It appears meme stocks have decided they want to be back in the spotlight today. In a seemingly newsless afternoon for the quasi-asset class, meme stock giants GameStop (NYSE:GME) and AMC (NYSE:AMC) both popped upward for some of their biggest afternoon gains in weeks. So, what’s behind this meme stocks mania and its huge price momentum?
The short answer: nothing, really. No bullish earnings, no acquisitions or big announcements from these brands are catalyzing gains. Rather, it seems that meme stock aficionados and short squeeze investors are behind the growth.
Trading volume across the meme stock market is far beyond daily averages. GME stock saw over 14 million shares swap hands against a daily average of 5.3 million; meanwhile, AMC saw 221 million shares trade against an average of 169 million.
Meme Stocks Mania Takes Off Again With GME, AMC Bull Runs
The trading volume is triggering another short squeeze between the two stocks; GME has 17% of its float sold short, while 16% of AMC’s float is short. As a result, GME stock soared a whopping 27% in the afternoon, and AMC grew over 20%. The squeezes were not relegated to just GameStop and AMC, either — popular meme plays Clover Health (NASDAQ:CLOV) and Workhorse (NASDAQ:WKHS) grew 10% and 6%, respectively, although both traded at lower than average volumes.
What’s interesting about the squeezes is that they all occurred at around the same time. After trading sideways through the morning, these stocks began to see the rapid appreciation beginning just after 1 p.m. EST. This suggests that the efforts were coordinated across retail investing discussion channels. Nowadays, much discussion around meme stocks and short squeezes is relegated to platforms like Telegram and Discord.
The price momentum is even taking investors over at meme stock Mecca r/WallStreetBets by surprise as well. One can see that mentions of the GME and AMC tickers were stagnant until the hour that the price momentum began surging, after which, mentions grew exponentially. This suggests that the message board is not who is behind this coordinated buying effort.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
