GameStop’s May Meme Revival Saw Dropoff in Retail Participation
(Bloomberg) -- GameStop Corp.’s second turn in the meme spotlight this spring failed to attract the herd of retail traders who made the company a household name in 2021, according to trade data released Monday by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Judging by odd lot volume as a percentage of all volume during the May frenzy, retail participation was roughly half what it was during the original bout in January 2021. Odd lots, or trades of less than 100 shares, can serve as a crude proxy for retail participation since individual investors typically trade smaller quantities, while institutional investors tend to trade in round lots, or orders divisible by 100.
While some institutional orders are broken down into smaller pieces to, for example, minimize market impact or avoid detection by other market participants, odd lots are largely a sign of retail participation. The SEC tracks odd lots and reports volumes every quarter.
The chart below shows how much lower the odd lot volume as a percentage of total volume was for GameStop in 2024, compared with its first craze as well as data for fellow meme-stock AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and more than 4,000 US common stocks combined as tracked by the SEC.
During 2021, GameStop’s odd lot volume percentage peaked at 56% compared with 27% on May 14 of this year. The stock surged when Keith Gill, also known as “Roaring Kitty,” returned to social media posting on X an image of a gamer leaning in without any other context.
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