All it took was a tweet. Shares of GameStop and other pandemic-era meme stocks took off.
Keith Gill's social-media accounts had been dormant for years. Known as "Roaring Kitty" on YouTube and "DeepF -- ingValue" on Reddit, Gill helped direct the world's attention to GameStop in 2021, inspiring hordes of amateur traders to band around shares of the struggling videogame retailer.
On Sunday night, an X account associated with Gill posted something for the first time in nearly three years: a picture of a man leaning forward in his seat.
Nevermind the post mentioned no stock tickers. GameStop's stock more than doubled at its intraday high Monday and closed up 74% in its fourth-largest one-day percentage gain on record. Shares kept climbing Tuesday, up 60%. In all, the company added roughly $9.6 billion in market value in two days.
Shares of AMC Entertainment gained 135% over that period. Plug Power surged 34%, BlackBerry rose 20% and Koss increased 92% so far this week. On Reddit's irreverent WallStreetBets community, anonymous traders posted screenshots of their trades.
"Welcome Back, KING," a follower responded on X.
The resurgence in meme stocks highlights the lasting power of "degen" trading since the GameStop mania of 2021 ushered in a new generation of internet-fueled amateur investors. Degen traders ("degen" is short for "degenerate") often care less about business fundamentals and more about the fear of missing out. They are drawn to the potential of a quick profit if others join them -- and are willing to take big risks and suffer losses along the way.
Michael Timpone, a 34-year-old mechanic in New York, was clocked in for his night shift Sunday when he saw the Roaring Kitty tweet.
"I thought it was back into GME, like everyone else," Timpone said. "I was like, let me get in."
Timpone had participated in the meme-stock mania in 2021 and watched Gill's videos at the time. He said he made about $4,000 in profits from GameStop back then, while losing about $1,000 trading BlackBerry shares.
After the market opened Monday, Timpone bought 10 shares of GameStop at about $30, he said. He sold them for about $50 each on Tuesday morning and is watching the stock to potentially buy more.
On Sunday night, an X account associated with Keith Gill posted something for the first time in nearly three years. PHOTO: HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
"It's either going to go all the way back to where it ran to in 2021, or be worthless again," he said.
The broader U.S. stock market rose alongside meme stocks Tuesday, sending the Nasdaq Composite to a new all-time high. The major indexes' year-to-date rally had stalled last month after a series of hot inflation reports forced investors to reconsider expectations for when the Federal Reserve could begin cutting interest rates, but has since regained ground. The S&P 500 is up 10% in 2024.
"People have been so wrapped up in interest rates and what's happening with the Fed," said Gannon Breslin, a financial newsletter writer and content creator. "This is kind of the comic relief that people were waiting for."
Monday's rally handed GameStop short sellers more than $800 million in losses on paper, according to estimates from S3 Partners. Short sellers, mostly hedge funds, borrow shares and sell them with the hope of profiting by buying the stock back at a lower price later. Roughly a quarter of GameStop's available shares are sold short, according to S3 analysis.
The short squeeze, when a stock surges and inflicts pain on short sellers, and subsequent short covering, when short sellers buy back shares to close out their positions, could push GameStop's share price even higher, according to Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners. It could also attract new short sellers betting the meme stocks will fall from here, he added.
In a sign of just how volatile GameStop's stock has been this week, trading in the stock was halted nine times Monday and 16 times Tuesday. Such pauses kick in automatically when stock prices move extremely quickly.
Investors also flocked to the options market, seeking risky, bullish bets that would profit if the shares kept soaring. Activity in GameStop and AMC options this week surged to the highest levels since March 2021 and August 2023, respectively, according to Cboe Global Markets. Much of the trading has been concentrated in bets expiring by Friday, with traders placing bold trades on a rapid increase in share prices.
Some of the most actively traded options tied to GameStop on Tuesday were calls tied to the shares jumping to $57 or $50. The stock closed at $48.75. Calls tied to AMC surging to $8, $12.50 or $20 were among the most popular for that stock, which closed at $6.85. Calls confer the right to buy shares at a specific price, by a stated date.
Trading activity from everyday investors had ramped up this year before GameStop's resurgence. The average daily number of clients' trades handled by Charles Schwab rose to nearly 6 million in the first quarter, the most since the second quarter of 2022 and up 15% from the last quarter of 2023. Stock Markets reported 2.2 million average daily equity trades in March, the most since November 2021.
There were pockets of meme-stock behavior even before Roaring Kitty returned. Reddit and Donald Trump's Truth Social app went public in March, sparking wild swings in those stocks. Cryptocurrencies have rallied this year after bitcoin exchange-traded funds launched.
But the resurgence in trading activity still pales in comparison with 2021 levels. Net inflows from self-directed investors into GameStop on Monday totaled around $16 million, compared with the peak of more than $87 million on Jan. 27, 2021, according to estimates from Vanda Research. The trading frenzy from that period landed Gill, hedge-fund managers and the CEOs of Reddit and Robinhood in front of Congress.
For now, many remain glued to the Roaring Kitty X account, which has regularly posted cryptic videos since Monday morning. The videos feature clips from movies, TV shows and TikTok, but nothing specifically about stocks.
Timpone hopes Gill posts a new YouTube video soon about GameStop, which he thinks could send the stock to new highs.
"That would be insane," he said. "I can't even imagine."