The meme craze is back

It’s getting to peak summer, so it must be time for the meme craze to make another comeback. This year it’s Krispy Kreme, Kohl’s and GoPro among others that are in focus. GoPro’s stock price is higher by more than 37% today, while Krispy Kreme is higher by more than 11% on Wednesday, and by 46% in the past 5 trading sessions.

There are no fundamental drivers for the move. Instead, the massive stock price increases are driven by two things: promotion across social media and large short positions that meme stock heroes fight against.

So, what stock could be the next meme favourite? To do this we have looked at stocks listed on the Nasdaq and with the largest number of short positions. Over the past month, Lucid Group, Plug Power, Tilray Brands, Grab Holdings, Rivian Automotives, Warner Brothers and OpenDoor Technologies have the largest short positions. Nvidia and Intel also have large short positions, however big hitters in the tech space do not tend to be targeted by meme stock followers.

Over a longer period, Flowers.com, Genomics Inc, 111 Inc and 17 Education and Technology Group have the largest short positions on the Nasdaq. Thus, if the meme stock craze is to continue, one of these names could be next on the list.

AMC and GameStop a warning about the meme craze

What about meme stocks of yester-year? In the past AMC and GameStop have been meme favourites. However, the meme stock craze tends to be a ‘pump and dump’ strategy. AMC is lower by nearly 40% in the past year, after riding high in 2022, while GameStop is  lower by a quarter so far in 2025.

Thus, the meme craze tends to be a temporary phenomenon, based on social media hype and a desire to penalize short sellers often who are shorting distressed stocks. There is no fundamental basis why GoPro’s share price has surged today, so traders who are caught up in the craze need to beware.