Shares of GameStop soared by more than 80% in pre-market trading on Monday after meme stock day trader “Roaring Kitty” posted a chart on Reddit showing that he had placed a $116 million bet on the embattled video game retailer.
“Roaring Kitty,” whose legal name is Keith Gill, took to Reddit and authored a post from his official account for the first time in three years.
Gill, who is known on Reddit as “DeepF–kingValue” and who goes by “Roaring Kitty” on X and YouTube, posted a screenshot of what is believed to be his portfolio which holds a large amount of GameStop common shares and call options.
The Reddit post was a repeat from 2021, when screenshots of his bullish GameStop trades triggered a rush of demand for “meme stocks” – often companies with weak fundamentals that gained a cult-like following through social media hype.
Unlike in 2021, however, Gill declined to post the item in the “WallStreetBets” chatroom where he posted his trade updates during the GameStop craze.
The screenshot posted on Sunday showed a GameStop holding of 5 million, or 1.8% of its publicly available stock.
Gill’s last post from April 2021, titled “final update,” showed a holding of 200,000 GameStop shares worth $30.9 million.
It also showed $65.7 million worth of GameStop call options, typically bought to express a bullish view, expiring on June 21 at a strike price of $20.
The stock closed at $23 on Friday, up about 33% since Gill began sharing cryptic posts and memes from his “Roaring Kitty” account on X.com in May, sparking speculation over whether he would resume sharing his trades online after the hiatus.
It’s unclear whether Gill is behind the latest post. There has been speculation online that he sold his X account to a conceptual artist.
Gill’s popular YouTube channel, which boasts more than 676,000 subscribers, has been dormant for the last three years.
Last month, Gill posted a popular meme that shows a man leaning forward in his chair while holding a video game controller.
The meme, which was viewed tens of millions of times and generated hundreds of thousands of likes, sparked speculation that Gill, who had not posted anything online in years, was returning to the public eye.
GameStop, which is based in Grapevine, Texas, logged its highest trading volume in three years, surging by as much as 400%, thanks to the meme — but the rally fizzled shortly afterward.
Renaissance Technologies, one of the top hedge funds in the world which was founded by legendary investor Jim Simons, bought more than 1 million shares of GameStop a few weeks before the rally.
The meme stock craze caught the attention of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who in late May said he purchased $24,000 in GameStop shares as a show of solidarity with the “Apes” — the term used to refer to retail stock traders.
“Keith Gill is putting his money where his tweets are, and some investors are clearly following his lead and rekindling interest in meme stocks,” said Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at digital brokerage eToro.
GameStop was trending No. 1 on investor-focused social media platform stockstwits.com, indicating increased chatter among individual traders, while fellow meme stock AMC added 26%.
Tupperware, SunPower Corp and US-listed shares of BlackBerry rose between 6% and 13%.
Monday’s surge also put GameStop short sellers on track to rack up nearly $1 billion in paper losses, according to data and analytics firm Ortex Technologies.
GameStop has been grappling with slowing sales as its core business of selling new and preowned video game disks takes a hit from consumers moving to downloading games digitally or streaming.
The Post has sought comment from the operator of the Reddit account.
With Post Wires