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Class of July 2025

Meet the DORK stocks — the latest obsessions of Reddit’s retail trader army

The acronym will probably be out of date by lunchtime, as feverish trading spreads and the lifespan of a meme stock appears to be shortening.

David Crowther

7/23/25 6:28AM

What do doughnut peddler Krispy Kreme, home buyer Opendoor Technologies, mortgage platform Rocket Cos, and department store Kohl’s have in common?

Not much, except each is a new target of a reinvigorated set of retail traders.

In the last 72 hours, the following stocks have seen their trading volumes, mentions on Reddit’s infamous r/WallStreetBets, and stock prices soar: DNUT, OPEN, RKT, KSS. Together, they make up what we could call the DORK stocks — the latest class of meme stocks.

In the last two days, an average of 1.76 million call options have changed hands in OPEN. That’s up 12x on the average of the previous 20 sessions. In RKT, call volumes are up 6x, and they’re up 10x in KSS. In DNUT, call volumes went from close to zero to over 100,000, rising a whopping 33x.

Same same, but different

Since the GameStop era of 2021 — when an army of traders took on hedge fund titans, choosing a heavily shorted, ailing video game retailer as their battleground — market participants have tried hard to predict the next meme stock.

Most candidates for retail love do share a few common characteristics: often the company has been struggling, heavily shorted by Wall Street, and sometimes comes with a hint of nostalgia about the company’s product or service.

But while those characteristics remain, what seems to be changing about the meme stock landscape is the speed at which these moments appear to coalesce.

Opendoor, which traded a bonkers 298% of its market cap on Monday (some $7 billion, more than Meta), is a good example. One bullish note from hedge fund manager Eric Jackson was enough to spark an options buying frenzy in the beleaguered tech company. As call volumes cracked 2 million on Monday, the resulting gamma squeeze sent the stock soaring. So, OPEN is the next GME and will suck up all of the oxygen on the hypothetical retail trading floor, right?

Well, no, apparently. Rather than intensifying on one name, retail trading attention has since spread to department store Kohl’s, which ripped 38% higher yesterday. Quietly gaining throughout the day was also Krispy Kreme, which rose 27% in Tuesday’s session and is up another 25% in early trading this morning. After the bell it was RKT’s turn, with shares currently up 14% in the premarket, seemingly catalyzed by a late-night Reddit post saying that it “tastes like 2021 again. $130k YOLO on $RKT,” with a screenshot of a position in RKT with 9,020 shares.

As my colleague Luke Kawa reported yesterday, the latest bout of feverish retail trading is raising eyebrows at Citadel Securities (emphasis mine):

“Echoing our colleagues in institutional derivatives this morning, the current level of retail bullishness is something to keep a close eye on,” Citadel Securities’ Thomas Sozzi wrote. “In cash equity space, retail clients on our platform have been net buyers for the past 18 trading sessions in a row! This bullish streak hasn’t been seen on our platform in over 3 years.”

With Big Tech earnings on deck today, how long will this latest class of meme stocks be able to hold the spotlight? The major test will be when Tesla, a favorite of retail traders, reports after the bell today.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions. Citadel Securities has a business relationship with Robinhood.)

Luke Kawa

55m

GameStop can’t stop winning, on track for longest streak of gains since 2022

Unless we jinx it, GameStop is poised for its longest winning streak since 2022, with shares up 3% as of 2:04 p.m. ET.

The video game and collectibles retailer hasn’t posted a down day since September 4, and is poised for its eighth consecutive day of gains. Shares are up nearly 18% over this period, versus a 1.6% advance for the S&P 500.

The bulk of these gains came in the wake of the company’s stellar second-quarter earnings report, which exceeded expectations on the top and bottom lines as well as marking the fifth consecutive quarter of positive operating cash flow generation for the first time in its history.

Including this one, the company has posted 8 or more consecutive days of gains on 25 occasions during its history as a publicly-traded company.

Its last seven-session winning streak came in mid-July of last year, about a month after Keith Gill aka Roaring Kitty disappeared from the scene after his brief reappearance, as part of a relatively violent market rotation into small cap stocks.

Max Knoblauch

Nio surges to an 11-month high following an upgrade from UBS ahead of its new SUV launch

Chinese EV maker Nio is climbing for the fourth straight trading day, following an upgrade from UBS to buy from neutral. Nio’s nearly 7% jump propelled the stock to its highest level since last October.

UBS also bumped its price target for Nio up to $8.50, a 37% hike.

Nio will begin deliveries of its new ES8 SUV this weekend, priced to compete with Tesla’s Model Y. Last week, the EV maker said it planned to raise up to $1 billion on a share offering.

According to UBS analyst Paul Gong, Nio’s latest products “could further attract consumers after the US $1 billion equity offerings strengthened visibility on its healthy operations.”

J. Edward Moreno

Moderna is up on the release of positive results for reformulated Covid vaccine

Moderna rose on Tuesday after it announced encouraging trial results for its next Covid-19 vaccine.

The data from its phase 4 clinical trial showed its 2025-2026 formula of its Covid-19 vaccine, which targets a new variant and was recently approved by the FDA with some limitations, produced a strong immune response among people ages 12 through 64. Covid vaccine sales account for virtually all of Moderna's revenue.

The company has had a tumultuous year as the Trump administration makes moves to limit who is able to access the vaccine. Last month, the FDA limited approval for the coronavirus vaccine to higher-risk populations; previously, anyone older than 6 months was eligible for it.

Max Knoblauch

Rivian climbs as it breaks ground on a $5 billion EV plant that could produce 200,000 vehicles a year by 2028

EV tax credits may be ending this month, but Rivian’s still optimistic about future demand.

The electric vehicle maker on Tuesday broke ground on it’s delayed, $5 billion Georgia plant that it says will be able to produce 200,000 vehicles per year by 2028 (Rivian expects to deliver up to 46,000 EVs this year). Its shares climbed more than 6%.

The plant will create 7,500 permanent jobs once complete, according to Rivian, with the first phase of production beginning next year.

2026 also marks the planned launch year for Rivian’s R2 electric SUV, expected to start around $45,000 and compete with Tesla’s Model Y. Earlier this month, Lucid confirmed that it too would be creating a roughly $50,000 electric SUV.

If it seems like an odd time to build an EV plant, it probably is. But unlike larger rivals GM and Honda, Rivian doesn’t have the ability to scale back its EV ambitions — they’re the only vehicles the automaker produces. Last month, the company posted a steeper loss than analysts expected, losing $1.12 billion over its second quarter.

It's 'do or die' for electric vehicle maker Rivian as it breaks ground on a $5 billion plant

The plant will create 7,500 permanent jobs once complete, according to Rivian, with the first phase of production beginning next year.

Luke Kawa

Plug Power jumps on elevated call demand

Plug Power is up today amid a wave of bullish options action.

As of 11:40 a.m. ET, 28,819 calls have traded, nearly double the 20-day average of 14,527.

The two contracts seeing the most activity are calls with a strike price of $2 that expire on October 17 and on this Friday.

The put/call ratio is below 0.13 as of 11:40 a.m., versus a 20-day average of 0.32.