Members of the American Reddit Forum, who, with their purchases, dispersed the shares of GameStop by 1900% in January, back in business. Securities of the AMC cinema chain over the past week have risen by 116%, with 12 to 26 $. Friday, 28 May, shares went up to 37 $, and daily trading volume was seven times the monthly average.
According to the analytical company S3 Partners, 20% of all issued AMC shares are held by short sellers. It's a lot, since on average this figure for American companies does not exceed 5%.
High volume of short positions can provoke short squeezes: due to price growth, sellers are forced to close their positions and buy shares, to return them to the broker. Positive feedback is generated, which drives up the price even more..
GameStop and AMC promotions are the most popular, but not the only ones on the list of interests of Reddit visitors. Bank of America spins off high-short stocks, most often mentioned on the forum.
Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) - 3rd most popular on Reddit. The company's shares rose by 29% after successful testing of the SpaceShipTwo space system. In a week Virgin Galactic almost 500 once mentioned on the forum, and 25% its shares are held by sellers.
Another company on the Bank of America list is Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND). The company's shares added over the week 26%, and analysts improved their stock forecasts. Percentage of Short Positions in Beyond Meat — 25%.
A sharp rise in such stocks, like GameStop or AMC, speculative and has nothing to do with improving the financial performance of the business. Vice versa, companies with a large volume of short positions often have problems. So, GameStop's revenue has been falling for many years, AMC has huge debts, and Virgin Galactic and Beyond Meat are loss-making companies in emerging industries.
Companies discussed on Reddit with a high share of short positions
| Ticker | Mentions on Reddit per week | Short float | Available on the St. Petersburg stock exchange | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMC Entertainment | AMC | 4040 | 21% | Not |
| GameStop | GME | 3621 | 21% | Not |
| Virgin Galactic | SPCE | 489 | 25% | Yes |
| Athene Holding | ATH | 169 | 7% | Not |
| Plug Power | PLUG | 122 | 11% | Not |
| Antero Midstream | AM | 84 | 3% | Not |
| Academy Sports and Outdoors | ASO | 73 | 23% | Yes |
| Inovio Pharmaceuticals | INO | 69 | 27% | Not |
| Clean Energy Fuels | CLNE | 50 | 7% | Not |
| Silvergate Capital Corporation | SI | 46 | 6% | Yes |
| BioCryst Pharmaceuticals | BCRX | 31 | 13% | Not |
| American Airlines | AAL | 30 | 13% | Yes |
| Beyond Meat | BYND | 25 | 25% | Yes |
| Gladstone Land | LAND | 27 | 2% | Not |
| born Medical | NTUS | 41 | 4% | Yes |
