GameStop shares rise in early trading, on the way to the second best week. By Reuters

(Reuters) – Shares of GameStop Corp (NYSE 🙂 rose 11% in early trading on Friday, with retail investors pushing stocks in a renewed recovery that could lead it to record its second best week.

The activity of the stock options market, which returned to the top of the list in a frenzy of retail trading driven by social media, suggested that investors were betting on higher prices or greater volatility, or both.

GameStop’s shares reached $ 120.60 and were on track to nearly triple this week in a stock market where falling bond prices have weakened general investor sentiment towards US stocks.

Additional support could come from holders of stock options, as a large batch of these weekly contracts expire on Friday.

The stock is still a bit far from the $ 483 mark it hit in January, when individual investors using Robinhood and other trading apps raised its price, forcing many hedge funds that had bet against the video game retailer to cover short positions .

Refinitiv’s data on the options showed that retail investors have been buying call options deeply out of cash, which are options with contract prices to buy much higher than the current stock price.

Many of these option contracts are set to expire on February 26 and would mean considerable gains for those who bet on a further increase in GameStop’s share price.

The call options that would be profitable for holders if GameStop’s shares reach $ 200 and $ 800 this week were specially traded, the data showed.

Meanwhile, GameStop’s price in Frankfurt fell 21.3%, trading at 98.19 euros, in a move that almost totally saw its value converge with that of the US listed stocks, which added almost a fifth in value at Thursday.

Other Reddit favorites, like movie operator AMC Entertainment (NYSE :), headphone maker Koss and marijuana company Sundial Growers (NASDAQ 🙂 fell between 4.4% and 13.6% in negotiations before the bell.