(Bloomberg) — More shares of Second Sight Medical Products Inc. and INVO BioScience Inc. traded on the Nasdaq Tuesday than those of tech bellwether Apple Inc.
The pair were among the most-traded shares, just behind volume leader Exela Technologies Inc., a software services company that saw more than 40 million shares trade hands intraday after a small contract win.
The new crop of young daytraders that emerged during the pandemic is looking for new opportunities, especially in some typically thinly traded biotech and medical-device stocks. A fresh round of stimulus checks may prove to only heighten the volatility.
“There a lot of millennial traders that are firmly locked in, though not as active as they were at the beginning of the craze” in the search for fresh returns, said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda.
Volume on the exchange in Second Sight exceeded 18 million in a third day of trading since the company got regulatory approval in the U.S. for its redesigned eye prosthesis hardware. INVO more than doubled and had volume of 15.4 million shares after multiple volatility halts following an update to a pact for its fertility device. About 15.3 million shares of Apple traded.
OpGen Inc. climbed as much as 37% before paring gains on volume of about 9.8 million shares after a new publication on its test for bacterial infections in Covid-19 patients on Monday. OpGen and Second Sight were among the most mentioned names on StockTwits behind other retail favorites, GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.
“It’s not necessarily to do with long-term fundamentals,” Moya said by phone. “These are more get rich quick type trades.”
Financial watchdogs are looking into the retail trading mania. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are considering new rules.
Moya expects regulation may be down the road “but that’s far from now,” he said.
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