In Its First Day Of Trading, Trump’s Social Media Stock Soars

(NationalUSNews.com) — Following the finalization of the merger of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp with Digital World Acquisition Corp. on Monday, March 25, Trump Media replaced Digital World on the Nasdaq stock exchange, with the new stock hitting the stock market on Tuesday, March 26 under the ticker DJT. The stock shot up more than 50% in its first minutes of trading, triggering a five-minute trading halt. Exchanges sometimes enact such temporary holds on extremely volatile stocks. By the end of day, the DJT stock was about 16% higher than it had opened at.

Much of the volatility comes down to Trump himself. Many smaller investors bought stocks just to show support for the former president and his legal battles, while others took advantage of the excitement of Trump’s followers to buy in, cash out and walk away with a tidy profit. Mitchell Standley of Chandler, Arizona, is an avid user of Reddit’s Wall Street Bets forum. He dipped into the stock twice on Tuesday, netting a profit of about $4,500 with his first foray, and more than $3,000 the second time.

On Monday March 25, a state appeals court ruled that Donald Trump and his co-defendants in the New York civil fraud case have just 10 days to post a $175 million bond, which was reduced from an earlier $464 million judgment that was originally supposed to be settled by Monday. While Trump clearly appreciated the ruling, making a public statement that he would settle it very quickly, others were frustrated with the argument posed by Trump’s attorneys that the larger amount was a “practical impossibility,” as well as the fact that State Attorney General Letitia James’ office will now be delayed in collecting on the judgment.

Thanks to his 60% stake in the company, former President Trump’s estimated worth is roughly $4.5 billion as of Tuesday afternoon, at least on paper. However, as part of the merger agreement, Trump is not allowed to sell any of his shares for six months. The company’s seven-member board could vote to allow him to sell or use his shares as collateral, but he may no longer have such an urgent need to raise a large amount of cash and may be content to keep his shares where they are.