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Trump Media & Technology Group stock is on a major winning streak.
So far in October, shares of Trump Media, the company behind former President Donald Trump’s right-wing social media platform Truth Social, have climbed 50%. That has erased some of the heavy losses the company faced in recent months.
Shares opened up 8% on Friday, trading at $26.14 — the highest level since August. And the stock is up big since hitting lows of around $12 in late September.
Trump Media has been widely considered a “meme stock” or “affinity stock,” with shares trading largely on sentiment about the former president by retail and individual investors, regardless of the company’s actual operating results or prospects.
“It’s purchasing his brand,” John Rekenthaler, vice president of research at Morningstar (MORN-0.33%), previously told Quartz. He warned that the company’s stock could “go to zero” or close to it if Trump loses the presidential election.
Trump Media itself has said in regulatory filings that its “success depends in part on the popularity of its brand and the reputation and popularity” of Trump and that “adverse reactions to publicity relating to [Trump], or the loss of his services, could adversely affect TMTG’s revenues and results of operations.”
In some ways, Trump Media stock has become a proxy for the Republican presidential candidate’s election odds. While several national polls have shown Vice President Kamala Harris slightly leading Trump in the November election, prediction market platform Polymarket has placed the odds of Trump winning at 55%, with Harris’ odds at 44%.
Trump is a majority shareholder of Trump Media, holding roughly 57% of the company’s stock — and he has said he has no plans to let go of his holdings. His stake is valued at upward of $2.5 billion as of Friday.
Late last month, United Atlantic Ventures, a firm created by two of Truth Social’s co-founders, sold almost its entire stake in the company at the end of last month’s six-month share lock-up period.