Those betting on GameStop stock’s price decline, or short-sellers, lost around $1.9 billion in just two days as the Reddit crowd’s favorite “meme stock” renewed its enormous rally.
Shares of the video game retailer skyrocketed over 100 percent on Wednesday, with the enormous volatility even prompting trading halts. The sudden rally brought $664 million in mark-to-market losses for investors betting against GameStop, according to financial analytics firm S3 Partners.
The frenzied buying continued on Thursday, with GameStop stock surging as high as 84 percent in intraday trading and closing with 19 percent gains. Thursday’s intraday moves booked another $1.19 billion in losses for short-sellers, S3 Partners’ calculations show.
As of Friday morning, GameStop’s shares were slightly up again in pre-market trading. Given the latest gains in GameStop stock, short-sellers’ year-to-date mark-to-market losses now amount to $10.75 billion, according to the analytics firm. However, even billions in losses don’t stop investors from further betting on the company’s decline, with the number of GameStop shares shorted over the past week rising by 15 percent to 1.97 million.
