Your Evening Briefing: Meme Stock Mania Is Back for the Bear Market

Here we go again. Bed Bath & Beyond’s spectacular rally is drawing in record cash from retail investors as they talk up bets on social media and in trader chatrooms. The Wall Street at-home team have bought an all-time high of $73.2 million of the stock on Tuesday, bringing their total net purchases in three weeks to $171.4 million. What’s more, the most actively traded derivative for the stock is betting on it to soar another 50%, up to $45, by the end of the week. While this latest meme stock rally may gain traction for a while, everyone knows by now how this usually ends. “Meme stocks rallies in a bear market are generally not sustainable,” said Vanda Research Head of Data Giacomo Pierantoni. Retail traders, he said, “can’t cope with additional losses.”

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