Meme stocks like AMC and GameStop get their price spikes from strong buying interest. GameStop reported its third quarter results after the close Tuesday, a key event for meme traders. Sales of $860 million on a loss of 4 cents per share missed analysts' estimates of $887.

Analysts predict the company will post a loss of $0.03 per share, compared to breaking even ($0.00 EPS) in the same quarter last year, according to data from Benzinga Pro. The company has beaten analyst earnings per share estimates in three of the last five quarters.

On Thursday, about 300K GameStop options contracts had changed hands by 2:14 p.m., at about 1.5 times the usual pace.