Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as the opening bell rings on April 20, 2026.
Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images
Retail traders are once again diving into some of the most speculative corners of the market, as regulatory changes remove barriers to rapid trading and help revive the kind of meme-stock frenzy that has historically led to sharp rises and even sharp reversals.
A rally in risky assets in April, driven in part by the Iran ceasefire, spurred retail investors back into volatile trading. One of the more notable examples is the swoop of retail traders. allbirds After a struggling shoe store labels its business as artificial intelligence.
Shares rose from about $2.50 to as much as $24 after the company outlined plans to rebrand itself as NewBird AI and pivot to computing infrastructure. Much of that progress has already been unwound, with the stock recently toggling around $8, a sharp reversal that highlights the volatility of such trades.
Allbirds from this year to the present
Similar dramatic movements led by small traders avis budget group. The company’s stock price (ticker CAR) soared from less than $100 last month to an all-time high of nearly $850 in early trading on Wednesday, before making a sharp intraday U-turn, another reminder of how quickly a bull run can be undone.
Avis from the beginning of the year to today
Analysts at JPMorgan said the crowd into so-called meme stocks is surging and approaching levels just shy of the extreme levels seen during risk tracking after Emancipation Day.
The Wall Street firm said the main catalyst could be recent rule changes by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Earlier this month, regulators approved FINRA’s proposal to eliminate the so-called pattern day trader rule. Under this rule, traders who executed four or more day trades within five business days were required to maintain a minimum of $25,000 in capital in their margin account.
The new rules eliminate the $25,000 requirement and replace it with a more flexible “intraday margin” rule. FINRA called the old rules that emerged in the wake of the dot-com crash “outdated.”
“This change will allow more investors with small accounts to trade more aggressively while maintaining the protection of modern margin and risk management,” Adam Cohn, head of trading operations at TradeStation, told CNBC. “Removing that barrier means more people can participate in short-term trading strategies…We will see a more open market with broader participation and more liquidity.”
Analysts at JPMorgan said the changes could further increase retail trading volumes in the coming months, adding to the momentum of an already crowded trade.
