% in Thursday trading after a 17% drop on Wednesday, extending the roller coaster of the new meme stock rally that started in May. GameStop now trades 36% lower than it did a month ago, but is still 45% higher than at the start of the year. AMC rose 7% in Thursday trading
The decline yesterday followed speculation that Keith Gill, the investor known as Roaring Kitty, was selling off part of his options position. As the price drop accelerated in the afternoon, data showed a spike in volume on the calls, which are contracts to buy the stock at a certain price.
The price moves seem to have little to do with the company’s results—it most recently reported a loss. In fact, the company has made more money selling additional shares during the latest meme stock frenzy than it has selling videogames at its outlets.
Separately, Citron, a well known short seller of GameStop said it was no longer betting on the stock to go down.
Meme stocks were often the focus of social media influencers such as Gill because more established financial institutions were trying to sell the share short—borrowing shares to sell them in the hope to buy them back at lower price.
When prices started to rise dramatically on the meme stocks, it created what’s known as a short squeeze in which the short sellers are forced to buy back the shares even though prices haven’t moved in their favor, pushing the stocks higher still.
Cinema chain AMC, another meme stock, was up 1.2% in the premarket after falling 5.9% on Wednesday.