Author: Azuma, Odaily Planet Daily

Do you remember the "retail investors vs. Wall Street" drama surrounding GameStop (GME) four years ago?

In early 2021, centered around the WallStreetBets (WSB) forum on Reddit, a group of retail investors discovered that GameStop (GME) stock was being heavily shorted by well-known short-sellers like Citron Research and Melvin Capital. The retail investors then decided to buy up the stock and call options in large quantities (with some help from other institutions taking the opposite position), driving up the stock price to attack the shorts. The final outcome was that GameStop (GME) skyrocketed in a short period, and the short-selling institutions began to capitulate and close their positions, with Citron suffering heavy losses and Melvin Capital even nearing bankruptcy. This "battle" has since been regarded as a symbolic victory of "retail investors vs. Wall Street" that the market still talks about.

Now, a similar script is unfolding with another company, Beyond Meat (BYND). In the U.S. stock market, Beyond Meat (BYND) closed at $3.62 yesterday, surging 146.26% in a single day.

Beyond Meat (BYND) is a plant-based meat company that saw its stock price soar to a peak of $239.71 after its IPO in 2019. However, it subsequently plummeted due to market conditions and operational issues (with five consecutive years of losses), dropping to a historical low of $0.60 earlier this month.

Although the recent recovery in Beyond Meat's (BYND) stock price is partly related to improvements in the company's fundamentals (this week it announced a partnership with Walmart, with products set to be available in over 2,000 Walmart stores), the primary cause of this explosive rise is the concentrated buying by retail investors.

Stock and cryptocurrency trader ₿IGRYAN (@BigRyanPark) stated on X: "Retail investors have pushed the stock up over 360%… This has raised concerns among hedge funds that have shorted 54.01% of the float. The magnitude of this rebound is not yet enough to trouble hedge funds, but this situation is likely to change, as the internet loves a good story…"

According to updated reports from CNBC, FactSet data shows that over 63% of Beyond Meat's (BYND) tradable shares have been sold short. Additionally, Roundhill Investments has added the stock to its meme stock-themed ETF, the Roundhill Meme Stock ETF (MEME), further intensifying the market's short squeeze.

On Reddit, the battleground of the previous GameStop (GME) battle, Beyond Meat (BYND) is becoming the latest topic of discussion. Here are some comments from the community.

Reddit user @cornecorne2 provided a relatively rational analysis: In rare cases (the 2021 GameStop incident being the first), individual investors or other hedge funds can create buying pressure, causing stock prices to surge rapidly. Since many investors hold short positions and put options at this time, it can trigger a "gamma squeeze." In the fervor of FOMO in the market, thousands of new investors flood in, all bullish, while the shorts find themselves in trouble because there are no more shares available to short, forcing them to cover. This could lead to stock prices skyrocketing 10 to 100 times or more within days, weeks, or even months. Therefore, BYND is currently in the very early stages of this situation, and if one sets profit-taking too easily, they may regret it when the "gamma squeeze" and short squeeze actually occur.

Reddit user @NoFeedback630 remarked: The WallStreetBets board is continuously deleting BYND posts, but today the trading volume has surpassed 1 billion—this scenario is strikingly similar to the GameStop incident. The more they try to suppress the discussion, the more it will ferment into major news.

Reddit user @NoPixel_ expressed: Trading BYND today took me back to those golden days of 2021.

Reddit user @hxtimx stated: For years, those big institutions, hedge funds, and shorts have been toying with us, laughing at retail investors being crushed behind the screen. Now? We see the truth. Every piece of fake news, every manipulative short squeeze attempt is their doing. Now it's our turn to act; the shorts don't have much time left, and when they cover, it will be a messy scene—and we will witness how chaos turns into profit. Buy! Hold! Watch them struggle to survive!

In addition to various aggressive bullish comments, many others are making price predictions for BYND: $4, $6, $10, $100… the numbers are getting crazier.

As the excitement around Beyond Meat (BYND) rises, some projects in the industry have also caught wind of this opportunity. Last night, the contract trading platform Vest, which supports derivatives trading for U.S. stocks, announced the launch of BYND contract trading, with a maximum leverage of 5 times.

That said, while the community hype around Beyond Meat (BYND) has reached a certain scale, it still pales in comparison to the massive heat of GameStop (GME) back in the day. More importantly, similar scripts do not always end in the same way. The content described in this article is merely a phenomenon description and not an investment reference. For investors, it is essential to conduct thorough research and understand the risks before engaging in any operations, especially when dealing with such highly volatile investment targets.

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