By Michelle Conlin
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Trump Media’s (DJT) roller-coaster share price has served as something of a proxy for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s chances of election. Now traders are finally at their day of reckoning.
Trump Media stock fell 4% before the bell on Monday.
Traders and investors say the stock is at risk of extreme volatility after the result of Tuesday’s election is known, with its trading detached from its day-to-day business fundamentals. The company operates the Truth Social media platform and has launched a streaming service.
“This stock is insanely overvalued and the economics make no sense whatsoever, even if Donald Trump is elected,” said Brian Lukow, a former Lehman Brothers senior vice president-turned-movie producer who now shorts stocks, a bet that the price of a stock will fall. In Trump Media, he thinks he has found his next best bet, if Democratic candidate Kamala Harris wins.
For the second quarter, Trump Media reported a loss of $16.4 million and revenue of $837,000. The company has a market capitalization of around $6 billion.
“The stock is going to crash and burn if Harris pulls out a victory,” said Lukow, who said he continues to hold his short position. “If Trump wins, then this bet looks like the greatest bet he’s ever made.”
For weeks, the rise in Trump Media stock has come in tandem with Trump’s surge on election betting sites such as Polymarket, where the odds of the Republican’s chances of winning rose as high as 67%.
This movement has drawn scrutiny from social media users and online gambling experts because it came alongside some large bets from a Paris-based trader and diverged sharply from opinion polls, which have had the race in a dead heat.
Last week, as Trump Media stock dropped sharply, however, so did Trump’s chances on Polymarket. On Sunday the odds had Trump at around 54%.
There is no formal analyst coverage of Trump Media, which is 57% owned by Trump himself. The former president’s stake in the company is worth $3.5 billion, according to Reuters calculations. Trump’s total net worth, as of Sunday, stands at $5.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
The Trump campaign referred questions to Trump Media & Technology Group, the company’s full name. TMTG did not respond to a request for comment.
Trading startegies
Trump Media stock has a fervent online following including those who identify themselves as Trump supporters who vow they will hold the stock long-term. The stock’s staunchest proponents often post publicly on Reddit and Truth Social, including in one group called $DJT, whose online banner is a rocket ship blasting into space.
