It has been a rough month for subscription-based television and movie streaming service Netflix. Who would have thought that television broadcasting, until recently a traditional, perhaps even legacy business, would become included among Silicon Valley’s ‘big tech’ stocks which mostly consist of internet and e-commerce giants?

Nowadays, television is also an internet business. Many people do not watch broadcast media anymore, and internet-based streamed channels such as YouTube have taken the centre stage.

Netflix moved the game on perfectly. It provides a ‘television style’ experience rather than being web browser based, and cinematic quality, with the internet style method of selecting what to watch and when. Therefore, the path to success and global distribution was relatively effortless as Netflix became a household name very quickly.

Rather as Hoover became a slang name for a vacuum cleaner in the 1950s, and Google became a verb in the 1990s, Netflix enjoys a similar position in the global lexicon today. It has even given its brand name to a double entendre relating to date nights. However, the last week has not been a time to sit back and chill, to allude to the tongue-in-cheek phrase associated with the company’s name.

In the middle of last month, Netflix stock was trading at over $342 per share. Suddenly, a downward movement began, resulting in a drop from $342 per share on April 13 to $323 by April 19.

This never recovered, and by April 26, the value of Netflix stock had closed near $321 per share, considerably lower than any closing point during the past month.

By Friday last week (April 28), Netflix shares had enjoyed a significant rebound, reaching over $329 per share, with the chart showing potential for an upward trend, but that did not happen.

At the end of the trading day yesterday, Netflix shares had begun to drop in value once again, resting at $324.12 at the close of the New York session.

Perhaps interestingly, it may look as though Netflix is going through a massive slump right now, but that massive slump is only relative to the strong performance of Netflix stock over the past few months.

Netflix began the year at much lower values. The first trading day of 2023 registered a value of $294.95 for Netflix stocks; however, just three weeks later, the value climbed to $367.96 on January 25.

Over the ensuing months, there was an overall downturn in value, culminating in the lows of the $293 range in March before a sudden rise once again.

Now, with similar levels of volatility to those experienced at the beginning of this year, it is clear that Netflix is bucking the trend which is common among highly capitalised, large corporations at the very top of the US stock markets, which are usually non-volatile and whose shares are the most traded due to their 'blue chip', lower risk nature.

Netflix is one of the rare big tech, large-cap companies whose stock has been volatile all year, and this week is no exception.

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