Meme Stocks Regain Attention... Seohak Gaemi Trades 300 Billion KRW in BBBY and AMC in August

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] As stock prices recently fluctuated, domestic investors actively traded the 'meme stocks' Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) and AMC in the U.S. stock market.

According to the Korea Securities Depository's securities information portal on the 21st, from the 1st to the 19th of this month, domestic investors' AMC purchase settlement amount was $81.16 million, and the sale settlement amount was $71.83 million. The total trading amount combining purchases and sales was $152.99 million (approximately 202.9 billion KRW).

During the same period, BBBY traded a total of $77.98 million (103.4 billion KRW), combining purchase ($42.12 million) and sale ($35.86 million) settlement amounts.

The combined trading amount of AMC and BBBY totaled $230.97 million (approximately 306.2 billion KRW). The net purchase amount, calculated by subtracting sales from purchases, was $9.33 million (approximately 1.24 billion KRW) for AMC and $6.25 million (approximately 770 million KRW) for BBBY. BBBY is a lifestyle goods company dealing in bedding, kitchenware, and interior accessories, while AMC is a movie theater chain company.

Among individual overseas stocks excluding exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) this month, only Intel ($24.71 million, approximately 3.28 billion KRW) had a larger net purchase amount than AMC.

Meme stocks refer to stocks that attract buying interest from individual investors through online word-of-mouth. They gained attention starting with the GameStop incident early last year, which was driven by a campaign against short selling, and have recently seen a resurgence in the U.S. stock market. Korean individual investors also participated in the short-selling battle of U.S. retail investors by purchasing GameStop and other meme stocks during the GameStop incident.

However, after the recent rise in meme stock prices, a sharp decline has caused many investors who bought at the peak to face inevitable losses. BBBY's stock price jumped from $5.03 at the end of last year to an intraday high of $30.00 on the 17th. This represents a rise of 496.42% during this period. On the 5th and 8th of this month, the stock surged by 32.68% and 39.83%, respectively, marking two consecutive trading days with daily price increases in the 30% range.

The rise was driven by news that activist investor Ryan Cohen, chairman of GameStop, had purchased a large number of call options betting on BBBY's stock price increase. However, the stock price quickly plummeted following news that Cohen sold his entire 11.8% stake in BBBY. The stock fell 19.63% on the 18th and closed down 40.54% on the 19th.

AMC, which has a high short-selling ratio, has been grouped with meme stocks since the GameStop incident. The recent surge began after AMC announced on the 4th that it would issue preferred shares under the ticker 'APE' and distribute them as dividends to all common shareholders. The term ape, meaning a primate or monkey, is a nickname used by U.S. meme stock investors to refer to themselves and is similar in concept to Korean retail investors (ant investors).

AMC's stock price rose from $14.56 at the end of last year to an intraday high of $27.50 on the 8th but has since declined to close at $18.02 on the 19th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.