Several stocks with high short interest rallied on Monday following an incredible surge in GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) shares. Here's a quick look at what you need to know.
What To Know: The madness in meme stocks on Monday can be traced back to a social media post from Keith Gill, best known as "Roaring Kitty" on YouTube and X or "DeepF***ingValue" on Reddit.
Following three years of silence, Gill took to X over the weekend, posting a meme of a sketched person leaning forward in a chair. GameStop shares more than doubled in Monday's session before pulling back. The stock still closed up nearly 75% for the day.
Several names with high short interest ripped higher in the wake of the GameStop rally.
Yes, a simple meme kicked off a buying frenzy in heavily shorted names.
Some of the biggest movers included retail darlings AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC), Koss Corp (NASDAQ:KOSS), Tupperware Brands Corp (NYSE:TUP), VinFast Auto Ltd (NASDAQ:VFS) and BlackBerry Ltd (NYSE:BB) — the usual suspects.
Other big movers on Monday included Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND), Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG), QuantumScape Corp (NYSE:QS), IRobot Corp (NASDAQ:IRBT) and Newegg Commerce Inc (NASDAQ:NEGG), among others.
Why It Matters: The common thread between these names is that they are all heavily shorted. Retail traders tend to target heavily shorted names in an attempt to induce short squeezes that can spark massive moves higher when short sellers are forced to cover their positions. Check out Benzinga Pro for more information on heavily shorted stocks.
What's Next: If you want to try to get ahead of the next move, there are a couple of places to look, including Benzinga's Stock Whisper Index, which tracks stocks that investors secretly monitor, but are not talking about yet.
You can also use a screener to identify heavily shorted stocks or names with a high cost to borrow. According to Fintel data, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (NASDAQ:DJT) currently has the highest likelihood of experiencing a short squeeze. It's followed closely by ARCA Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:ABIO), Rent The Runway Inc (NASDAQ:RENT), SilverSun Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SSNT) and Mullen Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:MULN).
When sorting the short squeeze leaderboard by short float, SunPower Corp (NASDAQ:SPWR) jumps to the top of the list. Trump Media and ARCA Biopharma are the only names to appear again in the top five, listed second and third, respectively.
It's worth noting that more than 177 million GameStop shares changed hands on Monday versus GameStop's 100-day average of less than 7 million, per Benzinga Pro. The stock is still trending across various social platforms at the time of publication.
Photo: HeungSoon from Pixabay.