Opendoor Stock Jumps Another 25% After Soaring 43% as Meme-Stock Mania Returns

Tiger Newspress
17 Jul

Opendoor Technologies shares jumped another 25% in morning trading on Thursday after soaring 43% on Wednesday.

Until very recently, shares of Opendoor Technologies Inc. had largely been left for dead. But over the past week, retail traders swapping stock tips on social media have helped bring them back to life.

Opendoor shares have surged more than 91% this week.

Tom Bruni, editor-in-chief and vice president of community at Stocktwits, a social-media platform where investors are encouraged to swap and discuss ideas, said interest in Opendoor, measured by page views tied to the stock’s ticker on Stocktwits’ platform, had surged by 400% between Monday and Tuesday. That growth rate looked set to double on Wednesday as well. Chatter about Opendoor appeared to be surging across a number of social-media platforms, he said.

To Bruni, Opendoor’s sudden rise was evidence that the meme-stock phenomenon — initially associated with the dizzying surge in shares of companies like GameStop and AMC Entertainment in early 2021 — hasn’t gone anywhere.

“It’s the same formula. Meme stocks have not gone away, they just take different forms depending on the market environment,” Bruni told MarketWatch via email.

At least some of this discussion was unfolding on Reddit’s WallStreetBets, a subreddit once closely associated with meme-stock investing.

Shares of Opendoor finished at $1.49 on Wednesday. That is still well below their peak from early 2021, when Opendoor traded north of $30 a share, FactSet data showed.

Activity in call options tied to Opendoor hit a record level on Wednesday, helping to drive the shares higher. Some 560,000 bullish contracts had changed hands, according to preliminary data from Dow Jones Market Data.

Trading volume in Opendoor shares also hit a record on Wednesday. Sherwood Media first reported on the stock’s move on Tuesday.

In true meme-stock form, much of this recent surge in interest appeared to be driven by individual investors, many of whom took to social media to discuss the stock. They swapped screenshots of their positions on platforms like the WallStreetBets subreddit. A due-diligence post shared by one anonymous Reddit user a couple of months ago has featured heavily in these discussions.

High short interest likely also helped accelerate the move. By the end of June, short interest in the company had reached its highest level on record, accounting for more than 25% of the company’s total float, Dow Jones data showed.

Since going public via SPAC in December 2020, Opendoor has yet to report a profitable year, according to FactSet data. Although shares of the company saw a modest pop in May after reporting a smaller-than-expected loss in its first-quarter earnings report. The company was one of several offerings brought to market by “SPAC king” Chamath Palihapitiya.

Previously, MarketWatch had included the company in a list of the most speculative stocks trading in the U.S. market.

Bruni said the jump in interest in Opendoor appeared to coincide with the publication of posts on X by Eric Jackson, founder of EMJ Capital, a small hedge fund based in Canada. Jackson told MarketWatch that he’s a believer in the stock, and expects Opendoor could trade north of $80 a share in a year or two.

Jackson acknowledged that retail interest has helped drive the run-up in Opendoor, as some investors hunt for the next big thing.

“I think most retail investors moved on from the [Magnificent Seven] a while ago. Retail traders were the first to get into quantum stocks. There’s this desire to find the next big thing out there,” Jackson said during a phone interview with MarketWatch.

Once interest rates fall and activity in the U.S. housing market picks back up, Opendoor may have a chance to prove to investors that its business model can succeed.

But Bruni cautioned that much of the activity in Opendoor appeared to be driven by “hot money” traders looking to capitalize on the next big momentum play.

Opendoor isn’t the first speculative stock to take off in 2025. Recently, extremely speculative “story” stocks have been some of the top performers in the U.S. market this year. So-called penny stocks, a category that, by some definitions, would include Opendoor, have seen a surge in activity as well.

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