Reddit’s Rocket-Ship Stock Picks Like GameStop Blast Off Again

(Bloomberg) -- Trading in the stock market used to require a mastery of all sorts of Wall Street jargon. These days you also need to be fluent in emoji: If a post on a Reddit Wall Street message board contains icons of rocket ships pointing upward, you best pay attention.

Some of Reddit’s favorite rockets are soaring again on Monday in premarket trading. Video-game retailer GameStop Corp., already sitting on a tidy 245% year-to-date gain, is up another 50%. Express Inc., who some on Reddit have speculated will be the next GameStop, is up more than 100%. BlackBerry Ltd. is tacking on another 40% after more than doubling in 2021.

All told, more than 60 stocks of at least $50 million in market capitalization are at least 10% higher in premarket trading about half an hour before the official open of exchanges -- even as futures on the S&P 500 index are trading relatively flat. Not all are the type of heavily shorted names favored by the often-profane, meme-loving traders on Reddit. Yet many highlight the phenomenon that it is the trading of crowds -- regardless of how much collective conventional wisdom is involved -- that has become one of the most dominant forces in the stock market.

As the Reddit user with the screen name Hagizzo concluded this morning in a post touting GameStop: “F--- the shorts, f-- fundamentals. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Also: “And for the boomers and the S.E.C., this is not financial advise (sic).”