GameStop Sinks After Wild Swing—Will Roaring Kitty Cash In?

GameStop shares fell slightly Tuesday as traders mulled new posts from Keith Gill, a meme stock influencer better known online as Roaring Kitty or DeepFuckingValue.

As of this writing, GameStop shares traded nearly 4% lower on Tuesday at $27 even. The retreat followed a 30% drop on Monday after a Reddit post from Gill garnered widespread attention on Superstonk, a go-to community for people to discuss shares in the video game retailer.

Reminiscent of the “GME YOLO update” that Gill penned during GameStop’s meteoric run-up in 2021, the meme stock influencer posted his purported positions Sunday. Under his Reddit account DeepFuckingValue, Gill signaled he held $210 million in GameStop stock and call options.

A subsequent post Monday calmed fears that Gill may have sold his GameStop positions amid a short-lived spike in the firm’s shares. Though GameStop immediately dipped from a pre-market trading price of $39.69, the value of Gill’s holdings grew by millions of dollars, according to his Reddit post.

GameStop options held by Gill that anticipate the stock’s price will be above $20 by June 21 increased in value by $54.3 million that day. Based on his previous update, the influencer was nurturing a loss of $65,000 on the call options the day before, which are now worth $120 million.

Gill’s GameStop shares were valued at $140 million, according to his post on Monday, netting the influencer over $33 million in total gains on paper. Showing a 31% increase relative to when Gill bought them, the influencer owns 5 million GameStop shares.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that E*Trade is considering dropping Gill from its platform. The firm is concerned about stock manipulation in light of Gill’s recent purchases and renewed penchant for online posts, according to “people familiar with the matter.”

A modern character of financial folklore, Gill’s online return reignited interest in trading GameStop shares last month when he started posting to Twitter (aka X) again after a years-long hiatus. In 2021, he became the face of a retail-led movement to bet big against Wall Street short sellers through pumping the price of GameStop, which contributed to a historic short squeeze.

This time around, GameStop shares haven’t surged as high alongside Gill’s posts. Still, the price of GameStop has increased 68% over the past month from $16.31.

pic.twitter.com/zUuccrKWZr

— Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty) June 3, 2024

“Someone got picked off bad, who bought GameStop at $47.50,” Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” said on Twitter, referring to GameStop’s relative drop on Monday. The high price had been momentarily reached during intraday trading early Monday morning.

Though Gill’s online return came first on Twitter, where the influencer posted a string of cryptic videos centered around movie references, his activity on the platform has trailed off since mid-May. On Sunday, however, Gill posted a photo there of a green reverse Uno card.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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