‘Meme’ stock prices may not properly reflect demand -NYSE president

NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) – The prices of so-called meme stocks may be distorted because the majority of trades in those names are executed away from public exchanges where share price formation occurs, the head of the New York Stock Exchange said on Wednesday.

“Meme stocks,” which often start as low-priced, highly shorted stocks that users of online forums such as Reddit’s WallStreetBets rally behind, are some of the most heavily traded and volatile shares on any given day.

Shares of companies like video game retailer GameStop Corp (GME.N) and theater chain operator AMC Entertainment (AMC.N) have whipsawed this year, with GameStop having rallied more than 1,600% in January alone, prompting trading halts by some brokers and sparking Congressional and regulatory hearings.

“In some of the meme stocks that we’ve seen, or stocks that have a high level of retail participation, the vast majority of order flow can trade off of exchanges, which is…

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