GameStop stock surges 110% as ‘Roaring Kitty’ makes surprise comeback — short-sellers lose $1B
GameStop shares surged as much as 110% on Monday after “Roaring Kitty,” the day trader who played a key role in the so-called “meme stock rally” of 2021, made a surprise comeback to social media — putting the squeeze on short-sellers who lost $1 billion because of the rally.
Roaring Kitty, whose real name is Keith Gill, posted a popular meme that shows a man leaning forward in his chair while holding a video game controller. The meme sparked speculation that Gill, who had not posted anything online in years, was returning to the public eye.
The meme was viewed nearly 11 million times and received nearly 60,000 likes on X as of Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. ET. Gill did not include a caption or any other context.
“Hey bro what we buying,” one user commented on the post.
“TIME TO LOCK IN COUSIN,” another user said while posting their own version of the same meme.
Gill — who was portrayed by actor Paul Dano in the 2023 film about the meme-stock frenzy called “Dumb Money” — later posted a series of movie clips touting his apparent comeback. One of the clips showed Marvel supervillain Thanos saying “Fine, I’ll do it myself,” and another had “Breaking Bad” antihero Walter White declaring, “We’re done when I say we’re done.”
Roaring Kitty’s posts are “like a match on dry tinder” for his rabid followers, according to Peter Atwater, the president of consulting firm Financial Insyghts.
“It doesn’t take much, if the crowd descends, to push the price wickedly in one direction,” Atwater told The Post. “If you were short this morning, you have had your face ripped off. This was not a morning to wake up short.”
GameStop, which has struggled with dwindling sales for years, had a share price of $30 as of noon ET after getting halted multiple times. The stock is up some 77% since the start of the year.
A spokesperson for trading platform Robinhood said the app “has not shut down the purchase of GameStop shares.”
About a quarter of its publicly available shares are in short position, and the bearish investors were set to lose $1.23 billion on Monday, analytics firm Ortex said.
“Squeeze-related buy-to-covers will be helping to push GME’s stock price higher — but also expect new short-sellers to jump into this trade as GME stock prices around or above the $30 level will be attractive entry points for new short-selling,” said S3 Partners managing director Ihor Dusaniwsky.
“Short sellers may be in for a bumpy and bloody ride in these stocks,” he added.
GameStop in March cut an unspecified number of jobs to reduce costs and reported lower fourth-quarter revenue.
With today’s gains, the stock now has a market value of roughly $9 billion, but at its peak was worth about $37 billion.
Shares of AMC, another meme-stock, road the wave of frenzied trading, soaring 66%, to $4.84 per share.
Gill, a 37-year-old former employee at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, helped spark a frenzy in which retail traders bought stock in struggling firms like GameStop and AMC to squeeze short-sellers.
GameStop’s value spiked more than 2,000% in the first months of 2021. At one point that year, the stock hit an all-time high of $120.75 in intraday trading.
Aside from his Roaring Kitty moniker, Gill posted as “DeepF—kingValue” on Reddit’s “Wall Street Bets” forum. Gill’s personal windfall from the meme stock rally was never disclosed.
Though the value of his GameStop stake was worth nearly $48 million at its peak, according to Reuters.
The meme stock rally famously caused the collapse of Melvin Capital, which was led by investor Gabe Plotkin and incurred heavy losses during the short squeeze.
The trend drew such intense scrutiny that Congress convened hearings in February 2021 to assess the situation – with Gill making an appearance as the star witness.
“Social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and WallStreetBets on Reddit are leveling the playing field,” Gill says in written testimony at the time. “And in a year of quarantines and COVID, engaging with other investors on social media was a safe way to socialize. We had fun.”
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