The day traders behind GameStop Corp’s meteoric rise. last month they are turning their attention to cannabis stocks, betting that President Biden’s government will push for further decriminalization of the drug.
The discussion about cannabis companies has exploded among users of Reddit’s popular WallStreetBets forum. As of Thursday morning, the three most mentioned stocks on that forum in the past 24 hours were Canadian cannabis companies, according to Swaggy Stocks, a website that tracks mentions of a company’s stock symbol on WallStreetBets.
The online buzz caused the shares of the three companies – Sundial Growers, Tilray and Aphria – to fire on Nasdaq. Sundial rose 79% on Wednesday, while Tilray gained 51% and Aphria advanced 11%.
The shares of cannabis companies have risen since the end of last year with investors’ bets that the Biden government will be more favorable to the industry. But just this week, Sundial and Tilray prices have more than doubled.
The recent increase is the most recent example of individual investors coming together to raise prices in small businesses. The practice has long been common in the cryptocurrency market, where traders target an asset that can be easily moved. This behavior has spread more and more to the stock market as millions of individuals, trapped at home during the past year because of the coronavirus pandemic, have started trading through brokers like Robinhood Markets Inc.