Are family and friends starting to discuss their favorite stocks with you again? Speculation is beginning to reemerge in the market, and retail investors are again leading the charge. Now that the major indices have recovered and reached new highs, retail traders are becoming increasingly bold, moving from safer bets to riskier, options-fueled strategies.
And one theme that’s beginning to emerge is quantum computing, which many retail investors consider the ‘next wave’ investment theme.
Today, we’ll look at three stocks receiving significant retail attention and assess whether their outlook justifies the hype.
Retail Investors Are Leveraging Up as Markets Soar
Once the market drawdown brought on by Trump’s tariffs subsided, many institutional investors were caught off guard by the quick policy reversal. A resetting of ‘smart money’ expectations has been one of the biggest reasons markets rebounded so quickly, but one less heralded group never left: retail.
Retail investors have been consistently buying the dip for several years, not just in the tech sector.
If markets fall 10%, you can now bet a wave of retail investment is about to enter the fray. You might want to mock the gamblers posting their favorite stocks on social media.
Still, retail investors have actually learned important investment lessons, such as dollar-cost averaging (DCA) and buying when sentiment is low.
Of course, speculation remains a key driver of the retail mindset, and more active traders are entering the small-cap market with risky moonshots.
Goldman Sachs has several tools that track interest from retail traders, including the Speculative Trading Indicator and the Retail Favorites index. These tools are hitting new highs as retail traders leverage on meme-able stocks. How can you find a potential meme stock in the making?
Elevated Volume – The first and most easily identified signal is volume. Is a relatively unknown stock seeing a massive influx in daily trading volume? Significant volume increases are usually a sign that ‘someone knows something’, which draws extra attention from retail crowds.
Heightened Options Activity – Remember, the most active retail traders are looking for moonshots, not a steady 10% annual gain. Active traders often use derivatives, such as options, for leverage, as options trading doesn’t require a margin account. Short-dated options are risky, but can sometimes juice returns exponentially if timed correctly.
Viral Social Media Sentiment – If a meme stock jumps 100% weekly and no one talks about it, does it make a sound? For better or worse, social media has become an essential driver of retail sentiment. Social media sentiment can create a feedback loop, generating more activity in a stock and contributing to a volatile trading atmosphere.
One clear theme emerging from Goldman’s Retail Favorites list is renewed interest in quantum computing stocks.
3 Quantum Computing Stocks Riding the Meme Stock Wave
Stocks in the quantum computing space are starting to show the hallmarks of a retail frenzy: headline-driven rallies, overwhelming options activity, and concentrated ownership on retail-friendly platforms like Robinhood. Just remember, trading meme stocks is a risky endeavor, even with a strong retail following. Never put more capital into speculative plays than you can afford to lose, and always perform due diligence to make sure the companies you buy aren’t houses of cards.
Rigetti Computing: Another Go on the Meme Stock Rollercoaster
is no stranger to meme stock mania. The stock is up more than 4,000% over the last 12 months, but its path has been anything but straightforward. In the summer of 2024, the company was floundering as a penny stock before a series of breakthroughs and new contracts helped strengthen its fundamentals.
But despite these tailwinds, RGTI remains beholden to retail speculation. The company generated only $1.8 million in revenue in Q2 2025, making it challenging to justify a $10 billion market cap. However, the stock’s technical signals have been strong, with a sturdy support base at the 50-day simple moving average (SMA). Retail investors have been buying the dip in RGTI, and you can bet they will again on any declines.
D-Wave Quantum: A Risky Technical Setup
Another rags-to-riches story, has built a $9 billion market cap with a 2,500% stock gain in the last 12 months. Despite annual sales of less than $9 million, QBTS has garnered nothing but Buy ratings from analysts due to its new contracts with NASA, narrowing EPS losses, and significant bookings growth.
The company also has a pipeline of catalysts; however, the stock chart suggests a potentially risky trading environment. The uptrend has support at the 50-day SMA, but the RSI has reached Overbought levels for the third time this year.
Each of the two preceding Overbought signals triggered a drawdown, so it might be wiser to wait for a drop before buying shares.
IonQ: Matching Revenue with Memeability
The largest company on our list, , has a market capitalization of nearly $20 billion and annual sales exceeding $43 million. Established in 2015, the company sells quantum computing systems nationwide and has several prominent clients, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure.
IonQ reported revenue growth of 81.6% year-over-year (YOY) during its Q2 2025 earnings release, and closed out its acquisitions of LightSync and Capella to expand its roadmap. IonQ isn’t just a retail darling; institutional investors have bought $1.45 billion worth of stock over the last 12 months, including $787 million in Q2 alone.
Both institutional and retail interest in IONQ shares are at all-time highs, and the uptrend appears to have strong momentum. Just watch the Overbought signal on the RSI.