Finance
GameStop shares jump more than 40% as ‘Roaring Kitty’ plans livestream
Pavlo Gonchar | SOPA images | Light rocket | Getty Images
Shares of GameStop rocketed to session highs on Thursday after meme stock leader “Roaring Kitty” scheduled a livestream on YouTube, which would be his first in nearly four years.
Roaring Kitty, whose real name is Keith Gill, set the time for his live chat at noon on Friday, which traders speculated would be a bullish discussion about his huge GameStop bet. The investor hosted three-hour livestreams in August 2020 in which he explained his investment thesis behind his favorite physical video game store.
GameStop rocketed more than 47% higher to close at $46.55 per share. The stock hit a high of $47.50 during the session, during which trading was briefly halted due to volatility. Inventory has more than doubled so far this week.
GameStop, 1 day
More than 10,000 people were already waiting in the livestream and countless responses flowed through the chat box.
Gill, who goes by DeepF ——Value on Reddit, recently resurfaced online more than three years after sparking the historic trading mania that burned short-selling hedge funds in 2021. Last Sunday, he started posting screenshots of his E-trade portfolio containing five million shares of GameStop common stock and 120,000 call options. Combined, they now have a market value of at least $200 million. It looked like he had held his positions on Thursday night.
If these call options are exercised, Gill’s stake in GameStop could reach 17 million shares. If the stock returns to its May high of $64.83 per share, Gill’s position would be worth more than $1 billion.
Gill had stopped posting updates the week after The Wall Street Journal reported that Morgan Stanley’s E-Trade broker was considering booting him out of concern that what he was doing would amount to market manipulation.
CNBC has not independently verified Gill’s assets.
The investor is a former marketer for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. The 2021 mania led to a series of hearings in Congress, starring Gill, on broker practices and the gamification of retail.
