Meme stocks GameStop, AMC dip in heavy volumes after two-day rally

Meme stocks GameStop, AMC dip in heavy volumes after two-day rally

Shares of GameStop and AMC slipped in volatile premarket trading on Wednesday, following sharp gains this week after "Roaring Kitty" Keith Gill, the central figure behind the 2021 meme stock frenzy, resurfaced on social media.

Cinema chain AMC dropped 7.7%, after rising 135% in the past two sessions, while video game retailer GameStop fell 10% after hitting its highest level since June 2021 on Tuesday.

The retail investor darlings were higher in early premarket trading and were the most actively traded NYSE stocks at 8:17 a.m. ET.

"This is a trend driven by entertainment rather than company fundamentals.. stocks which rocket up on pure speculation, tend to drop back down to earth very quickly," said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.

"Roaring Kitty", the online persona of Gill, shared a clip from the movie "Braveheart" on social media platform X on Tuesday with the word "GameStop" flashing on the screen as Mel Gibson, playing William Wallace, screams "freedom".

It is the first time Gill mentioned a company name after his return to X following a three-year gap, which set off a rally in highly shorted stocks, reminiscent of the 2021 retail trading frenzy.

In 2021, his YouTube streams and a string of Reddit posts had helped attract a flood of retail cash into GameStop, burning hedge funds that had bet against the company.

Gill did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on whether he was planning to resume posting about his trades on social media.

Gill has "became a hero of the common man.. he's having fun putting up these memes and we're interpreting them.. there's no science here," said Andrew Left at Citron Research, a former GameStop short seller.

Meanwhile, AMC disclosed in a filing it would issue 23.3 million shares in exchange for its notes due 2026 for principal amount of $164 million.

ROBUST TRADING ACTIVITY

Vlad Tenev, CEO of retail trading platform Robinhood, said on X the app hit $5 billion in equities trading volume on Tuesday, among the highest in the past 12 months.

AMC and GameStop were among the top 10 securities bought by retail investors on Tuesday, with $51 million and $16 million daily inflows, respectively, according to Vanda Research.

The two stocks have also recorded strong options trading this week, with much of the action concentrated in bullish call options, which profit when stock prices rise.

Bill Gross, a billionaire once known as the "Bond King" after founding fixed income giant PIMCO, said the meme stocks trading frenzy was "definitely opportunistic" and his strategy was to "sell 400% annualised volatility", an options play.

Rising interest rates had cooled the meme stocks phenomenon in the past two years, underlined by the shuttering of the Roundhill MEME ETF that invested in firms that exhibited a combination of elevated social media activity and high short interest.