Top trending meme stocks to watch
Here's everything you need to know about meme stocks in 2024, including 10 of the highest trending shares.
What is a meme stock?
A meme stock is a publicly listed company from any sector which gains traction due to an increased interest amongst retail traders on popular social media platforms like Reddit. These online communities partake in in-depth discussions speculating on the price performance of particular stocks.
Despite the often-flawed analysis involved in these discussions, because of the high volume of participants, these forums have been known to influence the markets in unexpected ways. A key component of discussions includes famous imagery or video, overlayed with humorous wordplay.
The most famous example came in early 2021 when a short squeeze coordinated by users on the Reddit sub-forum r/wallstreetbets caused GameStop’s share price to skyrocket.
The future of meme stocks
After the furore of the first half of 2021, the extreme volatility associated with key stocks including GameStop and AMC subsided significantly. As with all volatility events, some traders made fortunes, while others got seriously burnt.
Over the past three years, most meme stocks have seen their share prices stabilise at values far below their peak and much more closely aligned with their fundamentals. However, Pandora’s Box has been permanently opened — the pandemic, which saw millions of people stay at home, created the perfect environment to open up the stock market world to more investors.
Forums such as r/wallstreetbets now boasts 16 million members (though far fewer are active), and many retail investors are still turning to social media to inform their investment decisions.
Over the past couple of years, users have become more fragmented across different platforms as other social media sites such as Telegram and Twitter have become more involved in the investment space. New websites have also emerged that enable users to monitor activity on social media without having to access the site.
Of course, much of the information shared on social media is of fairly poor quality. But for balance, investors can now receive live information from famous accounts or bounce ideas off each other in a way that had not really existed before 2021.
With the return to social media of Keith Gill, the man behind the original GameStop movement, the original meme stocks have once again roared into fashion — leaving traders and investors with ultra-high risk, high reward opportunities.
Why trade meme stocks?
Meme stocks can be volatile, creating huge trading opportunities for retail investors as if timed right, there is the potential to generate a significant profit in a short time-period.
These price fluctuations however, involve high risk and it’s possible you could lose money faster than expected.
Best meme stocks: top trending shares on Reddit
The following ten tickers are some of the top trending shares on Reddit, cross-referenced through YOLO Stocks, Meme Tracker, and Quiver. Note these may not be the best investments, and each data provider calculates trending shares using different methods.
AMC Entertainment
AMC Entertainment Holdings is an American movie theatre chain which is by some distance the largest in the world, and holds the largest market share in the US ahead of Regal and Cinemark.
In Q1 2024 results, revenue was broadly flat at $951.4 million, though the net loss improved to $163.5 million compared to the loss of $235.5 million in Q1 2023.
AMC has in the past diluted shareholders when it spikes in order to take advantage of the financial optionality created by meme volatility.
GameStop
The original meme stock, GameStop is one of the world’s largest video game retailers, selling video games, gaming consoles, accessories and collectible merchandise.
The stock was heavily shorted back in early 2021, which created the conditions for a short squeeze when retail investors piled into the stock, forcing institutions to buy back shares at a premium. It’s worth noting that this particular squeeze, at this time, was perhaps a unique event.
Q4 2023 net sales fell to $1.8 billion compared to $2.2 billion in Q4 2022, though the company held $1.2 billion in cash and equivalents at the end of last year.
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is well-known as once being a leading smartphone manufacturer with models sporting physical keyboards and secure communication. Having been eclipsed by the likes of Apple’s iPhone and Samsung, it has successfully transitioned into a software and services provider focused on cybersecurity and the Internet of Things.
In particular, BlackBerry tech is commonly used by companies and governments to protect their systems from hacking.
In Q4 results, the company delivered record year-over-year revenue growth for both IoT and Cybersecurity divisions, with a QNX royalty backlog of $815 million. IoT revenue rose by 25% year-over-year to $66 million on a gross margin of 85%.
S&P 500
The S&P 500 is not a stock — it’s the most popular index in the world, tracking the 500 largest companies listed in the United States by market capitalisation.
It’s perhaps not fair to lump the S&P 500 in with meme companies as investing in the index has always been one of the more popular choices. However, significant volatility among the meme stocks can spark some volatility in the index, and it remains one of the more popular choices on social media, perhaps for the ease of options access.
Nvidia
Semiconductor giant Nvidia reports earnings next week, and all eyes are on the stock as the bellwether for the AI-fuelled surge in tech stocks.
Nvidia CEO and founder Jensen Huang recently enthused that ‘accelerated computing and generative AI have hit the tipping point. Demand is surging worldwide across companies, industries and nations…NVIDIA RTX, introduced less than six years ago, is now a massive PC platform for generative AI, enjoyed by 100 million gamers and creators.’
Having enjoyed massive growth over the past few years, expectations appear to be high.
Tesla
Tesla is the original electric vehicle (EV) trailblazer, and at times has been ‘worth’ more than every other car manufacturer in the world combined. For context, the stock was worth more than $400 three years ago, has fallen to less than $200 today — and is up more than 1,100% over the past five years.
After a poor start to the year, including job cuts, production falls, and weakening profit, the company has announced it will be releasing new models sooner than expected which could boost the bottom line.
Carvana
Carvana is an online-only retailer which buys and sells used cars, allowing you complete a sale from home rather than the traditional model of going to a garage. They offer financing to buyers and are well known for their car vending machines — multi-story towers where you pick up your new car after buying it online.
Despite huge volatility, Q1 2024 saw Carvana generate record net income of $49 million, record adjusted EBITDA of $235 million, and a record adjusted EBITDA Margin of 7.7%, higher than all other US publicly traded auto retailers.
Super Micro Computer
Super Micro Computer is one of the most important companies in the world of high-performance computing. It manufacturers high-performance servers used in cloud computing, data centres, artificial intelligence applications, and big data analysis — and importantly, the company’s designs are modular so can be adapted to client needs.
Super Micro also offers data storage solutions and server management software.
In April, President and CEO Charles Liang enthused that ‘We had yet another record quarter with fiscal Q3 revenue of $3.85 billion with non-GAAP EPS of $6.65 per share. This year-over-year revenue growth of 200% and year-over-year non-GAAP EPS growth of 308% was well above our industry peers.’
PayPal
PayPal offers an online wallet solution what allows you to make and receive payments from companies and individuals without having to share your financial information, which adds a layer of security to the process.
It works as a middleman, allowing you to link your bank details to your PayPal account, which makes spending and receiving money significantly easier than having to type in card details every time.
Despite fierce competition in the space, Q1 saw PayPal’s net revenues rise by 9% year-over-year to $7.7 billion, while GAAP operating income increased by 17% to $1.2 billion.
Intel
Intel is another semiconductor titan, manufacturing chips for clients all over the world. It’s particularly famous for its CPUs, which are referred to as the brains of computers — though also manufactures and sells other components including chipsets, memory cards and graphics cards.
While Intel has perhaps weak forecasted earnings for the near term, Q1 2024 revenue still rose by 9% year-over-year to $12.7 billion. CEO Pat Gelsinger noted that over the longer term, ‘We are one of two, maybe three, companies in the world that can continue to enable next-generation chip technologies.’
How to trade meme stocks
- Research the market and decide which stock you want to take a position on
- Open a CFD account
- Open a position
With us, you would trade shares with derivatives opening a CFD trading account. This enables you to take advantage of rising and falling markets by going long or short.
You can also trade with leverage, where your trade size is larger than your initial margin so you could gain or lose money faster than expected. Because of this, it’s important to manage your risk at all times.
This information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Markets Limited. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. Although we are not specifically constrained from dealing ahead of our recommendations we do not seek to take advantage of them before they are provided to our clients.
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