After percolating for days, GameStop and AMC finally break out on big day for meme stocks
The meme stock mothership is blasting off again.
Shares in videogame retailer GameStop GME,
AMC Entertainment AMC,
Meme stocks have been showing signs of life in recent weeks with GameStop up more than 25% in May and AMC Entertainment soaring more than 60% in the same period as both companies have leveraged their massive and loyal social media following to execute new equity offerings and pay down huge debt loads.
Tuesday’s major gains came despite all three major indices DJIA,
For GameStop, Tuesday’s breakout comes after weeks of concerted effort on message boards to get GME’s Reddit army back on the march against hedge funds who they believe are still shorting the stock. Just last week, rumblings of another short squeeze on both GME and AMC were percolating almost everywhere on social media.
“CONGRATULATIONS ON 200 EVERYBODY,” blared an early afternoon post on Reddit board Superstonk.
“Well done everyone,” responded user Cypher_Aod, summing up the sentiment of many investors committed to pushing the price even higher. “Back to Hodling now.”
Users on multiple Reddit boards tracking meme stocks have been sharing research and data that they believed were proof that short interest was still curiously high on both GameStop and AMC, a theory that was helped along by the fact that the stocks have spent much of May moving in an almost identical pattern.
To many, the stark visual imagery of twin volatile equities in entirely different sectors with rabid supporters was enough to show an invisible force at play.
Ryan Cohen, the activist investor who has essentially taken control of GameStop’s corporate turnaround and become a folk hero to the company’s Reddit army, weighed in on the renewed squeeze action with one of his cryptic late night tweets early Tuesday morning.
“Don’t try this at home,” Cohen wrote above a .gif from the TV show “American Dad” showing a cartoon character at the bottom of a pool being lifted to the surface by an active bulge in the front of his Speedos.
The tweet received attention from its target audience.
“Citadel has no clothes. The Walls are closing in,” posted Reddit user stonk_sandwich, referencing the hedge fund and market maker that many retail investors have come to see as the malevolent force on the opposite side of their trade. “Mother of All Speedo Squeezes coming.”
Stonk_sandwich, taking an obvious cue from Cohen, photoshopped the cartoon character onto a chart of GameStop’s spiking stock price, with the tip of the line graph going directly through the Speedo.
