Roaring Kitty Resurfaces, Skyrockets GameStop and Meme Stocks

In an unexpected move that redirected the gaze of Wall Street traders and market enthusiasts, news reverberated through the digital sphere when Keith Gill resurfaced for the first time in three years. Gill, who garnered fame as “Roaring Kitty,” stumbled back into the limelight with sufficient force to set off an online frenzy, propelling the mercurial prices of meme stocks to dizzying heights on Monday.

Over the past weekend, Gill punctuated the social platform X with a witty graphic depicting a man leaning intently forward in his chair. The image, a popular meme among the gaming community, communicates an underlying seriousness infiltrating an otherwise entertaining context. He followed this digital drop with an archived YouTube video where he staunchly advocated for the beleaguered GameStop from years past. His message was unequivocal as he cheerfully admitted, “That’s all for now cuz I’m out of breath. FYI here’s a quick 4min video I put together to summarize the $GME bull case.”

The object of Gill’s belief and neigh cultish following, GameStop, was combating fierce economic headwinds in 2021. Once a revered powerhouse for physical video game distribution, GameStop found itself gasping for survival as the rapid pivot of consumers toward the brave new world of digital downloads loomed overhead like an unwelcome specter. Wall Street titans and influential investors exploited this unfortunate reality by shorting its stock, assuming, rather confidently, a drastic, unremitting descent in its share values.

However, Gill, bolstered by legions of agreeable followers, interrupted this downward trajectory by procuring mass volumes of GameStop shares. Ignoring traditional metrics spelling out the critical condition of the company, they launched what has been dubbed by market observers as a ‘short squeeze.’ In this scenario, investors heavily wagering against GameStop were spurred to purchase its escalating stocks to stave off catastrophic losses.

When the market opened on Monday, it appeared Roaring Kitty had rekindled this unprecedented episode, propelling GameStop shares to more than double, finally closing the day with a phenomenal 74% gain. This extraordinary leap marked the largest single-day jump since the commencement of the meme stock frenzy in early 2021. Contagiously, other meme stocks, such as the theater heavyweight AMC, were also jolted to significant gains.

Due to intense fluctuation, trading activities for GameStop encountered pauses a staggering eight times before Monday noontime.

Gill’s fame exploded in 2021 when his posts on the popular Reddit subsection Wallstreetbets spurred an epic skirmish between the small-time traders and the colossi of Wall Street betting relentlessly on GameStop’s fall. The dramatic faceoff saw the Davids triumph, albeit temporarily, driving GameStop shares to skyrocket over 1,000% in 2021, with other meme stocks following suit.

Gill’s reappearance on Monday also acted as a catalyst for other meme stocks. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. jumped 78%, Koss Corp, a headphone manufacturer, rose 37% and BlackBerry, the once-dominant smartphone provider, registered a 7% rise.

The dynamics that once battered GameStop have certainly transformed. When Gill and his mingling horde of investors first went on their buying binge, over 140% of GameStop’s tradable shares were shorted. This anomaly occurred as traders were borrowing against already shorted stocks, super-sizing their losing bets against the company.

Despite the uproar, Gill distance himself from any implications of using social media to manipulate the stock market, even under congressional scrutiny. He chose instead to go with simply “I like the stock.” As Roaring Kitty, his online persona had been absent from messaging boards following a playful kitten video posted in June 2021.

The saga of Roaring Kitty and the meme stock pandemonium was immortalized in celluloid last year with the aptly titled “Dumb Money,” further exacerbating the renown of this singular figure within the elongating annals of Wall Street history.