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In just a few days of heavy losses, Trump Media & Technology Group stock has forfeited more than half of its triple-digit October gains.
Shares of Trump Media, the company that owns former President Donald Trump’s right-wing social media platform Truth Social, fell 12% in afternoon trading Friday — capping off a week of consecutive days of double-digit losses.
Since Tuesday, the company’s share value has plunged about 40% — shedding billions in market value. As a result, Trump, who has a roughly 57% stake in the company, has also seen his net worth sink this week.
That’s a sharp reversal from an eye-popping rally in October, which at its peak saw Trump Media shares up 220% within a 30 day period in a bout of so-called “pre-election euphoria.” As of Friday, shares were still up 92% over the last month for a market capitalization of $6.23 billion.
This comes just days before the U.S. presidential election, where Republican presidential candidate Trump will face off against Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris at the ballot box. National polling shows the two candidates virtually neck and neck, with experts predicting an increasingly tight race.
Although it’s not immediately clear what’s prompting the sell-off, much of the trading of DJT stock has to do with its ties to the former president and his election odds. That makes Trump Media an “affinity stock,” trading on sentiment rather than actual business performance, according to vice president of research at Morningstar (MORN+1.09%) John Rekenthaler.
Rekenthaler has warned, however, that Trump Media stock will “go to zero” if the Republican candidate once again loses the White House this election cycle. If Trump were to win, on the other hand, Rekenthaler believes the stock “could do anything.”
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.”