Stocks of U.S.-headquartered movie theatre operator AMC Entertainment Holdings started to rise sharply on January 26, 2021, rising fourfold compared to the previous day. Their stock price then fell by over 50 percent by the close of trading on January 17, only to climb another 50 percent to reach 13.26 U.S. dollars per share at the close of trading on January 29, 2020. As professional investors moved away from AMC the stock price began to fall again, stabilizing in mid-February. Since then stock prices rose again in late May with the reopening of cinemas in many parts of the U.S, reaching a peak of 62.55 U.S. dollars per share at the close of trade on June 2, 2021. Since then stock prices have fallen back, sitting at 3.21 U.S. dollars at the close of trade on January 29, 2025.The primary cause of this dramatic fluctuation is a concerted social media campaign, notably on Reddit, for individual investors to purchase the company's stock. This campaign was partly motivated by the nostalgic value of the struggling cinema operator to many people, and partly to cause losses for professional investors intending to 'short sell' AMC stock. In this sense the situation is similar to the dramatic rise in the price of GameStop shares which occurred at the same time.

Stocks of video game retailer GameStop exploded in January 2021, effectively doubling in value on a daily basis. At the close of trading on January 27, GameStop Corporation's stock price reaching 86.88 U.S. dollars per share - or +134 percent compared to the day before. On December 30, 2020, the price was valued at 4.82 U.S. dollars per share. The cause of this dramatic increase is a concerted effort via social media to raise the value of the company's stock, intended to negatively affect professional investors planning to ‘short sell’ GameStop shares. As professional investors started moving away from GameStop the stock price began to fall, stabilizing at around 11-13 U.S. dollars in mid-February. However, stock prices unexpectedly doubled again on February 24, and continued to rise, reaching 66.25 U.S. dollars at the close of trade on March 10. The reasons for this second increase are not fully clear. At the close of trade on January 29, 2025, GameStop shares were trading at nearly 27.5 U.S. dollars. Who are GameStop? GameStop are a retailer of video games and associated merchandise headquartered in a suburbs of Dallas, Texas, but with stores throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. As of February 2020 the group maintained just over 5,500 stores, variously under the GameStop, EB Games, ThinkGeek, and Micromania-Zing brands. The company's main revenue source in 2020 was hardware and accessories - a change from 2019, when software sales were the main source of revenue. While the company saw success in the decade up to 2016 (owing to the constant growth of the video game industry), GameStop experienced declining sales since because consumers increasingly purchased video games digitally. It is this continual decline, combined with the effect of the global coronavirus pandemic on traditional retail outlets, that led many institutional investors to see GameStop as a good opportunity for short selling. What is short selling? Short selling is where an investor effectively bets on a the price of a financial asset falling. To do this, an investor borrows shares (or some other asset) via an agreement that the same number of shares be returned at a future date. They can then sell the borrowed shares, and purchase the same number back once the price has fallen to make a profit. Obviously, this strategy only works when the share price does fall – otherwise the borrowed stocks need to be repurchased at a higher price, causing a loss. In the case of GameStop, a deliberate campaign was arranged via social media (particularly Reddit) for individuals to purchase GameStop shares, thus driving the price higher. As a result, some estimates place the loss to institutional investors in January 2021 alone at around 20 billion U.S. dollars. However, once many of these investors had 'closed out' their position by returning the shares they borrowed, demand for GameStop stock fell, leading to the price reduction seen early in early February. A similar dynamic was seen at the same time with the share price of U.S. cinema operator AMC.

As of June 17, 2024, the most shorted stock was for, the American holographic technology services provider, MicroCloud Hologram Inc., with 66.64 percent of their total float having been shorted. This is a change from mid-January 2021, when video game retailed GameStop had an incredible 121.07 percent of their available shares in a short position. In effect this means that investors had 'borrowed' more shares (with a future promise to return them) than the total number of shares available for public trading. Owing to this behavior of professional investors, retail investors enacted a campaign to drive up the stock price of Gamestop, leading to losses of billions when investors had to repurchase the stock they had borrowed. At this time, a similar – but less effective – social media campaign was also carried out for the stock price of cinema operator AMC, and the price of silver. What is short selling? Short selling is essentially where an investor bets on a share price falling by: borrowing a number of shares selling these shares while the price is still high; purchasing the same number again once the price falls; then returning the borrowed shares at a profit. Of course, a profit will only be made if the share price does fall; should the share price rise the investor will then need to purchase the shares back at a higher price, and thus incur a loss. Short selling can lead to some very large profits in a short amount of time, with Tesla stock generating over one billion dollars in short sell profits during the first week of March 2020 alone, owing to the financial crash caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, owing to the short-term, opportunistic nature of short selling, these returns look less impressive when considered as net profits from short sell positions over the full year. The risks of short selling Short selling carries greater risks than traditional investments, and for this reason financial advisors often recommend against this strategy for ‘retail’ (i.e. non-professional) investors. The reason for this is that losses from short selling are potentially uncapped, whereas losses from traditional investments are limited to the initial cost. For example, if someone purchases 100 dollars of shares, the maximum they can lose is the 100 dollars the spent on those shares. However, say someone borrows 100 dollars of shares instead, betting on the price falling. If these shares are then sold for 100 dollars but the price subsequently rises, the losses could greatly exceed the initial investment should the price rise to, say, 500 dollars. The risks of short selling can be seen by looking again at Tesla, with the company causing the greatest losses over 2020 from short selling at over 40 billion U.S. dollars.

Based on monthly downloads, Robinhood is by far the most popular eTrading app in the United States. In every month since January 2017, Robinhood has seen more downloads than any of its main competitors. Downloads of the app spiked in early 2021, amounting over ************* downloads per month in January, February, April and May of 2021 - although it should be noted that an increase was seen around this time for all eTrading apps. The timing of this spike in popularity is likely influenced by the media attention paid to retail investors, generally using eTrading apps, coordinating their activity via social media to drive up the stock price of companies such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment.

Since late 2020, eToro has been the most popular eTrading app in the United Kingdom based on monthly downloads. Prior to this, the contract for difference (CFD) trading app Plus500 was consistently more popular, however eToro downloads spiked in early 2021, amounting over ******* downloads per month in January, February, April and May of 2021. The timing of this spike in popularity is likely influenced by the media attention paid to retail investors, generally using eTrading apps, coordinating their activity via social media to drive up the stock price of companies such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment.

Based on monthly downloads, Robinhood is by far the most popular eTrading app in the world. Downloads of the app spiked in early 2021, amounting over ************* downloads per month in January, February, April and May of 2021. For comparison, none of the other apps considered here recorded over *********** downloads in any month from 2017 to 2021. The timing of this spike in popularity is likely influenced by the media attention paid to retail investors, generally using eTrading apps, coordinating their activity via social media to drive up the stock price of companies such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment.

Based on monthly active users, Robinhood is by far the most popular eTrading app in the United States. As of July 2021, there were over *** million Robinhood users - more than ***** times the users of ************* WeBull. User numbers spiked in early 2021, reaching a peak of over **** million in May 2021. The timing of this spike in popularity is likely influenced by the media attention paid to retail investors, generally using eTrading apps, coordinating their activity via social media to drive up the stock price of companies such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment.

The price of an ounce of silver increased sharply in 2021, rising around 17 percent from January 28 to February 1. The cause of this increase is attributed to retail investors mobilized via social media with the intention of causing losses to professional investors, similar to the rise in the stock price of video game retailer GameStop, and the stock price of cinema operator AMC several days beforehand. As of midnight July 18, 2023, the price of silver was trading at 24.9 U.S. dollars per troy ounce.

Based on monthly active users, Robinhood is by far the most popular eTrading app in the world. As of July 2021, there were over *** million Robinhood users - over double the users of second-placed WeBull. User numbers spiked in early 2021, reaching a peak of over **** million in May 2021. The timing of this spike in popularity is likely influenced by the media attention paid to retail investors, generally using eTrading apps, coordinating their activity via social media to drive up the stock price of companies such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment.