Shares of cybersecurity company IronNet surged over 62% in early trading on Tuesday.
The stock has been the subject of a number of discussions on Reddit in recent days as a potential candidate for a ‘gamma squeeze’—buying bullish options to create more buying pressure, as seen with movie-theater chain AMC Entertainment (ticker: AMC) and videogame retailer GameStop (GME).
IronNet (IRNT) shares rose 23% on Friday and were 115% higher in premarket trading at one point early on Tuesday. The stock opened around 67% higher before slipping to trade 48% up in early trading.
The cybersecurity company merged with special-purpose acquisition company LGL Systems Acquisition Corp at the end of last month. The stock had surged close to 30% on the combined company’s trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange—trading was paused at one point due to volatility—before slipping back to close slightly lower.
In January Reddit’s WallStreetBets community became famous overnight as the so-called meme stock frenzy rattled the markets. Retail investors had flocked to buy heavily shorted stocks, such as GameStop, AMC and software company Blackberry, earlier this year, sending prices skyrocketing and landing hedge funds with huge losses.
Reddit favorite GameStop surged 1,100% in less than 10 days in January, while AMC stock has benefited from two waves of the frenzy and is more than 2000% up year-to-date.
Free stock trading app Robinhood was another company to benefit from meme stock mania early in 2021 as its user numbers soared. The online brokerage went public in July in a bid to capitalize on that momentum, setting aside up to 35% of the IPO for its own customers. The stock tumbled 8% on a disappointing debut but after a volatile five weeks is currently close to 13% higher than its IPO price.
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