AMC surges 16 percent as funds turn to bearish bets

Shares of AMC Entertainment and other “meme stocks” supported by small-time individual traders jumped on Monday, extending gains into a third week as message boards hummed with hype about the potential to squeeze Wall Street short-sellers.

Market participants have told Reuters that some Wall Street institutional investors are ramping up complex options trades that let them bet the shares will fall while keeping a lid on potential losses if they instead gain.

Cinema operator AMC Entertainment Holdings , which almost doubled in value again last week, was trading up 16 percent, at $55.91 around noon, while Microvision, a developer of laser beam scanning technology, climbed 7.1 percent.

Data shows AMC has been the top traded stock among clients of brokerages Fidelity and Freetrade, used heavily by amateur and individual investors playing with their own money.

On trading-focused social media site Stocktwits, message volume related to AMC — a barometer of interest in the stock — rose 3.3 percent on Monday.

Among other meme stocks, BlackBerry’s US listing was up 8.6 percent and videogame retailer GameStop and headphones maker KOSS rose 6.6 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively.