Bonds Get a Meme Moment as Reddit Crowd Drifts Over From Stocks
After upending equities and crypto, retail investors who have been burned by other assets are turning to debt.
James McHugh isn’t afraid of a little risk. The trouble this year has been knowing where to find it. Crypto burned him. Meme stocks are stuck in the pits. So McHugh, a 36-year-old who works in Houston’s oil and gas industry, has been getting his fix in a corner of the market retail investors typically overlook — junk debt.
His target is Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., a company the WallStreetBets crowd cornered at the height of last year’s retail mania for stocks. He recently picked up a “gambling amount” of the struggling retailer’s bonds, some maturing as far off as 12 years from now. Those were 17 cents on the dollar. That discount promises a gigantic return — if Bed Bath & Beyond can last until 2034.