The meme stock trading frenzy has suddenly sprung back to life, with shares in GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) blasting higher thanks to … well, let's call it speculative enthusiasm on social media.
GameStop rose by nearly three-quarters in a single session after one of the biggest boosters of the first meme-stock frenzy returned to the internet trenches following a multi-year absence. Apparently, a cryptic post on X by Keith Gill, aka "Roaring Kitty," was all it took to once again set off squeezes in some heavily shorted names.
Meme stocks tend to prompt consternation and confusion among normie market participants, but then that's just part of the fun. While it's technically true that meme stocks offer the remote possibility of earning penny-stock-like returns, they mostly seem to function as a source of nihilistic belly laughs for a select community of day traders.
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Either way, it appears the retail raiding hordes are back. They are piling into stocks with high short interest – in other words, companies where many shares are being used to bet against the stock – with the intention of setting off a short squeeze.
A quick primer: hedge funds and other market participants can bet against a stock by "shorting" it. But those bears sometimes get it wrong, and when they do, it can trigger an effect called a "short squeeze."
Stocks with high short interest
You can learn more about how short squeezes work in our explainer, but in brief, it's a phenomenon that occurs when buying pressure in a stock forces shorts to unwind their negative bets – which they can do only by purchasing the stock – fueling a virtuous cycle that sends shares aggressively higher.
To get a sense of where the next short squeeze candidate might come from, we've put together a table of the 15 stocks with the highest short interest by shares outstanding in the broad Russell 3000 Index, according to the latest data available from YCharts.
But first, a caveat: going long on a stock with high short interest thinking you're going to get rich off panic-buying by short sellers is an exceedingly dangerous idea. It's at least as risky as shorting stocks with high short interest in the first place.
When it comes to playing around with high short interest stocks, unless you are uncommonly lucky, let's just say the risks greatly outweigh the rewards.
| Company | Ticker | % of shares outstanding sold short |
|---|---|---|
| Beyond Meat | BYND | 39.1 |
| Biomea Fusion | BMEA | 38.9 |
| Arbor Realty Trust | ABR | 38.5 |
| Cutera | CUTR | 37.6 |
| Medical Properties Trust | MPW | 37.0 |
| Kohl's | KSS | 32.8 |
| Sunnova Energy | NOVA | 32.3 |
| Cassava Sciences | SAVA | 32.1 |
| Novavax | NVAX | 32.0 |
| Altimmune | ALT | 31.5 |
| EVgo | EVGO | 30.2 |
| B. Riley Financial | RILY | 29.9 |
| Trupanion | TRUP | 29.5 |
| iRobot | IRBT | 29.3 |
| Medifast | MED | 28.5 |
Related content
-
A Savings Tool to Empower People With DisabilitiesAn ABLE account can improve quality of life for individuals with a disability — it permits tax-free saving for ongoing expenses without jeopardizing benefits.
-
401(k) Spousal Consent: Lawmakers Reintroduce LegislationThe Women's Retirement Protection Act (WRPA) would prevent spouses from raiding their partners' 401(k) accounts.
-
Social Security Fairness Act: Five Financial Planning Issues to RevisitMore money as a public-sector retiree is great, but there could be unintended consequences with taxes, Medicare and more if you're not careful.
-
Social Security Warning: Five Missteps Too Many Women MakeClaiming Social Security is complicated, and for women the stakes are high. What you don't know can cost you, so make sure you do know these five things.
-
To Buck the Third-Generation Curse, Focus on the Family StoryThe key is to motivate the next generations to contribute to the family business in a productive way. You can look to Lawrence Welk's family as a prime example.
-
Walmart's Transformative Ways Spark a 100,000% Stock ReturnWalmart's strategic store expansion and relentless cost-cutting have catapulted its share price over the years.
-
20 Ways to Clean Up Your Finances This SpringSpring cleaning is therapeutic and stops costly problems from building up around the home. Why not tackle the dusty corners of your finances at the same time?
-
How Roth Accounts Can Ease Your Tax Burden in RetirementStrategic Roth IRA conversions can set you up for tax-free income in retirement and a tax-free inheritance for the people you love.
-
Are You a High Earner But Still Broke? Five Fixes for ThatIf you're a HENRY (a higher earner, not rich yet) but feel like you still live paycheck to paycheck, there are steps you can take to get control of your financial future.
-
Tax Diversification: Smart Ways to Preserve Your Nest EggA long and active retirement may be costly — and may even bump you into a higher tax bracket. Paying some taxes on your savings now could be the answer.
