May 16 Reuters Retail darlings GameStop and AMC continued their slide into premarket trading on Thursday, as the euphoria over the return of Roaring Kitty, who was the central figure in 2021 meme stock rally, fizzles out.

Shares of the struggling videogame retailer GameStop fell 14 to 34 after jumping as much as 64.83 this week, while fetching 1 billion in losses for short sellers, according to Ortex Technologies. Theater chain AMC shed 12 following an 88 gain since Friday39;s close.

Despite the losses on Wednesday, the two companies were among the top three mosttraded shares by retail investors during the session, data from J.P.Morgan showed, a position they have held every day this week.

The sharp surge in the shares began after a series of posts from Keith Gill39;s X account Roaring Kitty, whose bullish posts on GameStop was a reason for the 2021 meme stocks frenzy.

But unlike 2021, when Reddit users banded together to target highly shorted stocks that burnt bearish hedge funds, this time institutional investors too were part of the meme stock mania, Vanda Research, which tracks retail investor flows, said.

There39;s more use of social media and professional investors know this, they39;re tracking this, and they39;re trying to take advantage of this, said Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at digital brokerage eToro.

Even though there are more retail investors today, you39;re not seeing that follow through into the rally this time as you saw last time….