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A single post on Truth Social helped boost the shares of Trump Media and Technology Group, adding a half billion dollars to the net worth of US President-elect Donald Trump as a result, according to CNN and Reuters.
Donald Trump’s social media stock had been sinking fast after a short-lived, post-election-victory surge this week.
At Friday’s market open, in what was likely a classic ‘buy the rumour and sell the news’ trade, shares of Trump Media and Technology Group had fallen 42 per cent since their recent peak shortly after Wednesday’s open.
Traders often buy a stock in anticipation of a positive event for a company – and when it happens, they sell to take their share of their profitable bet.
After a half-hour of trading Friday, when shares were down again, Trump made a post on his Truth Social media platform to say that he had no intention of selling his shares in the company.
"There are fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumours and/or statements made by, perhaps, market manipulators or short sellers, that I am interested in selling shares of Truth," Trump wrote.
Immediately after, the stock surged, rising nearly 15 per cent Friday. Trump is the company’s single largest shareholder, and his 114.75 million shares are now worth about $3.7 billion, up from $3.2 billion at Friday’s market open.
Friday’s jump helped the stock land in the green for the week – but not by much. Trump media rose just 4.4 per cent over the past five days.
The stock was briefly halted for volatility after Trump's comments.
On Thursday, shares of the company slumped as speculative bets on Trump winning a second four-year term lost steam a day after his victory over Democrat Kamala Harris. The stock rose 5.9 per cent on Wednesday following Election Day on Tuesday.
While Trump and Vice President Harris were nearly tied in most opinion polls leading up to the election, online betting markets favored the former president more, prompting investors to pile into securities that they viewed as more likely to benefit or come under pressure under his leadership.
That resulted in a roughly a 200 per cent surge in Trump Media stock in the six weeks before the election.
Trump had already said in September that he was not selling his shares in the company and would not leave the social medial platform he founded.
Trump owns nearly 115 million shares and has about a 53 per cent stake in Trump Media. At the stock's price on Friday, his piece of the company was worth about $3.7 billion, while its total market capitalization was at around $7 billion.
The stock's 30-day implied volatility - an options-based measure of how much traders expect the stock to swing in the near term - has retreated from the record high 300 per cent touched right before the election, but remains highly elevated at about 200 per cent, per Trade Alert data.
Even though the presidential election is over, options traders see the stock swinging by as much as 25 per cent over the next week, LSEG options data showed.