Gamestop on a rampage, up 80% in early trading  

GameStop (GME) saw a near 80% increase in the early hours of Monday trading following Keith Gill’s (also known as “Roaring Kitty”) Reddit post revealing that he owns $181.44 million worth of GME call options and stock.  His mere reappearance on X (Twitter) in May sparked a rally in meme companies such as GameStop, AMC Entertainment, Blackberry, and Clover Health. 

For the first time since April 2021, Gill, the trader, frequently credited with a significant impact on the 2021 GME short squeeze, uploaded to Reddit on June 2 via his “DeepFuckingValue” account. In an apparent bet that GME would trade at least $20 per share on June 21, he reportedly paid $115.7 million for 5 million GME shares and invested $65.7 million in call options, as evidenced by his screenshot.

After Gill’s first appearance on social media three weeks ago, GameStop saw an incredible surge, with shares more than doubling in May. Even though all he had posted at the time was an image of a man bending forward in a chair, amateur traders went into a buying frenzy.  

In addition, Gill sent X a mysterious green UNO reverse card, continuing a string of esoteric tweets and memes he’s shared since his abrupt return in May. Some have viewed Gill as the focal point of the GameStop story during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which Reddit traders profited from shorting the collapsing physical game store while hedge funds gained from the trade. In less than a month, the price of GameStop stock increased by over 1,000% because of their actions. 

The meme trader used to post on the r/wallstreetbets subreddit,  well-known for its connections to the GameStop short squeeze story. However, the forum has moved away from GME content; on June 3, moderator “zjz” even stated that “this is not a GameStop subreddit.”. Gill most recently posted on the subreddit r/Superstonk, where people mostly speculatively discuss GME. 

Gill had previously disclosed on April 16 to r/wallstreetbets that he had purchased 20,000 GME shares for $55.17 per share. He had a gain of $19,9 million at that point. Investors are placing their faith in CEO Ryan Cohen to eventually turn around GameStop, which is still having difficulty making the switch from physical to digital gaming.