This was published 3 months ago
The $726 million reveal: A screenshot from ‘Roaring Kitty’ might have solved a mystery
By Annie Massa, Tom Maloney and Bailey Lipschultz
It was just a screenshot of a portfolio, posted without comment on Reddit by an account associated with Keith Gill.
But assuming the unverified image in fact reflects his actual holdings, it showed the man who goes by the monikers DeepF—-ingValue and Roaring Kitty was worth as much as $US485 million ($726 million) on Monday. Shares of GameStop retreated from their highs, but closed up 21 per cent to $US28.00 in New York, making the portfolio worth roughly $US289 million.
Reddit user Roaring Kitty was a central figure in the meme stock craze helping to fuel a runaway rally in GameStop stock and inflicting dramatic losses on hedge funds betting against it.Credit: YouTube
Gill, who played a starring role in 2021’s meme-stock mania and inspired a legion of individual investors to prop up shares of GameStop, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A day after the image was posted, shares of the video game retailer surged by as much as 75 per cent in New York. Building euphoria over GameStop is familiar territory for Gill, who became a folk hero and Wall Street bete noire after a series of videos he posted about the company more than three years ago fuelled a runaway rally in the stock, inflicting dramatic losses on hedge funds betting against it.
Gill testified about the episode before Congress in 2021, and his exploits served as grist for last year’s film Dumb Money, where he was portrayed by actor Paul Dano.
Regardless of the recent screenshot’s provenance, the jolt to GameStop stock served as a reminder of the outsize impact Gill’s well-known Reddit account still wields. The image shows 5 million shares of GameStop and 120,000 call options expiring June 21, as well as more than $US29 million in cash.
The options would allow the purchase of an additional 12 million shares. The position could hypothetically make him the retailer’s fourth-largest shareholder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The cryptic post bears a notable difference from the last time DeepF—-kingValue shared a similar snapshot in April 2021, which showed a GameStop position worth just $US31 million. In addition, Gill’s account on X posted a picture of a reverse card from the popular game Uno on Sunday night. There was no text accompanying the image.
Gill’s social media accounts had been dormant for more than three years until last month, when Roaring Kitty resurfaced on X, posting an image of a man leaning forward in a chair. Fans took the hieroglyph as an indication their beloved leader was back in action, and bid up the shares. Still, GameStop shares are trading almost 67 per cent below their January 2021 peak.
GameStop in 2021 was a video game retailer that was struggling to survive as consumers switched rapidly from discs to digital downloads. Big Wall Street hedge funds and major investors were betting against it, or shorting its stock, believing that its shares would continue on a drastically downward trend.
Gill and those who agreed with him changed the trajectory of a company that appeared to be headed for bankruptcy by buying up thousands of GameStop shares in the face of almost any accepted metrics that told investors that the company was in serious trouble.
That began what is known as a “short squeeze”, when those big investors that had bet against GameStop were forced to buy its rapidly rising stock to offset their massive losses.
Others that joined the meme surge on Monday included movie theatre chain AMC Entertainment Holdings, which added more than 11 per cent.
Bloomberg, AP
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