This Meme Stock is Down 28% Year to Date, and Just Keeps Falling The Motley Fool

For longer-term investors, meme stocks may be best left out of core portfolios. Their cultural and financial relevance means they can move broader markets and even influence regulatory frameworks. Understanding their behavior is key to managing risk in a modern, internet-fueled market. At the same time, retail investors are pushing back against what they see as overreach. Many view attempts to regulate meme stock behavior as a threat to their newfound influence and market access. This ideological battle between decentralized traders and centralized oversight could shape the next phase of the meme stock movement.

  • Many meme stocks belong to companies with weak performance or uncertain outlooks.
  • Other names like Bed Bath & Beyond, BlackBerry, and Nokia briefly joined the movement, showing how quickly viral stocks could rise and fade.
  • When retail investors coordinate through social media, they can create sudden demand that forces short sellers to buy back shares, causing a short squeeze.
  • Platforms like Reddit, TikTok, and X turned investing into a viral investing trend, where community excitement can move prices faster than news or data.

This list above is compiled from the latest trends in social media and online forums, providing real-time insights into the most talked-about meme stocks. Our list is updated every five minutes, ensuring that you have access to the most current information. Following the events of 2021, regulatory bodies like the SEC pledged to review the mechanics of meme stock trading. There’s growing concern over gamification, social media manipulation, and the risks posed by 0DTE options.

Managing Risk and Profits

In Q4 results, the company delivered record year-over-year revenue growth for both IoT and Cybersecurity divisions, with a QNX royalty backlog of $815 million. IoT revenue rose by 25% year-over-year to $66 million on a gross margin of 85%. Smart traders use these tools to get ahead of the crowd, not follow it. If you blinked you may have missed this, but the stock of Beyond Meat, the purveyor of meatless burger patties, had a spectacular run a few days ago.

Meme Stocks Explained: Examples, Advantages, and Risks

Kaitlyn Wolf is a personal finance, investing, and lifestyle writer with over 8 years of experience. She specializes in breaking down complex investment strategies into clear, actionable insights for investors at all levels. Driven by a passion for financial empowerment, Kaitlyn helps readers take control of their finances with straightforward, easy-to-understand guidance. Her work has been featured on leading platforms such as MoneyLion, Yahoo Finance and Benzinga. Both companies generate genuine excitement on social media while delivering measurable business results. The retail enthusiasm becomes self-reinforcing when backed by growing revenues and improving margins.

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. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it.

Beyond Earnings Reports: How to Decode True Stock Price Expectations from Management’s “Language Traps”

This speculative stock movement appeals to risk-tolerant traders who thrive on volatility. While most meme rallies start with a short squeeze, some evolve into a gamma squeeze, where options activity accelerates buying pressure. Learn how a gamma squeeze magnifies volatility and fuels extreme price spikes. Meme stocks exist because the market has become as social as it is financial. Platforms like Reddit, TikTok, and X turned investing into a viral investing trend, where community excitement can move prices faster than news or data. In this guide, we’ll break down how meme stocks work, what drives their wild swings, and what every trader should know before joining the next viral investing trend.

Trading Community

They may never be safe long-term bets, but they will continue to offer asymmetric payoff opportunities—for better or worse. While GameStop and AMC once again grabbed headlines, the 2025 meme surge included a more diversified list of names. Tupperware, BlackBerry, Nikola, and Faraday Future saw dramatic gains, but with varied levels of staying power. New entrants like TruthSocial (following its volatile public debut) and struggling AI startups also joined the meme mania club. What begins as a joke best trailing stop ea or protest can evolve into a full-scale social media stock surge, turning obscure tickers into trending topics.

GameStop and AMC were perennial members of this club, supplemented by newcomers. The shares climbed relentlessly through January 2021, soaring from a low of $12.16 in mid-December to an intraday high of about $483 on Jan. 28. It closed that day at $193.60, delivering a prompt lesson that investing in stocks based on claims touted online is a mug’s game. As long as online communities exist, there will be room for social media stock surges tied to collective excitement. Allocate no more than a small percentage of total capital to speculative stock movements that rely on online sentiment.

Short Squeeze and Volatility

The hardest part about meme trading isn’t getting in—it’s getting out. Retail euphoria creates a powerful psychological pull to hold positions longer than rational analysis would suggest. Social media amplifies both greed and fear, making disciplined exits feel like betraying the cause. After clarifying what a meme stock is, the chatbot responded that identifying one is “more of an art than a science.” L.A. Times Insights delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices content to offer all points of view. On a trailing earnings trend basis, GameStop has “beaten” those EPS estimates five quarters in a row, but has fallen short on sales 6 of 7 times.

Stocks Mentioned

The appetite of small retail investors for what beckon as big scores in unloved stocks has remained strong since the meme stock trade attracted attention during the pandemic year 2021. Use position sizing, stop-loss orders, and options hedging if you engage with meme names. Avoid overexposure and remember that past gains are not indicators of future performance.

These aren’t lottery tickets—they’re growth stocks with unusually passionate followings. The traders who survive meme stock cycles are the ones who remember they’re trading sentiment, not investing in companies. The movie theater business hasn’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and streaming services continue eating into box office revenues. Yet AMC maintains a 15.8% short interest rate, meaning any positive catalyst could trigger another squeeze. The question isn’t whether AMC will rally again—it’s whether the company will survive long enough for retail traders to care. The investment thesis writes itself—if meme trading is here to stay, why not own the casino?

We’re going to cut through the Reddit echo chamber and show you which meme stocks still deserve your attention—and your capital. Then, as if out of nowhere, the stock got noticed by online investment promoters, who urged followers to buy GameStop shares to hurt Wall Street short sellers, who were betting that the stock would keep falling. The emblematic meme stock of 2021 was GameStop, a spavined mall-based video game retailer that was struggling through the transformation of its franchise from brick-and-mortar stores to online commerce. The company had lost a combined $1.36 billion from 2018 through 2020, and its future looked bleak. After its meme-driven 12,000% rally that took GameStop (GME 2.95%) from $0.64 to a record high of $120 in January 2021, things have never really been the same — for the company and for investors.

  • This democratized information flow creates a feedback loop of hype, volatility, and action.
  • Meme stocks prove that markets are no longer ruled by numbers alone, they’re ruled by narratives.
  • It’s worth noting that this particular squeeze, at this time, was perhaps a unique event.

Meme stocks are often driven by retail investors organizing online, aiming to drive up stock prices to counter institutional short-sellers or simply riding the momentum for potential gains. They are popularized through viral internet content, creating a feedback loop of interest and investment. We track and analyze social media discussions and market trends to highlight the meme stocks gaining the most attention in online communities. By tracking data such as WallStreetBets mentions and trading activity, we identify stocks experiencing significant shifts in discussions. Our list of top meme stocks is updated every five minutes, showcasing the most talked-about stocks from the past 24 hours to keep you informed. To stay updated, follow financial news outlets, watch stock market trends, monitor social media platforms and forums where meme stocks are discussed, and sign-up to monitor and receive alerts on meme stocks.

The stock market has traditionally been a serious and complex arena, with investors analyzing financial statements and market trends to make informed decisions. But the rise of social media and online communities has brought about a new phenomenon known as meme stocks. These stocks are often driven by online communities and viral trends rather than traditional fundamentals. While they may seem like risky and speculative investments, meme stocks have gained a cultlike following and caused major disruptions in the market. In 2025, retail traders are using zero-day options (0DTEs) at unprecedented rates.

Super Micro Computer is one of the most important companies in the world of high-performance computing. Of course, much of the information shared on social media is of fairly poor quality. But for balance, investors can now receive live information from famous accounts or bounce ideas off each other in a way that had not really existed before 2021. Our lessons, designed to help you learn to trade, cover everything from smart buying and selling decisions to the nuances of trends and candlestick patterns. GameStop has the financial stability to attempt a genuine transformation, though the clock is ticking on proving it works. Robinhood represents a pure play on the meme trading phenomenon itself, which could be brilliant or circular depending on how the market evolves.