Trump Media has reawakened the meme stock monster

We in the financial press tend to talk about the meme stock revolution (or craze, or frenzy, or mass delusion) in the past tense. It was a 2021 phenomenon — the climax of a zero-interest rate-fueled euphoria that pit Robinhood hobbyists against Wall Street’s elite, a financial David vs. Goliath, etc.

We in the financial press tend to talk about the meme stock revolution (or craze, or frenzy, or mass delusion) in the past tense. It was a 2021 phenomenon — the climax of a zero-interest rate-fueled euphoria that pit Robinhood hobbyists against Wall Street’s elite, a financial David vs. Goliath, etc. If you can’t remember how the whole thing ended, that’s partly because it never really did. And now the ride-or-die diamond-handed GameStop crowd is trying to get the band back together. See here: On Monday, after three years out of silence, one of the orchestrators of the 2021 GameStop surge roared back into the spotlight with a wordless meme on X that his followers interpreted as a rally cry for the stock he put on the map. The account is linked to Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, aka DeepF—ingValue. From that single, cryptic post depicting a man sitting in an office chair — a meme that suggests “when things get serious” — GameStop (GME) shares soared more than 100% before being halted for volatility. The stock ended Monday up more than 70%, rising $13 to $30.45 a share. On Tuesday, the meme-ing continued, as GameStop rose another 70%. AMC, another meme investor favorite, rose 85%. Tupperware surged 35% and BlackBerry — yes, you can still trade BlackBerry — was up 13%. Beyond Meat, a former Wall Street darling that’s been struggling with waning demand for its plant-based burgers, was up 27%. “No fundamental investors are involved in this,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told me. “The fundamentals didn’t make sense at $9 a share, they don’t make sense at $30 a share. But for those who’ve been awaiting the next signal, it arrived.”