GameStop shares surge another 19% as famed trader Roaring Kitty reveals huge $116 million position and posts cryptic message
GameStop shares are soaring again in a puzzling sequel to 2021’s two-part madness, with the rally immediately following a cryptic tweet from the man who started it all.
Keith Gill, the man who inspired that year’s short squeeze, resurfaced after three years on Sunday, posting a screenshot of what could be his portfolio.
In the, a significant number of GameStop common stock and call options are seen – the first post on the trader’s famous ‘DeepFu**ingValue’ Reddit account since April 2021.
The screenshot showed he bought 5 million shares of GME for $115.7 million and put $65.7 million into options that would make GME at least $20 per share on June 21.
It also shows that he has made more than $9.3 million from his GME holdings, just over three years after he sent the then-embattled video game retailer’s stock through the roof.
Keith Gill, the man who inspired that year’s short squeeze and also known by his online pseudonym Roaring Kitty, resurfaced on Sunday after three years, posting a screenshot of what could be his portfolio. It can be seen here in 2021
It shows a significant number of GameStop common stock and call options – the first post on the trader’s famous ‘DeepFu**ingValue’ Reddit account since April 2021
“GME YOLO update – June 2, 2024,” the post begins, with the screenshot having since been upvoted more than 52,000 times.
Around the same time, Gill posted a photo of an upside-down card in the game ‘Uno’, which garnered almost 30,000 likes on X.
As for the Reddit post and unconfirmed screenshot, it was the account’s first in three years.
It shows that five million shares were purchased at $21.27 per share – a view that almost immediately sent the relatively dormant stock soaring again.
During overnight trading Sunday, the price rose more than 19 percent to $27.58, despite the market being closed for the weekend.
The move was reminiscent of the so-called meme trader’s ill-fated trade in January 2021, where he spent $2 million to buy 50,000 shares at an average price of $40.
The following month, a day after testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Gill – who also goes by the internet pseudonym “Roaring Kitty” – also revealed on Reddit that he had doubled the number of shares of GameStop he owned, from 50,000 to 100,000.
Gill, who at that point had already made approximately $13 million in profits from his trades, quickly became an object of passion and media attention.
Around the same time, Gill posted a photo of an upside-down card in the game ‘Uno’, which garnered almost 30,000 likes on X.
GME rose more than 19 percent to $27.58 in overnight trading Sunday, despite the market being closed for the weekend.
As a result, GameStop shares skyrocketed as retail investors, spurred by the popular Reddit forum WallStreetBets, bought the stock as a way to punish hedge funds that had bet heavily against it.
The pressure “humiliated” big names like Melvin Capital’s Gabriel Plotkin, whose company was saved with a $2.75 billion lifeline provided by Kenneth Griffin of hedge fund Citadel and Steven Cohen of Point72 Asset Management.
It became the subject of a 2023 film titled Dumb Money, starring Little Ms Sunshine’s Paul Dano as Gill.
The risky trading strategies seen by the trader and his contemporaries have since drawn the ire of some investing legends, but as it came, it fizzled out within a few months.
Last month, Gil reignited that passion by posting an image of one man sits forward in his chair – a meme used by gamers when things get serious.
The stock rose as much as 119 percent at one point on Monday, despite this not indicating a trade.
It also caused losses of $1 billion for would-be short sellers who continued to bet that the video game retailer would go bankrupt, years after GameStop was hit by the “short squeeze” on its stock.
The move was reminiscent of the would-be meme trader’s ill-fated trade in January 2021, where he spent $2 million to buy 50,000 shares at an average price of $40, before buying another 50,000 shares the following month.
Last month, Gil reignited that passion by posting an image of a man sitting forward in his chair – a meme used by gamers when things get serious
A “short squeeze,” in this case, refers to when the big investors who had bet against GameStop were forced to buy the rapidly rising stock to offset their massive losses.
The screenshot Gill posted on Sunday, if legit, shows him with a loss of almost $2.5 million on his call options – the option to buy an asset at an agreed upon price on or before a certain date.
GameStop shares, meanwhile, closed at $23.14 on Friday, May 31, with shares up 38.8 percent from the year before.
Much of this appears to be boosted by Gill’s return, as Monday’s opening bell looms large.
The investor was a former marketer for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. He and a group of retailers he met online fueled the initial rally.