Presidential candidateRobert Kennedy Jr. just bought $24,000 of GameStop shares at a forward P/E ratio of roughly 2,200.
Why it matters: The move is a symbolic one, designed to show that Kennedy "will support the Ape retail rebellion," per his post on X.
Where it stands: "The Ape meme first came up during the initial GameStop runup to refer to the crowd gathering around GME," explains Nathaniel Popper, author of a forthcoming book on the history of meme stocks.
"The AMC crowd — and the CEO of AMC — later adopted it, and it got brought into a whole conspiratorial mindset that grew up around a few of these meme stocks."
Between the lines: The conspiracy, as limned by Kennedy, is that hedge funds illegally manipulate the market by shorting stocks, thereby enriching themselves at the expense of average retail investors.
The bottom line: Kennedy's campaign is centered on conspiracy theories, so it comes as little surprise he's attaching himself to this one too.
