GameStop Stock Crashes Dramatically Just After Reaching New Heights

Gamestop Corp has had a dramatic year, and it looks like a new chapter has unfolded for the meme stock today after it ended its laudable winning streak with a sudden flash crash, giving away most of the week's gains in minutes.

The video game retailer's stock shot up on Wednesday to more than $348 a share, topping its record closing high from January 27 but then fell sharply just after 6 p.m. WAT, when trading was halted and dropped all the way down to $216 before trading was again halted.

READ MORE: GameStop Holds Winning Streak For The Fifth Day In A Row

The shares were then halted down 12% at just under $200 per share. The stock has bounced around since trading resumed and last up about 5%.

Other "meme" stocks that were wrapped up in the Reddit frenzy seemed to show similar patterns at different scales on Wednesday including AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., Koss Corp., Blackberry Ltd., and Nokia Corp. whose shares also saw gains in the morning trading session suddenly disappear after noon (evening in WAT).

GameStop has remained a regular conversation on Reddit in recent weeks, with a post on Wednesday reading, “Hold GME to the moon. We’re coming for $300 today.”

The original short squeeze for GameStop hit several hedge funds hard and appeared to unnerve the broader markets. Some professional investors have pointed to GameStop’s volatile trading as emblematic of frothiness in parts of the market.