E-Trade debates whether meme stock star Keith Gill: WSJ should be banned

E-Trade is having internal discussions about whether to ban Keith Gill — the meme stock trader who just disclosed a large position in GameStop — from the trading platform over concerns about possible market manipulation. The Wall Street Journal reported this on Monday.

The real estate agency, owned by Morgan Stanleyhas not yet made a decision, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the company’s deliberations.

Shares of GameStop soared early Monday after Gill, who goes by “DeepF ——Value” on Reddit, posted a screenshot of what could be his portfolio with a significant number of GameStop common shares and call options. The meme stock leader owns 5 million shares of GameStop and a position of 120,000 call options with a $20 strike price expiring on June 21, purchased for about $5.68 each, the screenshot showed.

E-Trade declined comment to CNBC, noting that “we do not publicly discuss the individual activities of our customers.”

Morgan Stanley’s global financial crimes unit and the outside counsel began debating whether to cancel Gill’s account because the firm was monitoring his account activities, the Journal said.

The broker discovered that Gill had bought call options in May before posting on social media platform X, the Journal said, adding that some of those contracts expired that week, meaning he likely made a profit.

The 2021 meme stock mania led to a series of hearings in Congress, including testimony from Gill, on brokerage practices and the gamification of retail stock trading. Gill also faced several class action lawsuits, including one alleging that he posed as a novice trader despite being a licensed professional.

Gill worked as a marketing and financial education associate at MassMutual in 2019 and 2020.

– Click here to read the WSJ story.