Stop kicking yourself for not buying "meme stocks" this year. It was actually a good call with rare exceptions.
Had you put down $10,000 on all 25 stocks in the Roundhill Meme ETF plus Bed Bath & Beyond (which isn't in the ETF), you'd be down nearly 30% now. Why? Big winners like Bed Bath & Beyond are the exceptions, not the rule.
Only four of the 26 meme stocks, or just 15%, are up on the year, says an Investor's Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSmith. The remaining 85% of the stocks are down. And many by a crushing amount. You would have lost more than half your money on most of the stocks.
Putting Memes Into Perspective
What if you'd invested $10,000 evenly across the 26 meme stocks? You likely wouldn't like the result any better.
That initial investment, if made at the start of the year, would be worth just $7,055 or nearly 30% less. That's three-times worse than the 10% drop this year in the much more diversified S&P 500. So, yes, you'd have been better off just buying the S&P 500.
Some of the meme stocks are particularly ugly. The worst of them all is online car seller Carvana. Had you put $10,000 into that stock coming into the year, you would have lost nearly 80% of your money and been left with $2,141. And yes, that's even after a more than doubling of the stock's price since June as part of the meme stock rally.
Another meme disaster is cloud-based lending platform Upstart Holdings. A $10,000 investment in the stock this year is worth nearly $8,000 less now. Adding injury to insult is that Upstart's shares didn't even participate in the meme stock rally since June. Shares are slightly lower since then.
Of course, most investors like to think they'd pick the right meme stocks. But picking them at the right time is equally important.
The Meme Stocks That Actually Paid Off
You've got to hand it to Warren Buffett. He bought big into one of the few meme stocks that actually worked out well this year.
Had you invested $10,000 into energy firm Occidental Petroleum at the start of the year, your stake would be worth $22,380 now, or 124% more. That's the second-best showing of any of the meme stocks. By loading up on shares this year, Berkshire Hathaway is now the company's No. 1 investor with a 20.3% stake in the company. That's an even larger stake than what the No. 1 holder of most companies owns.
So what's the top meme stock this year so far? It's not Bed Bath & Beyond. It's Veru, a company working on a variety of cancer treatments. Your $10,000 plunked down on that stock this year would be worth $31,706 now, or more than 217% more. And if you think meme stocks aren't real unless they lose money, don't worry. After making $7 million in 2021, the company is expected to lose $67 million in 2022.
What about the famous meme stocks?
Bed Bath & Beyond is up nearly 28% this year. That means a $10,000 investment at the start of the year would be worth $12,773 now. But keep in mind most of that is due to a powerful 266% rally since the start of June. And the original meme stock: GameStop? It's up, too. The $10,000 invested in it at the start of the year would be worth marginally more: $10,224. A 2.2% year-to-date gain is fine in a year the S&P 500 is down 10%.
But that's hardly the kind of riches meme stock investors are shooting for.
What $10,000 Invested In All The Meme Stocks Is Worth Now
Nearly all are lower on the year
| Ticker | Name | Stock YTD % ch. | What $10,000 invested in January is worth now | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Veru | 217.1% | $32,706.28 | Consumer Staples | |
| Occidental Petroleum | 123.8 | $22,380.13 | Energy | |
| Bed Bath & Beyond | 27.2 | $12,722.91 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| GameStop | 2.2 | $10,224.41 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| Clover Health Investments | -15.3 | $8,467.74 | Health Care | |
| Rocket Companies | -25.4 | $7,464.29 | Financials | |
| DraftKings | -28.7 | $7,127.78 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| AMC Entertainment Holdings | -29.1 | $7,091.91 | Communication Services | |
| -37.9 | $6,206.33 | Communication Services | ||
| MicroStrategy | -40.4 | $5,957.50 | Information Technology | |
| Tilray Brands | -42.7 | $5,732.57 | Health Care | |
| Robinhood Markets | -42.7 | $5,726.35 | Financials | |
| Palantir Technologies | -49.8 | $5,024.71 | Information Technology | |
| Block | -50.6 | $4,935.92 | Information Technology | |
| Lucid Group | -52.1 | $4,791.06 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| Marathon Digital Holdings | -52.6 | $4,744.37 | Information Technology | |
| DoorDash | -54.2 | $4,578.91 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| Roblox | -56.3 | $4,370.88 | Communication Services | |
| SoFi Technologies | -57.7 | $4,225.17 | Financials | |
| Rivian Automotive | -65.4 | $3,462.24 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| Roku | -65.9 | $3,414.11 | Communication Services | |
| Coinbase Global | -66.9 | $3,307.45 | Financials | |
| Novavax | -74.0 | $2,598.73 | Health Care | |
| Invitae | -72.2 | $2,783.24 | Health Care | |
| Upstart Holdings | -79.4 | $2,057.50 | Financials | |
| Carvana | -78.6 | $2,140.73 | Consumer Discretionary |
