A screengrab of one of Roaring Kitty's YouTube videos on investment. (Image via YouTube)
A financial advisor and broker who most recently worked for MassMutual in Massachusetts has played a key role in the trading frenzy surrounding video game retailer GameStop.
Keith Patrick Gill, 34, is the person behind the Roaring Kitty YouTube streams that, combined with a string of posts by Reddit user DeepF***ingValue, drove a sudden increase in GameStop stock trading, slamming hedge funds that had bet against the struggling retailer, according to a Daily Mail Report on Thursday and a Reuters report on Friday. His tweets have attracted a large following also.
Although Gill's report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's BrokerCheck website says he has been with MassMutual's MML Investor Services from 2019 until the present, a MassMutual spokeswoman told ThinkAdvisor on Friday: "this individual is no longer employed by MassMutual."
Gill's Career Path
Gill has been in the financial services industry since he joined Campton, New Hampshire-based Lucidia in 2012, according to BrokerCheck. That firm's status as a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered advisory firm was terminated in 2014, according to a report at the SEC's website.
He joined a Boston branch office of Richmond, Virginia-based WealthForge Securities in 2016 but left it in 2017, according to BrokerCheck. WealthForge did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A more detailed BrokerCheck report on FINRA's website notes he was also employed by LexShares in Boston from 2016 to 2017 and Debris Publishing in Campton from 2010 to 2019. LexShares did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Debris could not be reached for comment.
Gill is still registered as a broker but no longer an RIA, according to BrokerCheck, which lists no disclosures on his report.
In his social media posts and videos, Gill indicated multiple times that he was bullish on GameStop stock and thus may have helped persuade other investors to buy shares in the retailer's stock.
Reuters identified Gill as Roaring Kitty through a company created by Gill that it said shared the same name and email as his Roaring Kitty YouTube account. The Daily Mail on Thursday also identified Gill as both Roaring Kitty and DeepF***ingValue.
