Trump Media looks set for another day of very volatile trading.
On Wednesday, shares of Trump Media fell 12% in the first 90 minutes after the market opened. The previous day, there was stock trading he stopped five times due to excessive volatility. The stock closed at $51.51 on Tuesday, but fell to $45.57 on Wednesday morning.
Trump Media has been on a tear in the last month, up 270%. Although the stock’s recent trajectory has been decidedly up and to the right, intraday trading has seen significant changes in the stock price. On Tuesday, shares fell 13% in the first hour of trading, before rising another 16% on the day. After-hours trading sent shares down another 8% from their closing price of $51.
The wild swings were largely due to Trump Media and Technology Group’s (TMTG) frenzied trading activity ahead of next week’s presidential election.
TMTG shares (ticker symbol DJT) are often traded higher A referendum on Trump’s political choices rather than on its actual business performance. Predictors in recent weeks have pointed to a tight race that is effectively deadlocked, even if it favors Trump. These announcements have benefited DJT’s stock as much as the candidate.
After hitting a low of $12.15 a share in late September, the stock rallied on Trump’s rise in the polls. By mid-October, a series of polls showed Trump narrowly trailing Vice President Kamala Harris. Around this time, TMTG had its own two trading weeks with the highest volume since it was made public. During the week of October 7, 195 million shares were traded. This number was surpassed the following week, when 278 million shares were traded. On Tuesday morning, the stock broke above its 30-day trading average at 10:15 a.m. ET.
The high number of trading hands on the stock suggests that moment traders are looking to ride some quick and relatively easy profits on TMTG. Momentum traders are investors who look for rising stocks and buy them until they reach the top. Often these types of investors are looking to take advantage of a positive movement in the stock market rather than investing in the business for the long term.
Trump owns about 114.5 million shares of TMTG, which is 57% of the company. So far he has not sold any of his shares despite being legally permitted to do so after a They closed the closing period in September. Trump’s stake in the company is worth more than $5 billion as of this article’s publication, and now makes up the majority of his net worth.
TMTG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.