The stock market can be a cold place. Most people outside of the stock market view trading as gambling, or as something that could only help the rich get richer. When you succeed, “you got lucky”, and when you fail, “well did you know 90% of day traders fail!” (A trope beginning in the 90’s that has been repeatedly disproven).
And if you’re trading meme stocks — forget it. The level of dismissal from people who “know what they’re talking about” is absurd. Hedge fund managers who deploy thousands of analysts just to scrape for 3% year gains will balk at the gains you’ve achieved from holding shares of a company you believe in. That’s how we get articles like this one:
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The writer goes on to reference how other bubbles, like the supposed “bowling stock bubble of the 1960’s,” did lead to good and “help” people…
“The bowling-stock bubble led to more bowling alleys being built across America.”
More bowling alleys? Thank god.
But not the meme stock rally. The article wraps up with this assertion:
“The meme-stock bubble, though, has no real legacy [...] It'd be nice to think that, at the very least, the bubble bursting taught traders not to make reckless gambles on crappy companies, but it didn’t. Look at Bed Bath & Beyond. It may be about to go bankrupt, but its stock? Retail traders taking a wild gamble have driven it up 100% in the past three days. Some people never learn.”
Rather than picking apart the argument on display in this article, we’re going to take the positive route. Here are 8 times that meme stock investors and retail traders used their gains for good or made a lasting impact in someone’s life (even their own).
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Conclusion: Meme Stocks Did Help People, After All
Looking back on the short squeeze trades from yesteryear, it’s clear — doing the right thing just feels good. Meme stocks clearly helped many people to pull themselves and others out of a hard spot — whether we’re talking about a 4-figure donation to a food bank, or a table full of brand new consoles for a children’s hospital, or the largest quantity of individual donations in the Dian Fossey Fund’s history.
After all, many people who traded GME during its heyday weren’t just blindly following trends. They were simply traders who took a calculated risk, and it paid off.
Did you know: Days before GME began its first meteoric rise, Jon Najarian publicly announced that he saw unusual bullish call buying in the stock.
Curious how you can get in on the next short squeeze trade or meme stock miracle before the rest of the market? Check out Unusual Option Activity to get started today.
