Meme stocks ride again: 4 charts illustrate the week's rallies for Reddit favorites AMC, GameStop, and Virgin Galactic
- AMC, GameStop and Virgin Galactic fronted this week's revival in frenzied trading in meme stocks.
- AMC shares zoomed up 200% during the week but failed the reach social media calls for a $500,000 price tag.
- Virgin Galactic bounced higher after the company's successful space flight.
Movie-theater chain AMC was the marquee stock mover this week as its price shot up as much as 204% and fronted a renewed frenzy among retail investors buying so-called meme stocks.
GameStop and Virgin Galactic were also among big winners during the last week of May, reminiscent of the massive rally in January in so-called meme stocks that was led by a jump in shares of the video-game retailer. Retail investors on Reddit at the start of the year staged a virtual fight against institutional investors that bet GameStop's price would go down.
The meme-stocks theme "fell off a lot of traders' radars. The taking out of the [AMC's] January high for a lot of people was the trigger that got them genuinely excited," Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, told Insider on Friday. "And short-sellers' vulnerability heading into the long weekend seemed like the perfect storm to stick it to hedge funds that are against AMC," he said.
This week, short-sellers lost about $2.76 billion because of the sharp price leaps in the three stocks, according to Ortex, a financial analysis firm.
Here are 4 charts about this week's leap in AMC, GameStop and Virgin Galactic:
1) AMC peaks at over $36
The #AMC500K hashtag that trended this week highlighted calls for the shares to soar to $500,000 each. It rose nowhere near that level, but AMC hit a high of $36.72 on Friday that recorded a 204% climb over the past five trading sessions. AMC shares eventually backed off that threshold but still more than doubled from about $12 from the start of the week.
2) "Massive" inflows into AMC
Retail investors poured millions of dollars into AMC stock this week, according to Vanda Research, which tracks retail activity in US stocks and ETFs. Inflows reached roughly $127 million on Thursday alone, according to the firm's VandaTrack platform, describing the amount as "massive."
3) GameStop leaps
GameStop's price gained as much as 52% from last week, hitting an intraday high of $268.80 on Friday. The jump came after sideways consolidation over the past two months. The shares did shift into the red late in Friday's session and fell to $220, but that still brought in a 26% gain over the past five sessions.
4) Virgin Galactic rockets up
Shares of the commercial space flight company touched $35.04 on Friday, briefly bringing its weekly rise to 66%. The shares got a boost this week after the company successfully completed its third-manned flight to the edge of space after a botched attempt in December.
"The one narrative about retail trading is that people have to believe in the company. Virgin going to outer space, going to the moon, is very appealing to retail traders," said Moya.
