These Stocks Are More of a Gamble Than An Investment

As with seemingly everything in markets these days, it all ties back to the Reddit Wall Street Bets message board.

No, we’re not talking about GameStop (ticker: GME). Rather, Castor Maritime (CTRM). The dry-bulk commodities transportation firm was trading around 20 cents earlier this year until it was swept up in momentum as users of the message board recommended the company, sending shares as high as $1.95.

The stock was identified as a potential gamble using methodology from recently published research paper—from Alok Kumar of the University of Miami, Houng Nguyen of the University of Danang, and Talis Putnins at the University of Technology Sydney and Stockholm School of Economics. The group proposed looking at the average volume over 30 days compared to market cap as a way of determining what they called lottery stocks. “We assume that gambling in stock markets involves disproportionate amount of trading in lottery-like stocks,” they said.

Castor topped the research group’s list of New York Stock Exchange- and Nasdaq-listed companies that were potential “lottery stocks.” Barron’s added to a filter to the list to look at companies with market caps of at least $500 million and published the list in January.

We ran our version of that screen again this month. Castor Maritime topped our list this time.

Sundial Growers (SNDL), the cannabis stock, and Genius Brands International (GNUS), the children’s media company, appear high on the list too. The top NYSE-listed stock was AMC Entertainment (AMC), the movie chain operator that, with GameStop, became a poster-child for the so-called meme stock revolution.

And what about GameStop itself? It’s not in the top 20, but the methodology does put the video-games retailer high: Out of more than 3,000 stocks, GameStop ranks 128th as a lottery stock.

The stock scoring lowest in the lottery stock rankings was Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL).

Ranking	Company
1.	Castor Maritime
2.	Sundial Growers
3.	Genius Brands International
4.	TherapeuticsMD
5.	Ideanomics
6.	AMC Entertainment
7.	Ocugen
8.	Ebang International Holdings
9.	ElectraMeccanica Vehicles
10.	Workhorse Group
11.	Jiayin Group
12.	Invesco Mortgage Capital
13.	ChromaDex
14.	Transocean
15.	Gevo
16.	Bionano Genomics
17.	Clovis Oncology
18.	Nano Dimension
19.	W&T Offshore
20.	Tellurian
Source: FactSet

The number of U.S. billionaires in the world reached 870 in mid-January, outpacing the number in China for the first time in 10 years, according to a snapshot of the wealthiest in the world by the Hurun Report.

The U.S. gained 70 billionaires since last year, powered by a rising stock market, a strong dollar, and the insatiable appetite for all things AI, according to the 14th annual Hurun Global Rich List . China gained nine billionaires overall for a total of 823. Hurun is a China-based research, media, and investment group.

“It’s been a good year for AI, money managers, entertainment, and crypto,” Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report, said in a news release. “It’s been a tough year for luxury, telecommunications, and real estate in China.”

Overall, the Hurun list—which reflects a snapshot of global wealth based on calculations made Jan. 15—counted 3,442 billionaires in the world, up 5%, or 163, from a year ago. Their total wealth rose 13% to just under $17 trillion.

In November, New York research firm Altrata reported that the billionaire population rose 4% in 2023 to 3,323 individuals and their wealth rose 9% to $12.1 trillion.

Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car maker Tesla and right-hand advisor to President Donald Trump, topped the list for the fourth time in five years, with recorded wealth of $420 billion as of mid-January as Tesla stock soared in the aftermath of the U.S. election, according to Hurun’s calculations.

The firm noted that Musk’s wealth has since nosedived about $100 billion, falling along with shares of Tesla although the EV car maker is benefiting on Thursday from Trump’s 25% tariff on cars made outside the U.S.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s wealth stood at about $336 billion as of the market’s close on Wednesday, although measuring his exact wealth —including stakes in his privately held companies and the undiscounted value of his Tesla shares—is difficult to precisely determine.

The overall list this year contained 387 new billionaires, while 177 dropped off the list—more than 80 of which were from China, Hurun said. “China’s economy is continuing to restructure, with the drop-offs coming from a weeding out of healthcare and new energy and traditional manufacturing, as well as real estate,” Hoogewerf said in the release.

Among those who wealth sank was Colin Huang, the founder of PDD Holdings —the parent company of e-commerce platforms Temu and Pinduoduo—who lost $17 billion.

Also, Zhong Shanshan, the founder and chair of the Nongfu Spring beverage company and the majority owner of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise , lost $8 billion from “intensifying competition” in the market for bottled water. The loss knocked Zhong from his top rank in China, which is now held by Zhang Yiming founder of Tik-Tok owner Bytedance. Zhang is ranked No. 22 overall.

Hurun’s top 10 billionaires is a familiar group of largely U.S. individuals including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison. The list has France’s LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault in seventh place, three notches down from his fourth ranked spot on the Bloomberg list, reflecting a slump in luxury products last year.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is ranked No. 11 on Hurun’s list as his wealth nearly tripled to $128 billion through Jan. 15. Other AI billionaires found lower down on the list include Liang Wenfeng, 40, founder and CEO of DeepSeek, with wealth of $4.5 billion and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, with $1.8 billion.

Also making the list were musicians Jay-Z ($2.7 billion), Rihanna ($1.7 billion), Taylor Swift ($1.6 billion), and Paul McCartney ($1 billion). Sports stars included Michael Jordan ($3.3 billion), Tiger Woods ($1.7 billion), Floyd Mayweather ($1.3 billion), and LeBron James ($1.3 billion).

Wealth continues to surge across the globe, but Hoogewerf noted those amassing it aren’t overly generous.

“We only managed to find three individuals in the past year who donated more than $1 billion,” he said. Warren Buffet gave $5.3 billion, mainly to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, while Michael Bloomberg —ranked No. 19 with wealth of $92 billion—gave $3.7 billion to various causes. Netflix founder Reed Hastings, ranked No. 474 with wealth of $6.2 billion, donated $1.1 billion.

These Stocks Are More of a Gamble Than An Investment

And the no.1 Is a Reddit favourite.

The U.S. now has more billionaires than China for the first time in a decade, driven by AI and a booming stock market.