Opendoor Shares Just Went Feral with a 188% Meme Rally (Thanks r/wallstreetbets)

Opendoor just did what every bagholder dreams of… it itself on fire and called it “momentum.” The iBuying zombie clawed its way out of sub-$1 oblivion this week, posting a ludicrous 188% gain fueled by Reddit degenerates, a bull case from Carvana-whisperer Eric Jackson, and whatever’s left of 2021’s dopamine receptors. OPEN shares ripped from barely alive to $2.25 in five days, cementing its new identity as the latest meme stock trying to speedrun a redemption arc.

(Source: Giphy) 

Jackson, principal at EMJ Capital and the same guy who called Carvana’s Lazarus episode, posted his Opendoor thesis on July 14. The thread made its rounds on X, Reddit, and whatever Telegram group still thinks “EBITDA” is a government conspiracy. Suddenly, Opendoor was hot again. Retail trading volume jumped 140% in ten days, and r/WallStreetBets did what it does best: rediscovered a company right after Wall Street threw it out with the recycling.

Now if you recall, Opendoor peaked at $39.24 back in the golden days of 2021 during everyone's favorite IPO loophole (read: SPACs). Since then, it’s been a masterclass in gravity: burning cash, settling lawsuits, and getting a swath of Nasdaq delisting warning letters. Additionally, the housing market turned on them. Rates spiked. And their algo couldn’t tell a buyer’s market from a dumpster fire. Oh, and they had to pay $39 million just to make a lawsuit about that go away. And yet, here we are, where hope springs eternal in meme land. 

(Source: Yahoo Finance) 

To be fair, there are glimmers of actual substance here—just enough to make the mania slightly less delusional. Jackson claims Opendoor could post its first positive EBITDA in August. The company’s contribution margin is now in the black at +4.7% (from -3.7% a year ago). They’re sitting on $679 million in cash and have $6.9 billion in non-recourse borrowing power, which means they can still play real estate roulette a little longer. 

What’s more is that the  pivot to working with brokers rather than trying to destroy them is a rare moment of strategic sanity. And with Zillow and Redfin having rage-quit the iBuyer business, Opendoor is the last one standing in a category that looked like the new “normal” just two years ago. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Still, none of this makes the $82-per-share target Jackson floated sound any less like fan fiction. This is a company that’s never posted positive EBITDA and spent part of the spring hoping Nasdaq wouldn’t ghost them. But that’s not the point, is it? This is what happens when you mix a low float and retail traders who’ve been conditioned to treat every chart like a slot machine. Translation: Opendoor didn’t suddenly solve housing liquidity or macroeconomic exposure… it just got noticed by the internet and spontaneously went feral. 

So now, it’s a race between earnings and entropy. If Opendoor prints green numbers next month, the rally might grow legs. If they miss… or even just “meh” the results… expect reality to resume its regularly scheduled programming. Until then, it’s Schrödinger’s turnaround: a stock that is both the next Carvana and still one bad quarter away from getting delisted. 

(Source: Giphy)

Meaning, while investors can pick the illusions of their choice… take heed, and don’t give into the FOMO. Make sure you do your due diligence and place your bets accordingly. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.