Seven and a half years of ticker mentions from the IU Momentum Chat, grouped into thematic
baskets. Each month gets its four hottest themes and the names that carried them — so a
rotation you lived through can be read back as data.
months
91
ranked mentions
1.62M
themes
39
peak theme share
28%Biotech Catalysts, 2019-12
The rotation
Each cell is one theme's share of that month's ticker mentions. Rows are ordered by the month
each theme peaked, so the sequence of regimes falls along the diagonal.
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Video Games & Gaming
IPO Class & New Listings
Distressed & Bankruptcy Plays
Biotech Catalysts
Index, Vol & Leveraged Beta
COVID Vaccines, Therapeutics & Diagnostics
Travel, Leisure & Reopening
SPACs & de-SPAC Momentum
Clean Energy, Hydrogen & Solar
EV, EV SPACs & Charging
Media, Streaming & Adtech
Meme Squeeze & Retail Short Squeeze
Growth Tech, E-commerce & Stay-at-home
Fintech, Lending & Retail Brokerage
Monkeypox / Biodefense
Banks & Credit Stress
Consumer, Retail & Turnarounds
Cannabis
Crypto Miners & Mining Infra
Robotics & Physical AI
China ADRs & China Small-cap Pumps
Trump & Political Trade
Nuclear, SMR & Uranium
Quantum Computing
AI Software & AI-branded Names
Healthcare Services & GLP-1 Consumer
AI Compute, Neoclouds & Data Centers
Crypto Proxies, Treasuries & Exchanges
Critical Minerals, Rare Earth & Lithium
Precious Metals & Miners
Oil, Gas & Energy Commodities
Semis, Memory & Optical
Space, eVTOL, Drones & Air Mobility
Mega-cap Tech
share of month0% → 18%+Themes that never reached 3% in a month are omitted.
The baskets
Top four themes per month, constituents ranked by mentions. ×N is the theme's
share against its trailing six-month median; a filled tag marks ignition — at least 2.5× its
own baseline, or appearing from nothing.
2026Semis, Memory & Optical7 mo · 114,602 mentions
One theme dominates: semis and memory. MU/INTC/SNDK/AXTI reach 25% of all chat in May — the most concentrated single-theme regime in the archive. Silver in December–January and crude in March are the only interruptions.
The crypto-treasury company (BMNR/SBET/ASST/CEP), the stablecoin IPO (CRCL), the neocloud complex (CRWV/NBIS/IREN), and the OPEN squeeze. Quantum peaks in January and fades.
also ignitingRobotics & Physical AI2.0% ×3.07RRSERVARBE
2024Biotech Catalysts12 mo · 191,725 mentions
Rotation accelerates. AI small caps, the May meme revival (GME/FFIE), then the post-election cluster — Trump trade, crypto treasuries, nuclear/SMR — and in December, quantum ignites from nothing.
also ignitingAI Compute, Neoclouds & Data Centers1.7% ×5.51SMCIWULFSNOW
2023Biotech Catalysts12 mo · 191,750 mentions
Two violent, narrow regimes: the March regional-bank failure (FRC/WAL/PACW/SI at 16% of the month) and the arrival of the AI trade in February, which never leaves.
Bear market. Attention fragments into biotech catalysts and single-name squeezes, punctuated by two clean macro trades: the March oil spike and the July monkeypox pop.
also ignitingTrump & Political Trade2.9% ×4.64DWACPHUNCFVIMega-cap Tech2.8% ×3.61AAPLNFLXMSFTTSMFBAMZN
2021Meme Squeeze & Retail Short Squeeze12 mo · 315,295 mentions
The squeeze year. Meme names hold 15% of all attention for twelve straight months, peaking at 26% in June (AMC/WISH/CLOV) and September (CEI/BBIG/ATER). Crypto miners and EV SPACs rotate underneath.
also igniting3D Printing & Additive2.4% ×5.24DDDNNDMDMSSYSVJETXONESpace, eVTOL, Drones & Air Mobility1.9% ×2.99SPCEEHGSATUAVSVISL
2020COVID Vaccines, Therapeutics & Diagnostics12 mo · 254,484 mentions
COVID owns the first half — diagnostics and vaccines, then the reopening wreck, then the stay-at-home winners. The year ends on the EV/SPAC melt-up: NIO, XPEV, LI, NKLA, WKHS.
also ignitingPrecious Metals & Miners3.8% ×5.25SBGL
2019Biotech Catalysts12 mo · 138,191 mentions
Recovered from raw message text — the platform never hyperlinked cashtags this year, so the rollup reported zero chat mentions for all twelve months. The room was trading the IPO class (BYND, UBER, CRWD, CHWY, FVRR, WORK, PTON), biotech catalysts, and the PG&E bankruptcy; then in September the Aramco strike and the retail-bankruptcy wave.
also ignitingConsumer, Retail & Turnarounds4.3% ×15.37AMRSKHCCVNAVideo Games & Gaming4.0% ×4.65EAATVIHUYATTWOEV, EV SPACs & Charging6.2% ×3.43SOLONIOKNDITSLABLNKIDEX
also ignitingEV, EV SPACs & Charging1.8% newTSLANIOBLNKIndex, Vol & Leveraged Beta2.8% newSPYTVIXVXXMeme Squeeze & Retail Short Squeeze2.7% newBBBYTBLTMRINGMECEI
Every theme, on its own terms
The four-per-month ranking favours broadly drawn buckets: a 24-name biotech grab-bag out-polls
a 3-name nuclear trade even when nuclear is the better signal. So here is each theme measured
against itself — its whole history, its peak month, and the basket it ran at that peak.
The mchat_ticker_daily rollup over the Momentum Chat archive — one row per
ticker per session, aggregating chat mentions, news tags, tape bursts, halts and
pre-gainer prints, plus the 2.05M raw messages behind it. Through 2026-07-28.
Universe
Every (month, ticker) pair with 15+ mentions. Shares are measured against that month's own
total, because raw chat volume swings 10× between the 2021 boom and the quiet stretches.
Themes
A curated ticker→theme map, era-aware where a symbol changed identity: SI was Silvergate
in 2023, IREN was a pure miner before the AI pivot, and the 2019 IPO class only became
"stay-at-home winners" once COVID hit. A second pass classifies the tail by company name.
Recovering 2019
The platform did not hyperlink cashtags until 2020, so tickers is NULL on all
230,466 of 2019's chat lines. The symbols are still in the message text: re-extracting
them against the room's own 11,510-symbol vocabulary, with a guard for pasted all-caps
newswire copy, lifts 2019 from 2,863 usable mentions to 138,191.
Noise
The platform auto-tags ordinary English as cashtags — PM, ON, IT, ALL. These drip 2–3 mentions a day across 900 sessions and
never spike, unlike real tickers; they are dropped.
Caveats
Breadth bias is real: a wide bucket out-ranks a narrow one, which is what the ignition
rows and per-theme panels correct for. And mentions measure attention, not position or
performance — a basket topping the table can be the month's worst trade.