INVESTING EXPLAINED: What you need to know about meme stocks with a cult following thanks to social media

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, these sites helped promote and drive up the prices of so-called dotcom stocks—a bubble that famously burst with far-reaching economic consequences. For example, on March 10th, 2025, Redditor Deucalion667 posted a Peter Parker Crying meme to the /r/memes14 subreddit about the stock crashing, receiving over 5,900 upvotes and 80 comments in nine days. This exclusive report highlights the companies leading the AI revolution and shaping the future of technology in 2025. Learn how shares work – and discover the wide range of markets you can spread bet on – with IG Academy’s free ’introducing the financial markets’ course. Blackberry is a Canadian company known for creating interactive pagers, smartphones and tablets. These stocks’ movements activ trades review typically defy conventional market predictions and can maintain elevated prices regardless of the company’s market cap.

  • As seen with GameStop, eventually market forces are expected to bring the stock’s price in line with a company’s business fundamentals.
  • This unpredictability makes it difficult to know when to buy or sell, and many retail investors have found themselves holding onto stocks that suddenly lost most of their value.
  • Unlike online pump-and-dump schemes aimed at defrauding unwitting investors, the promotion of meme stocks largely involves buying and holding with the above-mentioned strong hands even after the price spikes.
  • Similar to MARA, MSTR’s stock price is linked to Bitcoin’s performance, resulting in significant volatility.

Although we are not specifically constrained from dealing ahead of our recommendations we do not seek to take advantage of them before they are provided to our clients. If you prefer investing, you how to invest in natural gas might want to opt for our share dealing account. Once opened and funded, you can invest in over 13,000 markets, including shares, ETFs and investment trusts. Other social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook also exert their own influence on stocks.

While some thought that the meme stock craze would be short-lived, the phenomenon remains in force years later. Meme stock communities pumped the brick-and-mortar retailer Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) to extreme levels in the summer of 2022, when it was up 314% for a short period before crashing back down. Then, in January 2021, the short squeeze that The Roaring Kitty had suggested earlier took place in earnest, with the price of GME shares exploding to nearly $500 amid a frenzy of short-covering and panic buying. The rapid decline in Tesla’s stock price in early 2025 prompted numerous reactions, including memes, across social media, particularly in March of that year. In terms of research and performing due diligence, investors increasingly use LinkedIn to mine information.

In 1923, Edwin Lefèvre wrote his now famous book, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator — a thinly disguised biography of Livermore and his exploits in the financial markets. The book is an absolute classic and is still considered required reading for professionals in the investment business. The last quarter of the book is devoted to stock pools and the manipulation of the price of securities for the benefit of insiders who were seeking to increase the price of stocks that they wished to unload. In essence, a group of investors with a large position in a stock would engage an operator like Jesse Livermore to manipulate a stock through various trading operations to increase the price of the stock.

Meme Stocks: What are they and what do you need to know?

For more info on how we might use your data, see our privacy notice and access policy and privacy webpage. This will amplify both profits and losses – so manage your risk carefully. Roaring Kitty’s real name is Keith Gill who was also on Reddit as u/deepF…Value and active on the subreddit r/wallstreetbets. Gordon Scott has been an active investor and technical analyst or 20+ years.

Meme stocks are so-named because ideas about them spread rapidly on social media and web forums. Meme stocks also see communities built around them that promote the hype and elaborate on the original meme, inventing specific terms and symbols to accompany the stock. Regulators, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, closely monitor the activities of market participants to ensure compliance with existing securities laws and regulations. It is crucial for investors to familiarise themselves with the legal framework governing stock trading and consult with professionals to navigate the regulatory landscape effectively. Additionally, the hype-driven nature of meme stocks often leads to increased market speculation and challenges the efficiency of the market, creating an environment that may not align with long-term investment strategies.

A meme is an image, or piece of information that spreads rapidly across the internet. Founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner, The Motley Fool helps millions of people attain financial freedom through our website, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show and premium investing services. For those looking to invest for the longer term rather than get caught up in internet hype, Acciones de tesla there are loads of options. SEC filings show that Tudor Investment Corporation, a firm founded and led by the billionaire trader Paul Tudor Jones, held bullish call options on 44,300 GameStop shares at the end of December. Back in December Sean Hannity was talking about how electric vehicles are horrible and every other month before that would tell his listeners about how awful they are. Only now trying to sell them to said listeners because Trump is telling him to.

Meme stocks may make you rich, but here’s why your money is better off invested elsewhere.

Later on March 18th, 2025, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz posted a video to X11 with the caption, “If you need a little boost during the day, check out Tesla stock 📉” The post gathered over 28,000 likes in a day. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick encouraged Fox viewers to buy Tesla stock, as seen in a video posted by @Acyn16 that gathered over 2,000 likes in a day. The X4 account @unusual_whales posted a relevant clip of the interview on March 15th, 2025, gathering over 6,000 likes in four days. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street’s top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on… It is recommended to seek advice from a financial advisor, expert, or other professional.

What Are the Top 5 Meme Stocks?

They may have other tax implications, and may not provide the same, or any, regulatory protection. Exchange rate charges may adversely affect the value of shares in sterling terms, and you could lose money in sterling even if the stock price rises in the currency of origin. Any performance statistics that do not adjust for exchange rate changes are likely to result in an inaccurate portrayal of real returns for sterling-based investors.

  • However, it is important to approach meme stocks with a realistic mindset.
  • Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.
  • As always, do your homework and speak to a financial professional if you’re not sure if meme stocks are for you.
  • Any performance statistics that do not adjust for exchange rate changes are likely to result in an inaccurate portrayal of real returns for sterling-based investors.
  • There is also a correlation with theme investing — for example, companies in newly fashionable industries such as cannabis, electric vehicles, space, and alternative energy sectors.

Trading Strategies

Previously, the average daily trade volume of AMC shares had been around 86 million shares. On January 27, when the stock price topped $20, 1.1 billion shares were traded. Once again, the Davids — the populist crowd, had defeated the Goliaths — the Wall Street crowd. In May 2024, shares in GameStop, AMC and other meme stocks briefly spiked again. GME’s share price increased over 150% within a week based on some vague posts on social media platform X by a leading figure behind the GameStop short squeeze, Keith Gill, also known as ‘Roaring Kitty’.

Make sure you have the risk tolerance to weather that volatility before you jump on the meme stock bandwagon. As always, do your homework and speak to a financial professional if you’re not sure if meme stocks are for you. This information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Markets Limited. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result.

In 2019, for instance, electric car company Tesla saw its share price rise by 7% after chief executive officer (CEO) billionaire Elon Musk published a Tweet about securing funding to take the company private at $420 per share. Meme stock traders and investors typically don’t have a professional background or know how to conduct financial analysis. Their motivation behind rallying around a meme stock is usually to make big profits from unprecedented price movements. Meme stocks are shares that gain a cult following thanks to social media platforms like Reddit. It has little to do with the business fundamentals, performance, or prospects, such as profitability or leadership.

Investors should carefully evaluate their own financial situation and objectives before participating in the meme stock frenzy. Before we dive into the intricacies of meme stocks, it is essential to grasp the definition and origin of this unique phenomenon. Meme stocks, as the name suggests, are stocks that have become popular due to their viral nature on social media platforms such as Reddit, Twitter, and TikTok. Meme stocks are shares of listed companies whose prices and trading volume are heavily influenced by the activity of retail traders on social media. AMC is a US cinema chain listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the largest movie theatre company in the world. It became a meme stock in 2021 when Reddit users pushed its share price up by more than 120% to short-sell professional hedge funds and big institutional firms.

As the world’s largest movie theater chain, its business was profoundly impacted by the pandemic, yet it garnered immense support from retail investors, affectionately known as “Apes.” The recent surge in retail investor activity, reminiscent of the meme stock craze in early 2021, highlights a potential paradigm shift in market dynamics. This renewed interest raises questions about investor behavior, market trends, and the enduring influence of social media on stock valuations.

Finally, we make an assessment of whether serious investors should buy meme stocks. This week’s surge was reminiscent of January 2021 when GameStop’s stock price went from under $5 to north of $80 on a split-adjusted basis. The buying frenzy was fueled by retail investors and whipped up on social media to squeeze short sellers, get rich fast, and have fun in the process. Meme stocks emerged as a trend in late 2020 and early 2021 when online communities started promoting certain companies’ shares and generating buzz to attract buyers. The rise of commission-free trading platforms and online investing groups during the COVID-19 pandemic played a major role, as many people were at home with extra funds from government aid.

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