, New York City Interest in meme stocks started in 2020, with mass purchases of the stock leading to a
short squeeze on GameStop in early 2021. Interest in meme stocks is associated with the trading platform
Robinhood, which pioneered commission-free trading. According to
The New York Times, "Robinhood was the tool of choice for traders in the original meme stocks". Some meme stocks have often become popular among retail investors after being targeted by
short-selling professional investors, such as
hedge funds, with participants having the explicit aim of causing losses among those firms. The SEC staff report also stated, "some investors that had been invested in the target stocks prior to the market events benefited unexpectedly from the price rises, while others, including quantitative and high-frequency hedge funds, joined the market rally to trade profitably." By June 2021, according to
Financial Times, some hedge funds were systematically analyzing meme stocks. On July 5, 2024
Reddit users speculated that
Keith Gill, who was previously involved in the GameStop meme stock fad, was about to invest in headphone maker
Koss Corporation around July 4 (US Independence Day) after a May post by him in which a microphone
emoji appeared with a US flag on the backdrop. As a result of the speculation, a single Koss share rose to $18.50 before ending at $13.35 in that day's session. == See also ==