Amid a sharp drop in the U.S. stock market this year, so-called “meme stocks” (stocks that attract individual investors online) have fallen sharply.
According to the Wall Street Journal on the 24th (local time), GameStop, a representative meme stocks, fell 5.84% and AMC Entertainment fell 7.40%, respectively.
This was in contrast to the Nasdaq index’s 0.63% rise after plunging nearly 5% during the day.
Meme stocks have been struggling this year, with Game Stop falling 32.5% and AMC 38.8%. Game Stop and AMC jumped 688% and 1,183%, respectively, last year.
Other stocks favored by U.S. individual investors, such as Blackberry and Workhorse Group, have also fallen by 14-36% in a row this year.
The index created by Goldman Sachs by tracking the most frequently mentioned stocks in the Wall Street Betts chat room plunged nearly 50% from its high in November last year.
Stock prices of SPAC merged companies, which received a lot of attention from individual investors, have also weakened recently.
Over the past two years, about half of the companies listed through the SPAC merger have fallen more than 40% from the initial price of $10 at the time of listing.
Among them, WeWork fell 9.83% and Sophie Technology fell 4.25%, respectively.
In particular, the atmosphere of individual investors leaving the stock market on the same day was evident.
According to JP Morgan Chase’s analysis, net sales of stocks thrown away by individual investors by noon amounted to $1.36 billion. Most of them were concentrated within an hour of the start of the market.
Individuals have purchased about $12 billion despite the decline over the past two weeks, but it suddenly changed that day. Some observers say that individual investors may no longer make low-priced purchases.