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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The acronym will probably be out of date by lunchtime, as feverish trading spreads and the lifespan of a meme stock appears to be shortening.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 7:28AM

What do doughnut peddler Krispy Kreme, home buyer Opendoor Technologies, mortgage platform Rocket Companies, 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.)

Tasha Matsumoto

10h

Stocks tumble amid AI sell-off as a blowout jobs report dampens hope of a rate cut this year

The S&P 500 broke its streak of nine consecutive weekly gains, while the Nasdaq 100 had its worst day since April 2025.

Yellowstone: America's First National Park

Dickens, Great Expectations, He said, Aha! would you?

Tech tumbles as momentum stocks run into a blowout jobs report and a wave of profit-taking

The AI trade is under some pressure, taking prices back like... a few days. President Donald Trump is not a fan of the price action.

David Crowther15h

Trump Administration Considers Reclassifying Marijuana As A Less Dangerous Drug

Trulieve to list on NYSE, a first for US cannabis sector

More may be on the way: several other US cannabis companies have announced reverse stock splits with the intention of listing on a major exchange.

J. Edward Moreno16h

Helena Cheng17h

Lululemon’s stretch getting tested: Stock plunges after after outlook is cut

Lululemon shares are down double digits in premarket trading after the company cut its full-year sales and profit outlook, overshadowing a Q1 beat and raising fresh concerns about the brand’s turnaround efforts.

The company now expects fiscal 2026 revenue to be flat to down 1%, compared with its prior forecast for 2% to 4% growth. Guidance for full-year diluted earnings per share was dragged down to a range of $10.95 to $11.15, below the company’s previous guidance of $12.10 to $12.30 and well below Wall Street’s estimate of $13.26.

Key numbers for Q1:

EPS of $1.69 vs. the $1.68 expected.
Revenue of $2.47 billion vs. the $2.43 billion expected.

The modest top-line beat masked a widening divergence between Lululemon’s geographic markets. While international revenue rose 22% overall with a 30% increase in Mainland China, the bigger problem remains North America, where revenue fell 5%.

Interim co-CEO and CFO Meghan Frank acknowledged during the earnings call that recent product rollouts underperformed. A highly anticipated yoga campaign failed to generate its expected “halo effect” across broader product lines.

Profitability metrics took a major hit, with gross margins contracting by 410 basis points to 54.2% due to mounting tariff costs and promotional markdowns. Operating income consequently fell 37% year over year to $276.9 million.

“We experienced spikes of negative commentary in the media and on social channels with regard to our brand, which had an impact on traffic and overall top-line performance,” Frank said during the earnings call. “And second, not all of our product launches have met our expectations. While we have had several successful launches so far this year, we have seen others as we start Q2 not generate the anticipated guest response.”

Lululemon’s valuation has already been steadily compressing for years. While it was once one of retail’s richly valued stocks, investors have been questioning whether the company can return to the double-digit growth era.

The results also arrive during a leadership transition. Lululemon announced back in April that former Nike executive Heidi O’Neill is set to take over as CEO in September, with investors looking to her to revive growth in North America and restore the brand’s growth.

As Lululemon faces both macroeconomic pressure and brand-specific challenges, its stock has dropped around 40% year to date.

Paige Oamek17h

US job growth skyrocketed in May, blasting past expectations

The US economy added 172,000 jobs in the month of May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, sending 10-year Treasury yields higher.

The strong May job market surprised economists. Experts had predicted only 85,000 new jobs — just half the reported number. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%, as expected.

The job growth story is a hopeful spot for the economy as consumers continue to feel inflationary pressure from the Iran war.

Job gains were buoyed by the leisure and hospitality sector, which added 70,000 jobs, as well as local government, healthcare, and education.

Both the March and April jobs reports were revised upward, making them collectively 93,000 higher than previously reported.