Robinhood shares surge as investors give it ‘meme stock’ status

Shares of trading app Robinhood, which gained notoriety earlier this year by enabling retail investors to pump up so-called meme stocks including Gamestop and AMC Entertainment, are surging a few days into its launch on the Nasdaq.

Why should we care?
Despite the controversies and regulatory hurdles Robinhood is navigating, its stock is getting attention from investors. Robinhood began trading last Thursday at $38 per share. On Wednesday, August 4, shares of Robinhood were at $85 at one point, a jump of more than 80% since Tuesday’s close. It’s not yet clear what caused the wild rise in the value of Robinhood shares, but on Tuesday, ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood purchased 89,622 shares of Robinhood stock, and retail investors also made bets. Robinhood is reportedly generating “huge amounts” of interest from retail investors, including those on Reddit’s WallStreetBets, the group behind the GameStop surge earlier this year. “Robinhood engineered itself to be a meme stock from the get-go," Max Gokhman, head of asset allocation at Pacific Life Fund Advisors, said in an interview.