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The simplest way to describe the experience of becoming a parent is that things are always happening.
That's what the stock market is in right now, and that's what will always define it.
The latest round of frenzy for GameStop (GME) revved up late Sunday after an account believed to be linked to Keith Gill, the investor who sparked the meme stock's massive rally in 2021, revealed it had spent about $175 million building a position in the video game retailer.
That sent shares soaring on Monday, with meme-favorite AMC (AMC) following suit.
At the same time that meme stocks were once again fuelling subreddits and financial media was flocking to their favourite traffic source, the market was also collapsing.
A glitch on the New York Stock Exchange halted trading for several stocks early Monday and sent dozens of stocks falling, most notably Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK-A) A shares, which fell 99.9%. Subsequent data showed that GameStop and AMC were also among the affected stocks.
And, as Yahoo Finance's Ines Ferré pointed out, this issue came just days after issues disrupted live calculations of the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
For many investors, the Groundhog Day novelty of meme trading is long gone.
With a market cap of $11 billion and annual 2023 sales expected to fall 11% year over year to $5.3 billion, the actual fate of GameStop's business is far from a macro concern. It's not even clear how many of the traders currently trading the stock care about the business.
But the current market enthusiasm doesn't exist in a vacuum. Quite the opposite, in fact. Investors are staring at a key Fed meeting next week, a summer of uncertainty for the U.S. economy, and a market with narrowing leadership following its recent run to record highs.
The stock market seems to have been gaining momentum in recent years. In less than four years, investors have watched stocks fall nearly 30% from an all-time high, hit a new high, fall another 25% from that all-time high, then hit a new high again.
And now that investors can trade many U.S. stocks 24 hours a day, five days a week, time is actually speeding up in the investing world.
For some investors, the stock market's seemingly active performance in June 2024 will be merely an echo of previous periods, some of which are not so distant in the past (such as October 2022, July 2021, January 2021, April 2020, February 2018, November 2016, etc.).
And as with all things in life, there's comfort in acknowledging that we've been here before. Every time the stock market opens, something strange happens, which is why following the stock market is something I'll never tire of.
Sure, meme trading might feel a bit tired. Another cryptic social media post, another stock quote post, and really, what have we learned? Things just keep happening. And it is point.
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