Keith Gill, the mastermind behind the GameStop short squeeze, reappeared Sunday after three years, revealing he purchased 5 million GME shares for $115.7 million and invested $65.7 million in options. His GME holdings have gained over $9.3 million during this period.
Shares of GameStop are surging once again in a puzzling sequel to 2021’s two-part frenzy, with the rally seen immediately after a cryptic tweet from the man who started it all. Keith Gill, the man who inspired that year’s short squeeze, resurfaced Sunday after three years, posting a screenshot of what could be his portfolio in the process.
In it, a significant amount of GameStop common shares and call options can be seen – the first post on the trader’s famed ‘DeepF***ingValue’ Reddit account since April 2021. The screenshot showed he purchased 5 million GME shares for $115.7 million and put $65.7 million into options that be GME would be at least $20 a share by June 2024. It also shows he’s gained over $9.3 million on his GME holdings, just over three years after he sent the then-embattled video game store’s stock through the roof. ‘GME YOLO update – June 2 2024’, the post begins, offering up the screenshot that since been upvoted more than 52,000 times. Around the same time, Gill posted a picture of a reverse card in the game ‘Uno’ – garnering near 30,000 likes on X.
As for the Reddit post and the unconfirmed screenshot, it was the account’s first in three years. It shows five million shares bought at $21.27 per share – a display that almost instantly sent the relatively dormant stock rising once again. It soared more than 19 percent to $27.58 in overnight trading Sunday, despite the market being closed on the weekend. The move was reminiscent of the so-called meme trader’s fateful trade in January 2021, where he spent $2 million to buy 50,000 shares at an average price of $40.
The next month, a day after testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Gill – who also goes by the internet pseudonym ‘Roaring Kitty’ – revealed also on Reddit that he had doubled the number of shares of GameStop he was holding, from 50,000 to 100,000. Gill, who had at that point already made about $13 million in profits from his trades, quickly became an object of fervor and media scrutiny. GameStop shares skyrocketed as a result, as retail investors, urged on by popular Reddit forum WallStreetBets, bought the stock as a way to punish hedge funds that had bet massively against it.
Last month, Gill reignited that fervor by posting an image of a man sitting forward in his chair – a meme used by gamers when things are getting serious. The stock rose by an astonishing 119 percent at one point on Monday, despite it not indicating a trade. It also caused losses of $1 billion for so-called short sellers who have been continued to bet the video game retailer will go bankrupt, years after GameStop was hit with the ‘short squeeze’ on its stock. GameStop shares skyrocketed as a result, as retail investors, urged on by popular Reddit forum WallStreetBets, bought the stock as a way to punish hedge funds that had bet massively against it.
The squeeze ‘personally humbled’ big shots like Melvin Capital’s Gabriel Plotkin, whose firm was bailed out with a $2.75 billion dollar lifeline supplied by hedge fund Citadel’s Kenneth Griffin and Point72 Asset Management’s Steven Cohen. It went on to become the subject of a 2023 film titled Dumb Money, which featured Little Miss Sunshine’s Paul Dano as Gill. The risky trading strategies seen by the trader and his contemporaries have since drawn the ire of some investing legends, but just as it came, it sputtered out within a few months.
The screenshot Gill posted Sunday, if legitimate, shows he is holding a loss of nearly $2.5 million on his call options – the option to buy assets at an agreed price on or before a particular date. GameStop shares, meanwhile, closed at $23.14 on Friday, May 31, with shares up 38.8 percent on the year. Much of this appears to be boosted by Gill’s return, as Monday’s opening bell looms large.
The investor was a former marketer for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. He and a band of retail traders he met online spurred the initial rally. As Monday’s trading session opens, all eyes will be on GameStop and Keith Gill, wondering if history is on the verge of repeating itself.
