meme stock

noun

plural meme stocks

: a stock (see stock entry 1 sense 2a) that experiences a temporary sudden surge in popularity and price due to a coordinated effort (such as a viral social media campaign) by small investors

… 'meme stock' refers to a stock that attains viral attention on social media platforms, but predominately Reddit.—

Andrew Rocco

The theory was that if enough small investors got in the game and drove the stock higher, it would force large hedge funds with short positions (bets that the stock would fall), to capitulate and sell those positions at a massive loss. … that dynamic appears to be driving the stocks of GameStop, AMC, and other so-called meme stocks.—

Michelle Chapman

Price spikes in several meme stocks appear to be linked to the amount of talk about them on r/WallStreetBets, a forum on Reddit, a discussion website whose users are known for mischief-making. From this comes the name: an internet meme being an idea or behaviour, usually a humorous one, spread via social media.—

The Economist

—often hyphenated before another noun

meme-stock investors

the meme-stock craze

Examples of meme stock in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web People have compared it to a meme stock, but even meme stocks had this run that lasted months backed by the people or whatever. —

Andy Mills, Quartz, 16 Apr. 2024 Trump Media has become a meme stock, where the stock price is governed more by vibes than traditional financial performance. —

William Turton, WIRED, 15 Apr. 2024 But in other ways, Trump Media isn’t acting like a meme stock at all. —

Laurent Belsie, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 Apr. 2024 Trading has embodied the same kind of frenzy shown in Tupperware’s stock surge last July, or that of meme stocks AMC Entertainment and GameStop during the height of the pandemic. —

Krystal Hur, CNN, 22 Mar. 2024 This impacted not just speculative assets such as crypto and meme stocks but also safer assets such as government bonds, which had investors doing U-turns after having turned their back on the traditionally reliable asset. —

Byeleanor Pringle, Fortune, 28 Nov. 2023 The shares have become an expensive way for speculators to treat the stock market as a casino, raising memories of 2021’s meme stock mania. —

Bailey Lipschultz, Fortune, 13 Apr. 2024 The figures underscore why some experts warn Trump Media’s multibillion-dollar valuation defies logic and is reminiscent of the meme stock craze. —

Nicole Goodkind, CNN, 2 Apr. 2024 Oliver argued that is basically a meme stock now, with its price rising based on the same principle behind meme stocks like GameStop or AMC Theatres. —

Kimberly Nordyke, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'meme stock.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.