The man at the center of the pandemic’s meme stock boom appeared online for the first time in three years, sending the prices of these quirky and volatile stocks soaring on Monday.
Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty,” posted the photo on Sunday. man sitting facing forward in a chaira meme used by gamers when things get serious.
He followed up that tweet by defending GameStop, which had fallen on hard times years ago, saying, “I’m out of breath, so that’s all for now. For your information, I’ve put this together to summarize: This is a short 4 minute video. $GME For bulls. ”
game stop In 2021, video game retailers struggled to survive as consumers rapidly migrated from discs to digital downloads. Wall Street’s biggest hedge funds and major investors had bet on or shorted the company’s stock, believing it would continue its established downward trend.
Gill and those who agree with him appear to be headed toward bankruptcy by buying up thousands of GameStop shares in the face of prevailing indicators that tell investors the company is in deep crisis. changed the trajectory of the company.
That was the beginning of the so-called “short squeeze,” in which large investors who had bet against GameStop were forced to buy the company’s skyrocketing stock to make up for their huge losses.
At Monday’s opening bell, GameStop shares more than doubled, and Mr. Gill appeared to reignite the phenomenon. As of midday, the stock was trading 60% higher. This was GameStop’s biggest intraday trading gain since the meme boom in early 2021. Other meme stocks like theater chain AMC soared as well.
Gill said his posts in the Reddit subcategory “WallStreetBets” ignited a David-versus-Goliath battle with major hedge funds that had bet heavily on GameStop’s survival and shorted the stock. After that, he became a celebrity in 2021.
Smaller companies won, at least for a while, driving GameStop stock up more than 1,000% in 2021 and other meme stocks as well. AMC, the struggling movie theater chain, soared 2,300% that same year.
And some big traders lost billions of dollars as GameStop stock rose from less than $20 to nearly $400.
Citron Research, Melvin Capital and other famous hedge funds lost an estimated $5 billion They will be on the other side of trade in 2021, according to analysis firm S3 Partners.
Gill and other GameStop investors were betting, in part, on Chewy.com co-founder Ryan Cohen’s ability to push the traditional retailer in a more online direction.Mr. Cohen accumulated GameStop stock and eventually joined the board of directors, joining the company last year. Become a CEO.
GameStop wasn’t the only store caught on fire Monday. Some of the same meme stocks that posted astronomical gains in 2021 have soared as well.
AMC Entertainment Holdings soared 33%. Headphone maker Koss Inc. soared 25%, while BlackBerry, once the dominant smartphone maker, rose 7%. Retailer Bed, Bath & Beyond is another meme stock. sought bankruptcy protection last year.
Some meme stocks, such as GameStop and AMC, were rising rapidly earlier this month.
GameStop Corp.’s stock price has been steadily declining since 2021, but it was already up 57% this month. GameStop reported its first annual profit since 2018 in January, but it remains unclear whether Mr. Cohen’s turnaround plan will be successful.
AMC Entertainment Holdings was up 10% over the past 30 days.
Gill made a huge profit by investing in a struggling video game company, which he denies. Attended the Congressional hearing virtually He claimed to have used social media to drive up GameStop’s stock price.
All he told lawmakers at the time was, “I like stocks.”
As Roaring Kitty, Gil posted a video in June 2021 before disappearing from message boards. kittens falling asleep.
Here’s the story of Roaring Kitty and the meme stock boom. It became a movie Last year it was called “dumb money.”
