Facebook’s Rebrand Causes Ticker Confusion

Ticker confusion has become a comically common occurrence in the investing world with the spread of retail trading. There have been many cases in recent history, such as the start of the COVID pandemic with Zoom. There are a plethora of other examples, both newer and older, but there’s also a current one that we can add. 

There are few who hadn’t heard of Facebook changing its name to Meta. Now note, the social network will still stay Facebook; it’s the parent company that’s taking on the new name. So Meta will own WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Oculus, and other services. If the situation still confuses you, you can look at Google’s shift to Alphabet, as the two are nearly identical. And as it goes when any big tech company makes a significant move, investors rush to buy its stock.

However, some were misled by the amazing deal they thought they were getting. They thought they could buy Facebook stocks for just under $5 and jumped at the opportunity. Little did they know, the Meta they were investing in isn’t the one they thought. Namely, a lot of people purchased Meta Materials (MMAT) instead of Zuckerberg’s Meta.

Between the time Facebook made the announcement and the opening of the market, Meta Materials stocks rose 6.4% to 4.86. Once traders could get their hands on the share, it grew even further, only for the confusion to resolve. It currently sits at $4.62 per stock, which is still higher than the initial price. As it usually is in trading and investing, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. 

As a side note, Facebook hasn’t changed its stock ticker yet, and you can find it as FB. This occurrence is another one in a long row of funny stock ticker situations that prove that traders need to be less rash and more careful.