Remember GameStop? Two years ago amateur traders conspiring on Reddit managed to rattle Wall Street by boosting the share price of an obscure game retailer. Now they’re diversifying: bank stocks are the new meme stocks, says the WSJ. A record number of shares in regional banks changed hands this month, and short positions against the sector have boomed. Daily social media mentions of First Republic and Western Alliance are in the hundreds of thousands and the Californian lender PacWest is looking particularly troubled with over a quarter of its available shares shorted. Bank executives are worried: confidence is key to attracting customers and fluctuating share prices don’t help. Last week the former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank told Congress social media was to blame for the run on deposits that led to its collapse in March. It won’t be the last scalp.
