Keith Gill, known on X as RoaringKitty and DFV on Reddit, is a popular retail trader known for inadvertently being behind the meme stock trading frenzy that started in 2021 and has now kickstarted a new round, with his position on GameStop ($GME) having surged by $78.6 million in just a day.
That’s according to data from Lookonchain, which pointed out that a day after RoaringKitty shared his current GameStop position on Reddit, its value rose by more than $78 million while the price of GameStop surged.
On Reddit, RoaringKitty shared that he owns 5 million GME shares and 120,000 $20 call options expiring on June 21, for a total position of over $210 million.
That position quickly grew after he revealed it in public, with the price of GME surging from around $22 to a high of $40 before moving back down to now trade at $27.7 per share.
It’s worth noting that the recent meme stock trading frenzy started after RoaringKitty returned to social media from a three-year hiatus that ended after his testimony in Congress.
AMC Entertainment (NYSE; AMC), a movie theater chain, also experienced a significant uplift, as did various lesser-known cryptocurrencies associated with Roaring Kitty and GameStop.
The sharp increase in GameStop’s stock price has resulted in iniitial significant losses for short sellers, who had previously bet on a decline. Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of S3 Partners, told the New York Times that GameStop shorts, which had accumulated $392 million in profits earlier this year, faced losses amounting to $852 million within days of the trader’s return to social media.
The New York Times has also quoted Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, as saying investors have been buying a significant number of GameStop call options, betting on continued price increases.
Featured image via Pixabay.
