US Meme-Stock Fever Rising as Traders Turn to Low-Priced Shares

Stocks are at all-time highs. Chatter on WallStreetBets, a popular forum on the Reddit website, is surging. Retail traders are flooding into low-priced shares.

- 

NEW YORK -

It is not 2021, and the shares of the moment are not GameStop, AMC Entertainment Holdings, or the now-bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond. In 2025's meme stock mania, the companies du jour are Opendoor Technologies and Kohl's. The similarities are clear: Like the episode four years ago, amateur traders are piling into heavily shorted companies with low share prices in a bid to strike quick riches.

And, as was the case back then, it comes at a time of broad market euphoria: The S&P 500 is at an all-time high, Bitcoin has doubled in less than a year, and blank-check companies are all the rage again.

"I've been seeing signs of a 'flight to crap' recently," said Mr. Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. "The recent rally, which was largely powered in its initial phase by individual investors buying large-cap stocks and major indexes, has emboldened many to engage in more risky types of investing."