The fever in financial markets over “meme stocks” is back and stranger than ever.

Just how strange?

So strange that on Monday, for no singular reason, shares in a medley of beaten-down companies suddenly soared as small-time investors bought up stocks that mainstream Wall Street analysts and investors had long given up on.

It got odder on Tuesday, as that tsunami of trading intensified and the shares of four companies briefly doubled in value.

Krispy Kreme (DNUT), Opendoor (OPEN), Rocket Mortgage (RKT) and Kohl’s (KSS) had become the meme stocks of the moment, along with a new moniker from traders — “DORK,” a reference to the first letters of their tickers.

But like the meme-stock craze of 2021, Monday’s and Tuesday’s inexplicable gains swiftly gave way to inexplicable losses.

On Wednesday, the aforementioned shares pulled back, and the moment acquired an unlikely twist of identity politics, with some online stock boosters praising Opendoor, the real estate platform, for being the first meme stock led by a female chief executive. That historical footnote could not prevent the company’s stock from dropping 20 percent on the day.

It is at once familiar and all new. The power of small investors to send Wall Street spinning has been well demonstrated since the pandemic, when a mix of online trading tools, low interest rates and boredom incited the first meme mania.