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pendoor Technologies, a penny stock that had been trading under $1 this year, saw its shares surge by threefold in just days after attracting attention from retail traders on Reddit. The online real estate startup's stock price jumped over 14% on Tuesday before reversing course, following a red-hot run fueled by meme stocks. Kohl's also caught the eye of these traders, with its shares increasing by more than 28%.
Opendoor's meteoric rally pushed its stock up by 500% in July alone and reached a high of $4.97 during Monday's session before closing at $3.21. The company's ticker symbol, $OPEN, has been heavily cited on WallStreetBets, an online forum that played a key role in the GameStop mania in 2021.
Hedge fund manager Eric Jackson, who is invested in Opendoor, predicted the stock could reach $82 per share, sparking further interest. Trading volumes exploded with over 1.9 billion shares exchanging hands on Monday, more than 1,700% of the three-month average. About 22% of Opendoor's available shares are sold short, which could contribute to the rally as short sellers buy back shares to cut their losses.
Heightened options trading in Opendoor also intensified the rally, with Bespoke Investment Group calling it a "poster-child" for recent options market optimism. The company's business involves using technology to buy and sell homes, pocketing the gains, and its stock went public through a special purpose acquisition company in 2020, riding a wave of SPACs and broader market gains driven by low interest rates and Covid-era euphoria.
