What is meme stock Mania?

Big stock swings have become commonplace again, a phenomenon called meme stock mania. Meme stocks refer to shares of companies whose prices are driven up by an army of investors who group together on platforms like Reddit. Meme stocks have included GameStop, Bed Bath and Beyond and AMC.

What is a meme?

Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines a meme as “a concept, belief, or practice conceived as a unit of cultural information that may be passed on from person to person, subject to influences in a way analogous to natural selection.” Like many words in the English language, the word “meme” has undergone a semantic shift over time.

Will a caveat emptor cause a meme mania to self-correct?

Instead, regulators seem to hope that taking the stance of cautious caveat emptor will eventually cause the meme mania to self-correct, if enough retail investors get their fingers burnt. Maybe it will cool the frenzy: many meme stocks that surged earlier this year have recently underperformed. But the trend seems unlikely to disappear.

What is Mania & why is it a problem?

Mania is a condition in which you have a period of abnormally elevated, extreme changes in your mood or emotions, energy level or activity level. This highly energized level of physical and mental activity and behavior must be a change from your usual self and be noticeable by others. Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center.