Deja Vu All Over Again: Gamestop Soars Over 300% As ‘Gamma Squeeze’ Returns
February 24, 2021 in News by RBN Staff
Source: Zero Hedge
Update (1620ET): After staging a massive rip in the last few minutes of trading…
GME is now up over 300% on the day…
Melvin Capital right now after reshorting GME last week pic.twitter.com/Oh9u4g23LV
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 24, 2021
As it appears a ‘gamma squeeze’ was manufactured once again as deep OTM Calls (expiring Friday) were heavily bid today…
The huge volume options trades hit around
Which corresponded perfectly with the start of the explosion higher in the stock…
It wasn’t just GME either, AMC is up 40%…
Lifting the entire basket of WSB faves…
How long before Robinhood is taken offline?
And then there was this… right before the “melt-up” from GME’s newest board member (Chewy founder Ryan Cohen)…
— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) February 24, 2021
* * *
The squeeze is back.
About a month after everyone was transfixed by the Gamestop-led short squeeze insanity, which however fizzled in early February when the stock plunged more than 80% from as high as $500 to $40, moments ago GME exploded higher, surging more than 70% in the last half hour of trading on no news, and what appears to be yet another attempt to spark a short squeeze…
… which however will be difficult with just 32.8% of the float now short, a drop of roughly 100% from a month ago.
Squeeze or not, after GME was reopened for trading following a brief halt, the stock exploded even higher, and was halted for a second time when it was up 100%, trading just above $91.
Without a clear buying catalyst, many speculated that the source of the move is likely to be found on the Wall Street Bets message board, and sure enough, after a week when Palantir was all the “incels” could talk about, according to Swaggy Stocks, AMC and GME were once again the two stocks with the top comment volume and positive sentiment on WSB.
Bloomberg chimed in, noting that retail traders took to Reddit “to discuss the stock following news of the upcoming departure of Chief Financial Officer Jim Bell” resulting in GME’s biggest intraday jump in nearly three weeks
Reddit-fueled traders cheered each other on to buy more shares into the market close after news of Bell’s planned departure
The stock had been focus of a House hearing on retail trading
Elsewhere, Jefferies analyst Stephanie Wissink wrote that the move follows the natural progression of RC Ventures’ activist agenda. That agenda pushes for a faster timeline, with many strategies to boost the company already underway.