AMC stock rose 4% in premarket as bullish bets surged

The movie theater operator is a typical example of the 2021 Mein Stock Fever. It once soared 27% to $9.15 on Thursday, the biggest increase since May 12. The stock closed up 13% at $8.17. Trading activity for call options was three times the average for the past 20 days, and investors snapped up contracts that were out of price earlier this morning.

Call options that expire on Friday and execute at $8, $8.50, and $9 are the most actively traded AMC contracts on Thursday. As of 3 p.m. New York time, there were over 550,000 phone transactions in total, while the 20-day average was around 163,000. The stock closed at $7.23 on Wednesday.

Day traders are also peddling stocks on social media chat rooms and message boards. Thursday's rebound comes as the “AMC” stock code is trending on the popular trader chat room Stocktwits, which is also one of the most mentioned stocks on Reddit's WallStreetBets forum. However, retail buying demand is bleak. As of 2 p.m. New York time, individuals on the Fidelity platform are net sellers.

Over the past two years, AMC cinema has attracted individual investors as they try to criticize short sellers who bet that the stock price will fall. According to data from financial analysis company S3 Partners, more than 20% of AMC shares are currently sold short. The stock is down 50% this year after soaring nearly 1200% in 2021.

Other popular retail stocks have also seen gains, such as Bedelbergs and Beyond Inc. It rose 4.1%, and Gaming Station Inc. rose 1.5%. The New York S&P 500 index fell 0.1%, and the Nasdaq 100 index rose 0.1%.