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Video game retailer GameStop’s stock price nearly lost value on Monday, amid a frenzy reminiscent of the “meme stock” boom of the early 2010s, after a single post by a social media account named “Roaring Kitty.” It’s doubled.
Roaring Kitty is day trader Keith Gill’s account on social media platform X. His videos inspired millions of people to enter the market during the meme stock bubble, which helped propel stocks like GameStop to dizzying heights.
Gill’s account had been inactive since June 2021, but was revived on Sunday when he posted a meme of a man slouching in a chair. This image was posted by GameStop on its X account in February. The post had been viewed more than 14 million times by midday in New York.
GameStop stock had already risen more than 60% from May 1 to Friday, and was up as much as 118% in early trading Monday. The gain had narrowed to about 70% as of midday after the rally was halted by rules designed to prevent excessive volatility in individual stocks.
Kevin Gordon, senior investment strategist at Charles Schwab, said Monday’s rally suggests that “there is still a stock fetish” among some retail investors.
GameStop rose 2,400 percent in price in 2021, becoming a symbol of meme stock turmoil.
Gill, also known as DeepFuckingValue on Reddit, gained attention for his huge bet on the company in 2020, with rising prices potentially forcing short sellers to buy shares to cover large short positions. I correctly predicted that there would be.
One of the most high-profile victims of the short squeeze was New York hedge fund Melvin Capital, which lost 53 percent of its value in January of that year. Gill’s former employer, the insurance company MassMutual, was later fined $4 million for failing to supervise his social media use.
Investors in so-called meme stocks also targeted other companies whose stocks were heavily shorted in 2021, including AMC Entertainment and BlackBerry. Both companies rose on Monday, with AMC Entertainment’s stock up 44% by midday and BlackBerry’s up 7%.
“But overall it’s not a clear exuberance,” Gordon said, noting that prices for cryptocurrencies and other so-called speculative assets remained subdued on the day.
As of Friday, 29% of GameStop shares were outstanding, according to S&P Global data, which is a measure of short interest in the stock.
Net income for the year ended February 3, 2024 increased to $6.7 million from a net loss of $313.1 million a year earlier. Net sales were $5.3 billion, down from $5.9 billion in 2022.
Roaring Kitty uploaded a second tweet late Monday. The video was a one-minute video spliced together of clips of comic book heroes and villains powering up before battle to the theme of a 1967 spaghetti western. big gundown.
The third tweet is a mashup of movie clips. ferris bueller’s day off,TV program Breaking Bad And a line from a melancholy Radiohead song. Neither post mentions GameStop.
Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, which has exploded in popularity during the pandemic, was buzzing with Roaring Kitty memes and potentially playful comments Monday.
“I have $100,000 so I’m ready to risk it all,” one user wrote.
“Here we go again, gentlemen,” said another.
Retail inflows into GameStop were relatively small at about $4.4 million last Friday, according to data firm Vandertrack, which monitors retail investment trends. In January 2021, retail inflows into the stock exceeded $80 million per day.
