U.S. Retail Traders Eye New Prey: Another Meme Stock Sees Double-Digit Surge!

After days of pumping up online real estate platform Opendoor, U.S. retail investors rallied on social media platforms Tuesday to target their new focus: Kohl’s Corp.$KSS 

 

Market data shows Kohl’s stock briefly doubled in early trading Tuesday, driven by a flood of retail investors into the U.S. department store chain’s stock and options, making it one of the most actively traded stocks on retail trading platforms.

Shortly after the open, Kohl’s surged over 100%, hitting a 10-month high of $21.23. The rapid spike triggered a trading halt, and after resuming, the gain narrowed, closing up 37.62% at $14.34.

 

Analysts note that such a sharp move without major news recalls the 2021 meme stock frenzy, when heavily shorted retail favorites like GameStop and AMC saw similar surges.

 

As of this writing, Kohl’s ranks third on the Stocktwits most-active stock list among retail investor forums.

Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, said: “Kohl’s has many fundamental issues, yet this wild collective push reflects the current state of retail investors, chasing what we call meme stocks—super-fast momentum plays for profit.”

 

In recent months, retail investors have re-emerged as a powerful market force—despite institutional investors adopting a more cautious stance on the stock market’s resurgence. Against this backdrop, U.S. stocks have overcome April’s tariff-induced slump to hit new record highs.

 

According to LSEG data, by 2:20 PM ET Tuesday, Kohl’s trading volume reached about 183 million shares—25 times its 25-day average.

 

In the options market, Kohl’s options entered the top ten by volume Tuesday, rivaling much larger firms like Nvidia and Tesla. Trade Alert data shows Kohl’s total options volume hit 360,000 contracts—12 times its daily average. The most active option was a call betting the stock would exceed $17.50 by Friday, with over 32,000 contracts traded.

 

Ophir Gottlieb, CEO of Los Angeles-based Capital Market Laboratories, said: “These are newly emerging trades, and from what I see, it’s pure speculation with almost no significant fundamental news.”

Are Retail Traders Still Targeting Shorts?

Notably, Kohl’s has a defining trait that may have lured these retail investors: its extremely high short interest.

As of last Friday, Kohl’s stock had fallen about a third this year. The company fired its CEO in May over a personal relationship with a supplier, drawing short-seller attention.

 

LSEG data shows about 49% of Kohl’s float is shorted, leading some analysts to attribute Tuesday’s volatility partly to a short squeeze. This occurs when investors betting against the stock—having borrowed and sold shares—buy back to cover losses. Meme stock investors often target heavily shorted stocks to trigger such squeezes.

 

Gottlieb added: “It echoes the days when retail investors coordinated to chase stocks with high short interest.”

 

Earlier this week, other heavily shorted stocks like Opendoor also drew strong retail interest. The online residential real estate platform’s stock fell 10% Tuesday but remains up 440% this month.

 

Some analysts suggest that with U.S. stocks hitting new highs, a resilient economy, and earnings beating expectations, conditions for renewed speculation seem ripe.

 

Brent Kochuba, founder of derivatives data firm SpotGamma, said: “All these signs point to a full-blown meme stock mania.”

 

With Opendoor and Kohl’s riding the meme wave, industry insiders are now speculating where U.S. retail traders might rally next.