A renewed wave of retail trading is rippling through US financial markets, lifting everything from blue-chip stocks to cryptocurrencies and reviving the brokerage boom that began during the pandemic, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on 30 July. Zero-commission platforms such as Robinhood are again seeing heavy volumes as individual investors pour cash into speculative assets, pushing prices sharply higher. Goldman Sachs Research said its Speculative Trading Indicator logged one of the steepest three-month jumps on record, eclipsed only by the peaks of the 1999 dot-com bubble and the 2021 meme-stock frenzy. Retail investors now control almost half of the US equity market, estimates market-data service Stocktwits, and their buying has driven a fresh rally in heavily shorted and penny stocks. The resurgence is stoking debate over market stability. Duke University finance professor Campbell Harvey cautioned that the dominance of passive strategies—now larger than active management—can mask vulnerabilities when interest rates remain high. Strategists at Stocktwits likened current exuberance to the run-ups that preceded the 2000 and 2008 downturns, warning that sustained speculative appetite could herald a market top.