Reddit traders are waxing nostalgic over the pre-short squeeze days of GameStop — from $13 a year ago to $200 today, many are holding on for more gains ahead

• Reddit day traders are reminiscing about GameStop shares in double digits a year ago.
• Since then, the army of retail investors have driven a more than 1,400% rally in the stock.

Reddit day traders are reminiscing about the time last year when GameStop stock was less than a tenth of what it's worth now.

"One year ago today GME closed at $13.90. Today GME closed at $213.90," one Redditor said of the GameStop ticker in the r/Superstonk thread. The post received more than 12,000 upvotes.

That price represents a 1,438% rally in just one year. In that year, day traders mobilized on social media, such as Reddit's Wall Street Bets, to buy shares of a nostalgic brick-and-mortar company they believe in and squeeze short sellers.

The trend became noticeable in January when shares started skyrocketing, eventually scoring prices beyond $300, despite Wall Street professionals advising prices at much lower levels. The mania led to a new class of assets called meme stocks and even a new Wall Street vocabulary that included words like "hodl," "MOASS," and "diamond hands."

The GameStop rally came to a screeching halt on Jan. 28 when retail trading platform Robinhood halted buying of GameStop shares, along with other meme-stock companies like AMC and BlackBerry. The pause prompted outrage from retail traders, a Congressional hearing, and a share slump back to double digits.

All in all, it didn't totally dampen the spirits of the retail crowd. Shares picked up steam again in March and have remained in triple digits since. Now, retail traders are aiming for an even higher valuation.

In the Tuesday post, some Redditors argued GameStop could eventually reach a $1 trillion valuation — a level vastly higher than the current $16 billion market capitalization and one reached only by a handful of companies, including Apple, Tesla, and Google parent Alphabet.

"A one trillion dollar market cap means $13k shares, which I think is entirely achievable within 3-5 years on fundamentals alone, without any squeeze action," wrote one Redditor.

Redditors have remained bullish on the company's prospects, citing its new chairman in Chewy cofounder Ryan Cohen and the company's moves into the metaverse with its own platform for non-fungible tokens. To build out its push into the future internet, the company has been on a hiring spree for metaverse and NFT specialists.