Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) rose as much as 25% in early trading on Wednesday as Donald Trump emerged victorious over Kamala Harris in the presidential election. Shares fell to just under 10% by mid-afternoon.
With a victory in Wisconsin, Trump has secured the 270 electoral college votes needed to win, according to the Associated Press. The Republican will now have the distinction of being the 45th and 47th American presidents.
Trump has about a 60% stake in DJT. At current levels of about $37 per share, Trump Media has a market cap of about $7.4 billion, giving the former president a stake of about $4.4 billion and making him roughly $500 million richer compared to where the shares closed on Tuesday.
Shares in the company — home to Trump’s social media platform Truth Social — were up about 25% late Tuesday as Harris’ path to victory narrowed, then rose again after victory was declared in the early morning Wednesday .
The stock had a wild run ahead of the election. Trading was halted several times due to volatility, with 15% gains quickly erased and Monday’s double-digit percentage gain reversed to start the week. Despite a recovery from wider losses, shares still closed Tuesday to trade around $34.
Strategists have categorized the stock as a binary bet on the election. Matthew Tuttle, CEO of investment fund Tuttle Capital Management, recently told Yahoo Finance’s Catalysts that the stock’s trajectory depended on a “buy the rumor, sell the fact” trading strategy.
Read more: Trump vs. Harris: 4 Ways the Next President Could Impact Your Bank Accounts
“I imagine you would see this happen the day after he won,” he surmised. “If he loses, I think it goes to zero.”
Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, said DJT has taken on a “life of its own.”
“It’s been volatile on the way up, and when a stock is that volatile in one direction, it tends to be that volatile in the other direction,” he said on a call with Yahoo Finance last week.
In September, shares in Trump Media traded at their lowest levels since the company’s debut, following the expiration of the much-discussed lock-up period.
However, stocks had bounced back from their lows as both domestic and foreign betting markets shifted in favor of a Trump victory.
Trump founded Truth Social after being kicked off major social media apps like Facebook (META) and Twitter, now X, following the Capitol riots of January 6, 2021. Trump has since been reinstated on those platforms. He officially returned to his post at X in mid-August, after a hiatus of about a year.
