The retail trader is back led by the meme gang, and these are their favorite stocks
Retail traders are back in full force. Data compiled by Vanda Research show retail traders have purchased an average of $1.36 billion per day in U.S. securities over the past week. The firm pointed out that a lot of that money went into exchange-traded funds, but noted that the WallStreetBets crowd has also “ramped up” its participation, as these Reddit users piled into out-of-the-money call options and cash buying of meme stocks. That isn’t more evident than in the recent surge in meme stock Bed Bath & Beyond , which ended Tuesday up nearly 300% for the month. Other classic meme names such as AMC and GameStop are also up sharply for August. “The WSB community has also continued to ramp up their participation … further supporting the current upward trend in US equities,” Vanda Research analyst Lucas Mantle wrote in a note. Vanda noted that retail trading volume in Bed Bath & Beyond over the past five days is up 350% from the past month. Disney, Trade Desk and Rivian have also seen retail volumes more than double in that time, along with AMC , Plug Power , Roblox , DraftKings , and Affirm . However, Bed Bath & Beyond is the “king.” “The hand of retail investors is visible once again as both cash purchases and call option volumes have increased more than 70x from their all-time average,” Mantle said. “Before the latest surge, about 35% of BBBY shares outstanding were held short, making the stock a prime squeeze candidate.” Bed Bath & Beyond also saw some of the biggest retail inflows in the past week, with traders buying $136.13 million worth of the stock in the past five days. Tesla topped Vanda’s inflows list, with net purchases coming in at $568.92 million over the past five trading days. Other names that have seen big retail inflows include AMD, Apple, Amazon and Nvidia.