Ultimate Meme Stocks List Revealed: Top WallStreetBets Picks to Watch

Each viral post fuels buying pressure, creating a feedback loop between crowd-driven market behavior and price action. A single post or viral video can spark mass enthusiasm, triggering a social media stock surge that sends prices soaring within hours. In this environment, attention, not analysis, has become the new currency.

Is Tesla a meme stock?

• Each viral post fuels buying pressure, creating a feedback loop between crowd-driven market behavior and price action.
• Both sides face uncertainty and rapid reversals typical of meme stock volatility.
• Retail investors share memes, screenshots, and strategies, creating waves of stock market buzz trends that amplify buying pressure and visibility.

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. 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. 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. In Accumulation distribution indicator 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%.

Short selling happens when traders sell borrowed shares, expecting the price to fall so they can buy them back cheaper. If the price rises instead, short sellers lose money and may need to close positions. Covering these shorts adds buying pressure and pushes prices up even more. This panic buying pushes prices even higher, feeding the volatility-driven investing cycle typical of meme stocks. Retail investors share memes, screenshots, and strategies, creating waves of stock market buzz trends that amplify buying pressure and visibility. 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.

With us, you would trade shares with derivatives opening a CFD trading account. 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. The meme stock revolution democratized market participation and proved that coordinated retail investors can move mountains.

It does not imply an obligation to purchase investment services, nor does it guarantee or predict future performance. This disconnect is what causes stock prices to deviate from fundamentals, a core risk every trader must understand. Not everything about meme stocks is negative, there’s a reason investors are drawn to them. AMC Entertainment soon followed, fueled by the same crowd-driven behavior. Other names like Bed Bath & Beyond, BlackBerry, and Nokia briefly joined the movement, showing how quickly viral stocks could rise and fade. A short squeeze happens when many traders bet a stock will fall and are forced to buy it back as the price climbs.

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.

How to trade

Professional traders learned the hard way that ignoring retail coordination was expensive. Now they’re part of the ecosystem, sometimes riding the waves and sometimes betting against them. The SEC even introduced new regulations requiring monthly short-position reporting, though implementation won’t hit until 2026. We’re going to cut through the Reddit echo chamber and show you which meme stocks still deserve your attention—and your capital.

That could mean the latest surge in stocks such GameStop and AMC could be shorter and reach less dramatic heights than in 2021. Many meme stocks belong to companies with weak performance or uncertain outlooks. When retail investors coordinate through social media, they can create sudden demand that forces short sellers to buy back shares, causing a short squeeze. This dynamic has made meme stock rallies shorter, sharper, and more prone to violent reversals.

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. The stock moves entirely on Trump-related news cycles and political developments, creating volatility that options traders dream about and long-term investors avoid. DJT has a clean balance sheet with $344 million in cash and no debt, but that financial stability feels meaningless when the business model remains undefined. Any major Trump announcement, legal development, or electoral outcome can send shares up or down 50% in a single session.

Diversification and Risk Control

Once-beloved names like Bed Bath & Beyond, which previously restructured, lacked the liquidity or retail momentum to stage a real comeback. Some penny stocks saw rapid spikes followed by complete collapses, leaving late entrants holding the bag. Keep core investments grounded in stable assets and treat these trades as short-term experiments. Meme stocks often trade far above fair value.When sentiment shifts, they return to fundamental levels abruptly, catching late buyers off guard. This dynamic mirrors how a stock market bubble forms, when prices drift too far from reality before correcting sharply. While most meme rallies start with a short squeeze, some evolve into a gamma squeeze, where options activity accelerates buying pressure.

Reading Social Sentiment

Meme stocks exist because the market has become as social as it is financial. Platforms like Reddit, TikTok, and X turned investing into a viral investing trend, where community excitement can move prices faster than news or data. This shift explains what causes stock prices to deviate from fundamentals. When collective sentiment takes over, logic often loses excitement. Meme stocks can skyrocket for weeks, only to crash once the online buzz fades, a clear example of emotion overpowering evaluation.

More From the Los Angeles Times

We track and analyze social media discussions and market trends to highlight the meme stocks gaining the most attention in online communities. By tracking data such as WallStreetBets mentions and trading activity, we identify stocks experiencing significant shifts in discussions. Our list of top meme stocks is updated every five minutes, showcasing the most talked-about stocks from the past 24 hours to keep you informed. For longer-term investors, meme stocks may be best left out of core portfolios.

Meme Stocks vs Traditional Stocks

A meme stock is a publicly traded company whose price rises sharply because of social media buzz rather than traditional fundamentals. In this guide, we’ll break down how meme stocks work, what drives their wild swings, and what every trader should know before joining the next viral investing trend. There’s just too much uninformed, misinformed and self-interested commentary washing about in the investment sphere, too easily accessed by unwary and novice investors.

• Believing they could drive the value of the stocks higher by squeezing those short positions, Gill outlined a path in an August 2020 YouTube video that could send GameStop shares from $5 each to $50 or above.
• Our list is updated every five minutes, ensuring that you have access to the most current information.
• What begins as a joke or protest can evolve into a full-scale social media stock surge, turning obscure tickers into trending topics.
• Did you know that stocks mentioned positively on WallStreetBets see an average 5% bump in the following 48 hours?

The louder the stock market buzz trend, the closer the cycle may be to peaking. 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. Small investors would be well advised to keep in mind that the meme market could be the very definition of a risky place to trade. Meme investors tend to crowd into a stock after it has already begun its rapid march upward — and sometimes when that trend is about to reverse. Meme-stock buying is often triggered or sustained by a nugget of bull-market sentiment.

Tesla maintains its $775.7 billion market cap with $15 billion in annual profits, while GameStop and AMC both post negative earnings and fight to stay relevant. The party isn’t over, but the hangover has been real for anyone who bought at the top. Some of the more popular meme stocks, such as GameStop, continue to enjoy higher stock prices than before the short squeezes in 2021. Others, such as AMC, are now even lower than their pre-pandemic values. To stay updated, follow financial news outlets, watch stock market trends, monitor social media platforms and forums where meme stocks are discussed, and sign-up to monitor and receive alerts on meme stocks.

Hedge funds holding large short positions had to buy at any price, triggering a runaway rally. The information in this site does not contain (and should not be construed as containing) investment advice or an investment recommendation, or an offer of or solicitation for transaction in any financial instrument. 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. Despite huge volatility, Q 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. 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. 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.

Meme stocks are no longer just lottery tickets—they’re becoming speculative vehicles with tactical nuance. 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. Meme stocks are often driven by retail investors organizing online, aiming to drive up stock prices to counter institutional short-sellers or simply riding the momentum for potential gains. They are popularized through viral internet content, creating a feedback loop of interest and investment. A meme stock refers to a publicly traded company’s stock that sees a rapid increase in volume and price driven by social media hype and not necessarily by the company’s fundamental value or financial performance.