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Al Jazeera

Technology

Radmilla Suleymanova

What are meme stocks and why are they back?

GameStop Al Jazeera WallStreetBets Edward Moya Reddit Video Game AMC Hedge Funds United States

A band of bullish retail traders pumped the stock price of video game retailer GameStop back in January 2021, causing historic market havoc and substantial losses for institutional investors who had bet against the company [File: Brendan McDermid/Reuters]

Meme stock mania, born during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, has turned the tables on institutional investors by banding retail day traders together via social media to pump the stock of companies Wall Street bets against.

This new generation of traders, assembling on websites like Reddit’s popular WallStreetBets forum and using commission-free trading apps like Robinhood, made headlines after they catapulted the stock price of flailing video game retailer GameStop.

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