In the week of May 13 to 17, the shares of GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, and other companies soared and then plummeted—all fueled by Keith Gill, known online as Roaring Kitty. The finance influencer who was at the heart of the 2021 memestock frenzy posted on X (previously known as Twitter) for the first time in years. The online community, r/wallstreetbets, via Reddit, became active again with individuals posting their returns (and subsequent losses). In the 48 hours following Roaring Kitty’s tweet, the trading volume in GameStop was significantly above average.
Despite its impact on certain areas of the market, this type of investing represents just one small faction of all retail investors. In fact, only about 14% of retail investors are investing because they are looking to outperform the market.
