Call it the revenge of the meme shares.
After a pummeling during the first three days of the week, GameStop Corp. GME,
rose Thursday, helped by retailers who remain emotionally committed to the video game retailer even after stocks were hammered 24 hours earlier.
Meanwhile, shares of film chain AMC Entertainment Holdings AMC,
another popular share among the retailers on social media platforms such as Reddit and Discord also emerged during the session.
AMC closed trading more than 21% on Thursday, while GameStop was up nearly 53%, more than accounting for Wednesday’s loss of 40.5%, representing its worst day in seven weeks, following the disappointing quarterly results reported after the closing of regular trading hours on Tuesdays.
“WE ARE ALL WITNESS” a user of Reddit board r / WallStreetBets posted Thursday after the bell, summarizing the sentiment of GameStop bulls on the site encouraging each other to “buy the dip,” presented by the lackluster earnings report of the company, and stick with the hedge funds that many users on Reddit and Discord still see as existential threats to unfettered profits.
The campaign to buy GameStop seems to have worked. Data from Fidelity shows that the stock was most actively traded by retail clients on Thursday with a buy-to-sell ratio of nearly 3-to-1.
GameStop fans scored an extra boost in the last hour of trading when Ryan Cohen, Chewy founder and GameStop board member, fired a cryptic tweet that his followers interpreted bullishly.
Cohen’s post – his first in more than two weeks – was an excerpt from “Ted,” Seth MacFarlane’s raunchy live-action comedy about the childhood bond between a potty pot-smoking teddy bear and his human friend John, played by Mark Wahlberg.
“Higher and higher!” one of Cohen’s followers responded on Twitter.
AMC, which was Thursday’s fifth most popular stock according to Fidelity with more buyers than sellers, also benefited from social media campaigns aimed at toppling hedge funds that had a short position in the stock.
Message boards spread unverified rumors that major investment funds and market makers were betting heavily that AMC stock would eventually decline in value.
However, little was said about Walt Disney Co. DIS,
announced on Tuesday that it would release two of its summer tent-pole blockbusters ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Cruella’ simultaneously in theaters and streaming on Disney +, which would theoretically be a bona fide hit for controversial movie chains, including AMC, at least in the short term.
Those consiparity theories and the potential loss of sales of major film producers were pushed aside on Thursday.
“Made a huge loss yesterday. All made back today, ”posted a Redditor. “Rather this than 2 boring flat days. I like this shit. “
Ultimately, Reddit’s typical ‘buy-first-and-ask-ask-later strategy’ pays off again – at least in the short term.
However, for this week, GameStop’s stock is looking at a fall from the week to date of 8.3% and AMC Entertainment’s stock of more than 21%.