The plant-based meat company’s shares more than doubled early Wednesday before closing at $3.58 per share, which was down 1%. Still, it was a surprising comeback for a stock that was trading at an all-time low of 50 cents per share late last week.

Investors cheered Beyond Meat’s announcement Tuesday that it’s increasing the availability of some of its products at U.S. Walmart stores. Beyond Meat said that its chicken pieces, Korean BBQ-style steak and burger six-packs will now be easier to find in more than 2,000 Walmart stores.

Beyond Meat also launched a direct-to-consumer website this week, which will try to build buzz by offering limited releases of new products.

But perhaps the biggest driver of interest in Beyond Meat is Roundhill Investments, which added Beyond Meat to its Meme Stock ETF, or exchange-traded fund, on Monday. The fund consists solely of meme stocks, which are stocks that gain popularity and trading volume based on social media hype rather than a company’s financial performance.

Investors have been sporadically turning to meme stocks throughout 2025 in an effort to find bargains amid a very pricey stock market. The stocks are often the target of “short sellers,” or investors betting against the stock.

Beyond Meat was the darling of the plant-based meat industry when it went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2019.

But in recent years the El Segundo, California-based company has been struggling with weak demand for its burgers, sausages, tenders and other products. Beyond Meat’s net revenue was down 15% in the first six months of this year.

Beyond Meat’s stock price cratered last week after the company announced the expiration of lock-up restrictions on some of its 326 million shares of new stock as part of a plan to help it reduce its debt load and extend the time until its debt matures. The lock-up had prevented shareholders from selling the stock but now they were free to do so.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The erratic trading in shares of underdog companies like GameStop that turned markets combustible last week appears to have migrated to commodities, sending silver prices surging to an eight-year high.

Silver futures jumped more than 9% on Monday to $29.42 per ounce with #silversqueeze trending on Twitter. That exuberance spread to companies that mine precious metals, especially silver. Shares of Pan American Silver surged about 12%, First Majestic Silver rose 22% and Hecla Mining spiked 28%.

Last week, there were messages on the Reddit forum WallStreet Bets and other places on social media encouraging small investors to buy silver. The metal shot up Monday, but many of the online investors said it wasn’t them bidding up the price.

An online army of Reddit traders banded together for the past week to snap up thousands of shares of GameStop, AMC and other struggling chains, stocks that have been heavily shorted (bets that the stock will fall) by a number of hedge funds. In the process, they’ve done heavy damage to those hedge funds in a stunning reversal of financial power on Wall Street.

Some of these smaller traders believe the hedge funds that were pillaged last week are behind the surge in silver. Communications on messaging boards claim hedge funds have now become active on Reddit anonymously, attempting to drive them out of GameStop bets and into silver, but only after hedge funds had taken huge positions.

“IT’S A TRAP!” one Redditor warned, though no one really seemed certain.

Meanwhile, GameStop shares dropped 28% to $233 but the stock price has been tremendously volatile of late. Last week a 44% drop on Thursday was followed by a 68% jump Friday.

The number of GameStop shares that have been shorted (bets that the stock will fall), were slashed by more than half in recent days, according to a report Monday by the analytics firm S3 Partners.

Last week’s turmoil caused hedge funds to pull back on their investments by the sharpest degree since February 2009, during the market collapse caused by the financial crisis, according to Goldman Sachs, which provides services such as clearing and consulting to hedge funds.

Goldman says hedge funds have have been getting out of both short sales, where they’re betting a stock will fall, and more traditional investments that bank on rising prices “in every sector,” according to a Goldman Sachs report Monday.

Even so, hedge funds’ exposure to the stock market remains close to record levels. That means there’s still risk for more sell-offs by hedge funds.

The narrative has burst from financial pages, reaching even the White House, where President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen were peppered with questions about it last week.

On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about GameStop and said that the incident/market volatility raises “an important set of policy issues.”

“We think congressional attention to these issues is appropriate,” Psaki adds.

The story has also moved out of Reddit chatrooms and into places where silver actually trades hands. Coin dealers are being overwhelmed by orders Monday.

The Silver Mountain, a Netherlands-based bullion dealer, said on its website that, “Due to extreme market volatility we cannot accept any new orders at this moment,” adding it hoped to reopen by the afternoon.

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The scorching heat is with some added humidity. Around here it is called earthquake season, and there have been plenty of those recently too. The weather hasn’t been the only thing heating up. Metals have moved to their 52-week high. Gold moved first up to into the low $1,400’s, and silver eventually followed up to the lower $16’s. They are hitting the ceiling so to speak for the last 52 weeks. Our Firm recommends taking profits here. In June we gladly recommended to buy around $14.50 and here around $16.45 is a good exit point. This trade would return around 14%. Pretty hot for two months. Don’t get greedy here. Yes, it could break out, but it could also fall back to its lows.

Netflix took a big hit recently with subscriber growth missing expectations. The market is frying it punishment for the big miss. As a FANG member Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google, it possesses the ability to move sharply and strongly. These stocks have led the market with their returns outperforming every index. Time to start watching it. Its all-time highs were just shy of $400. Priced at $306 this is a 25% discount. We do not recommend buying here. Our buy limit is just north of $250. This would be a 38% discount. As Warren Buffett states, “Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.” The lower you buy an investment, the less risk to the downside it has and the more upside there is. When you flip these numbers by buying at $250 and selling at $400 it represents a 60% return.

Alpha is watching the Volatility Index, and it appears to be at annual lows around $12. The high of the year boiled over $36. At a third of its price range, we are watching to see how low or how comfortable the market gets. The VIX, known by this symbol, is a popular measure of the stock markets expectation of volatility implied by S&P500 index options. The higher it is, the higher the expected volatility the market is expecting. Lower means there is very little expected volatility.

A good time to look for investment opportunities is usually when this index is high, reflecting that the market has fallen. You can purchase this as an ETF such as symbol TVIX. It is negatively correlated to the stock market. Adding it to your portfolio when the market is at all-time highs is similar to pouring a cool glass of lemonade on a hot July afternoon. It doesn’t turn down the heat, but it will balance you and allow you to endure the heat. If the market falls from here, the VIX will go up offsetting the drop you may have.

As Maynard Ferguson said, “So cool your hot, so hot your cool.” That’s the way every portfolio should be.

Andrew F. Kotyuk, CIMA* is CEO and Principal of Alpha Wealth Management LLC. For questions or investment topics please email me afkotyuk@alpha-wealth.com.

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