Opendoor Technologies jumped 120% on Monday, extending its gravity-defying rally from last week, as investors continued to pile into the stock that has found a sudden fandom among retail traders and social-media platforms.
The stock’s triple-digit surge sent shares of the Tempe, Arizona-based company soaring to $4.97, well-above the $1 level it was bouncing around for the last few months. If the record advance holds through the session, the stock will notch its sixth straight day of gains. Shares have since pared their rally to 54% and trading was briefly halted because of volatility. When the market closed, Opendoor was at $3.21, up 96 cents or 42.67% on the day.
Opendoor has been the subject of chatter among retail traders on social media in recent days after Eric Jackson, founder of Toronto-based hedge fund EMJ Capital made as series of posts on social media platform X encouraging buying. It was listed as the topmost actively traded stock on Stocktwits Monday afternoon, and was being heavily cited by posters on Reddit’s WallStreetBets thread.
“Individual investors are partying like it’s 1999,” said Matt Maley, chief strategist at Miller Tabak + Co. “The moves in some of these new meme names is becoming very reminiscent of what we saw in 1999. The move in Opendoor is just the most dramatic.”
Roughly 1.4 billion of Opendoor shares exchanged hands in Monday’s intraday trading, more than 1,333% of the three-month average. Short interest in the stock is roughly 24% of the free float, according to data compiled by S3 Partners.
Options volume for Opendoor shares more than doubled from the previous record Friday to exceed 2.35 million contracts. About half of the volume was in options expiring this Friday. The average trade size in the most-active $4.50 call was just 12 lots, a sign that much of the activity was from retail investors.
The company made its public market debut in 2020 by merging with a special purpose acquisition company. Its share price has slumped since a boom in early 2021. The stock was down 51% this year before its eye-popping six-day surge.
–With assistance from David Marino
