Is popcorn driving share prices higher?

it’s been a few weeks since we discussed the rather peculiar world of ‘meme stocks’ and their pumped up valuations caused by retail investors. While I’ve read several articles recently about how the trading game is dying down, and interest from the share buying public has calmed since its lockdown peak, it would seem that companies are now looking to reignite the passion to increase their own stock price.

Currently, there is nothing illegal about doing this. Manipulating the market is illegal, but offering free popcorn to investors of a cinema chain stock is not. This sort of thing has been done in the past on a small scale, but now we have social media with such a large immediate reach to customers, it is easy to see how this will soon escalate. So, will other companies follow suit? It’s hard to believe that they won’t.  

It’s exciting when stocks surge and social media shows an investor who hit the jackpot making millions from buying GameStop; it’s exciting when someone wins the lottery, but you shouldn’t necessarily buy more tickets on the back of it. Contrary to popular belief, companies do actually have values. AMC stock is not worth $60, and eventually, it will come down. Selling frenzies are similar to buying frenzies and you haven’t made a penny until you’ve sold. Everyone gets FOMO (fear of missing out), but if you aren’t controlling the flow of information, you could very easy be part of a bursting bubble so beware. If you do want to ‘play’, make sure it’s money you don’t need back.

For those of you who missed the ‘fun’ this week, this is what happened:

Yesterday, AMC shares closed up 95 per cent at $62 each, after the price surged on the back of a promise to give free popcorn to investors, in the latest example of how the “meme trading” frenzy is rippling across Wall Street. The shares soared as much as 127 per cent to $72.62 each during the day on Wednesday before falling back, causing trading to be halted twice on the New York Stock Exchange.  

They have increased more than 450 per cent in the past month and 3,000 per cent since the start of the year. Other “meme stocks” such as Bed Bath & Beyond and BlackBerry also posted large gains on Wednesday. AMC was the most actively traded stock on US exchanges on the day, according to Bloomberg data tracking companies with market values greater than $500m, while BlackBerry was the third most actively traded.  

The cinema chain’s new Investor Connect programme, which will also offer perks such as invitations to “special screenings”, underscores how the rising power of individual traders is attracting the attention of publicly listed companies and professional Wall Street investors. Retail investors have joined the market in record numbers since after the pandemic struck, with retail trading volumes doubling between 2019 and 2021, from less than 10 per cent to more than 20 per cent, according to data from Piper Sandler.  

Meme stocks were thrust into the spotlight when trading by retail investors soared to record highs in the first two months of this year, fuelled by messaging boards on the social media platform Reddit such as WallStreetBets. AMC has been one of a clutch of key beneficiaries. Amateur traders now make up a key cohort of the chain’s overall shareholder base, owning about 80 per cent of the company. More than 3.2m new individual investors owned stakes in the company by March, AMC said on Wednesday.  

Big investors have also ridden the wave. AMC on Tuesday said it sold 8.5m new shares to the hedge fund Mudrick Capital Management at about $27 each — a big premium to AMC’s $2 share price at the end of last year. Hours later, Mudrick sold the shares after news of the fundraising sent them as high as $33.53. The announcement by America’s largest cinema operator comes at a critical time for the industry, badly hit by the pandemic and banking on incentives as well as a string of summer blockbusters to lure viewers back to theatres.  

It’s hard to believe that Mudrick Capital didn’t have a hand in the idea to give free popcorn to new investors, with the very intention of gaining traction with the Reddit crowd and inflating the price. We wrote an article several months ago saying how we would now see Hedge Funds trying all sorts of ways to use Wall Street Bets influence over mass market purchasing. We referred to it as a modern ‘pump and dump’, and once again, it has worked and technically, nothing illegal was done.

Other listed US companies are also pondering how to best engage with the new generation of retail shareholders and their growing power in the market. Shareholder engagement events such as general meetings moved online during the pandemic, making it simpler for everyday investors to participate and vote.  

General meeting operator Lumi said it had noticed a significant rise in engagement from retail shareholders, both attending general meetings as well as asking questions and participating in voting. This has been amplified by easy-to-use brokerage platforms such as Robinhood that email shareholders to notify them of voting deadlines. “Companies are telling us the demographic of people attending meetings is different. It’s not the tea-and-biscuit crowd,” said Richard Taylor, the chief executive of Lumi. “Once you take away the barriers of who can get there, the demographic of who can attend and ask questions is changing.”

So once again, the world of stocks and investing is being influenced by the participation of individuals wishing to take control of their investments. If you’ve become more aware of the stock market since its increase in popularity, and you’d like to have a bigger say in your own investments, contact TPP. We showcase some of the best traders from around the world and have made them available to ‘Autotrade’.

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