Shares of the video game retailer GameStop and theater chain AMC dropped late in the week as the meme stock campaign sparked by the return of “Roaring Kitty” fizzled out.
GameStop stock dropped 30 percent, closing at $27.67, after reaching as high as $64.83, while AMC stock fell 15.3 percent, according to a report by Reuters.
“The short sellers three years ago were completely surprised by the magnitude of the mass purchases and ultimately overwhelmed by the size of the short squeeze,” Cherry Lane Investments partner Rick Meckler said.
“They have likely learned from that experience and left themselves less exposed thereby reducing the potential for extended upward pressure,” Meckler added.
As Breitbart News reported, GameStop shares skyrocketed up more than 70 percent on Monday after Keith Gill, the man behind the YouTube Channel, Roaring Kitty, who spearheaded the 2021 day trader campaign against institutional investors betting on GameStop’s demise and led to the rise of meme stocks, took to his X/Twitter account on Sunday night to post for the first time since June 2021.
On Sunday night, Gill posted a photo of a man leaning forward in his gaming chair — a popular meme suggesting a gamer is reengaging or focusing on a subject — without providing any additional context.
— Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty) May 13, 2024
Since then, both GameStop and AMC’s shares have dropped immensely.
Vanda Research, which follows retail investor flows, reportedly noted that institutional investors were also involved in the meme-stock hype — which didn’t happen in 2021.
Short sellers, those who bet on a stock’s drop, experienced unrealized losses worth $1.14 billion this week, according to the analytics firm Ortex Technologies. The hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, meanwhile, had bet that GameStop shares would rise higher.
Overall, GameStop stock has fallen more than 70 percent from its 2021 all-time high, while AMC fell 99 percent from its peak day, Reuters noted.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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