Although there wasn’t any company-specific news released, GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) closed Monday’s trading session up more than 24% to $189.59. The print marked GME’s 10th consecutive trading day gain, during which it spiked by more than 140%.
The stock’s upside momentum accelerated last week. In fact, shares of GameStop surged as much as 20% on March 23 after billionaire and GameStop Chairman Ryan Cohen disclosed he invested through his investment firm RC Ventures another $10 million in the game seller. The news prompted Reddit’s meme-stock of choice to surge 70% over the following five sessions.
GameStop’s winning streak, brings back memories of the name’s rather incredible January 2021 short squeeze. If you as a retail investor happened to be lucky enough to have been long GME early last year, then you’re probably still reaping the rewards of that epic short covering action that saw the name skyrocket by more than 800%.
The momentum the stock saw at that time was largely due to the fact that so many hedge funds and other institutions had gone short, only to see their positions get margin called as the stock kept surging. It was a wild ride, but if you managed to stay on board, you’re likely sitting pretty right now.
While it is hard to understand why meme-stocks go up or down, especially when you take into account things like options activity, short selling or the complexity of the social-media chatter, the sheer volume of which can be overwhelming, many retail investors seeing GME’s recent price action in tandem with insider buying, are beginning to hope that perhaps another squeeze could be around the corner.
Worth noting is that even though the short squeeze isn’t as pronounced as it was during last year’s price tear, the dynamic shouldn’t be excluded from the stock’s current price action.
In fact, data from Benzinga Pro shows GameStop as currently having a total share float of 46.371 million, of which 12.350 million shares are sold short, representing more than 26% of shares sold short.
Price Action
At last check, GME was changing hands at around $180.50, down 4.8%. Shares of the $15 billion market cap company are up 52% month-over-month, up 22% year-to-date and a whopping 3,000% over the past two years. Ticker’s 52-week range: $344.66 – $77.58.
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