VinFast’s 504% Rally Burns Traders Playing Greater Fool Theory
- Vietnamese EV maker was briefly worth more than McDonald’s
- Tiny-float firms draw traders looking to steer stock direction
VinFast LLC's EV VF8 vehicles bound for shipment at the port in Haiphong, Vietnam.
Photographer: Linh Pham/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Eleven interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve have done little to break the gambling fever gripping the US stock market.
In episodes strikingly similar to those in the wildest moments of the early pandemic — think GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. — investors are frantically bidding up obscure stocks only to then watch them crash spectacularly. The very latest example: VinFast Auto Ltd, an unprofitable electric-vehicle maker that at the zenith of a four-week trading frenzy had a market value greater than McDonald’s Corp. and four times that of General Motors Co. The stock has sunk roughly 80% in the eight days since.