The central figure in the pandemic's meme stock boom appeared online for the first time in three years, sending the prices of three quirky and volatile stocks soaring on Monday.
Keith Gill, known as “Roaring Kitty,” posted a photo on social platform X 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 other major investors had bet on or shorted the company's stock, believing it would continue to fall significantly.
Gill and those who agreed with him pushed themselves toward bankruptcy by buying up thousands of GameStop shares in the face of nearly every accepted indicator that told investors the company was in deep crisis. changed the trajectory of a company that seemed to be on the verge of
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 it appeared as if Mr. Gill had reignited 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.
GameStop trading was halted eight times before noon Monday due to volatility.
Mr. Gill has turned his attention to the cause in 2021 after a post in the Reddit subcategory WallStreetBets ignited a David vs. Goliath battle with major hedge funds that had bet heavily on GameStop's survival. He became a master.
Smaller companies won, at least for a while, with GameStop stock up more than 1,000% in 2021, and other meme stocks as well. That same year, the struggling movie theater chain AMC soared 2,300% in a very short period of time.
Some big traders posted huge losses as GameStop raced from under $20 to nearly $400. Citron Research, Melvin Capital and other famous hedge funds lost an estimated $5 billionAccording to analytics firm S3 Partners.
Some of these new and small investors believe, at least in part, that Chewy.com co-founder Ryan Cohen has the potential to push traditional retailers more online. There were some people.Mr. Cohen accumulated GameStop stock and eventually joined the board of directors, joining the company last year. Become a CEO.
Joining Monday's meme surge was AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., which 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, including 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.
The companies erupted Monday in the wake of Gill's tweet.
However, market dynamics are changing as far as companies like GameStop are concerned.
When Gill and his online legion of retail investors began buying GameStop stock, more than 140% of the company's tradable shares were sold short. We arrive at this skewed number because some traders are borrowing against stocks they've already shorted, placing even bigger bets on the company, and when the stock price starts to rise, their losses can become steeper. This is because it has increased.
The short position in GameStop's outstanding shares now stands at just over 24%, slightly higher than the 22.5% recorded in January.
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.''
Gil disappeared from message boards as Roaring Kitty after posting a video in June 2021. 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.”
