Then in early August, it saw an uptick, and a Redditor named TheDude0007 posted about making a risky $45,000 investment in the company. The stock saw a brief spike in March, and then about five months of steady decline. Ever since then, Bed Bath & Beyond stock has been in a tug of war between meme-fueled exuberance and traditionalist pessimism. Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock tumbled 22.8 in morning trading Thursday, putting them in danger of snapping a six-day win streak, and to suffer only the second loss in 17 sessions. Naturally, r/wallstreetbets took notice, with one post praising Cohen as " the meme king," and saying "Ryan Cohen will never be matched," earning 10,423 Reddit karma points.
Meanwhile, small-fish investors who YOLO their life savings into stocks they read about on Reddit often simply lose their life savings.Īt the start of March, The Wall Street Journal reported that billionaire and GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen had written a letter disparaging Bed Bath & Beyond’s operational plan, and in the process, announced that he owned 9.8 percent of the company. In reality, stodgy bean counters like the folks at Senvest Management, which made about $700 million from the Gamestop Reddit phenomenon, are often the ones who make the most money from meme stocks. The meme stock phenomenon goes a little something like this: Users of retail investing apps and services like Robinhood read slur-laced stock "tips" on the internet, and then drive up stock prices, ostensibly in opposition to the stodgy bean counters in the traditional investment world. Reddit traders push GameStop stock to towering heights while pros look in disbelief