GameStop leaps in premarket as Roaring Kitty may hold large position
Shares of GameStop are surging before the market opens Monday on speculation that the man at the center of the pandemic meme stock frenzy owns a large number of shares of the video game retailer that could be worth millions.
Shares of GameStock rose more than 87% in premarket trading.
Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty” on social media platforms YouTube and forum that people are speculating that it could be an image of the shares and call options that Gill holds in GameStop. The image showed that Gill may own 5 million shares of GameStop worth $115.7 million as of Friday’s closing price in. GameStop with a strike price of $20 expiring on June 21. The call options were purchased for approximately $5.68 each.
In addition, Gill’s account on X posted a photo of an upside-down card from the popular game Uno on Sunday evening. There was no text with the image.
This last activity comes about three weeks after Gill appeared online for the first time in three years, causing GameStop’s price to rise at the time. In May, the ‘Roaring Kitty’ account posted an image on X of a man sits forward in his chaira meme used by gamers when things get serious.
The post on FYI: Here is a short 4 minute video I put together to summarize the situation $GME bull case.”
GameStop in 2021 was a video game retailer struggling to survive as consumers quickly switched from discs to digital downloads. Big Wall Street hedge funds and major investors bet against it, or shorted the stock, believing the stock would remain in a drastic downward trend.
Gill and those who agreed with him changed the trajectory of a company that seemed headed toward bankruptcy by buying up thousands of GameStop shares, despite virtually all accepted numbers telling investors the company was in serious trouble.
That started what’s known as a “short squeeze,” when the big investors who had bet against GameStop were forced to buy the surging stock to offset their massive losses.
Others who joined the meme wave on Monday include movie theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings, which is up more than 26% in premarket trading. Koss Corp., a headphone maker, rose more than 14% and BlackBerry, once the dominant smartphone maker, rose more than 4%.