INVESTORS went from buying GameStop call options to selling them on Wednesday as the meme stock crowd circled back on their brash bullish bets after the stock retreated from its latest surge.

Call volume in the gaming company rose for a second session, with buyers fueling the activity early in the morning. But by the afternoon, options sellers started to steer trading. Calls lost value as the stock gave up some of its 30 per cent intraday advance to close up 20 per cent.

“They’re panicking to get out,” said Joe Mazzola, director of trading and education at Charles Schwab & Co. “It shows that a lot of that fire, that enthusiasm, started to get a little exhausted.”

Contracts that expire on Friday had the largest volume, with the most active contract — a Dec 1 US$30 call — changing hands 54,100 times. The option implies an 85 per cent advance in the underlying stock within two days. Total call volume was more than 13 times the 20-day average.

On Tuesday, traders snapped up a high volume of the Dec 8 US$20 contract, which seeks a 23 per cent advance from current prices and would capture the stock’s move after GameStop reports earnings on Dec 6. The elevated volume evoked memories of 2021, when day traders sent the stock up around 2,700 per cent in a matter of weeks. BLOOMBERG