GameStop Corp. shares surged as speculation swirled around a return to social media by Keith Gill, who drove the meme-stock mania of 2021 under the moniker "Roaring Kitty."
The account's post on X showed a man leaning forward with what looked like a gaming controller, which some traders interpreted to mean that Gill is coming back into action.
Gill, whose account has long been dormant, shot to fame in 2021 by rallying day traders on Reddit in an effort to squeeze GameStop short sellers.
The post had attracted more than 12 million views in the hours since its publication, Gill posted on X again at 11 a.m. New York time, this time a short video clip stating "Fine, I'll do it myself."
The reaction to Gill's initial post shows shades of the original 2021 mania, with chatter across Reddit's WallStreetBets and activity on StockTwits sparking a rush of retail trader buying.
"That he is able to generate a crowd says that the crowd is back to feeling FOMO and YOLO in an enormous way," said Peter Atwater, president of Financial Insyghts and an adjunct professor at William & Mary and the University of Delaware. "When people dive into things that are of pure speculative value, their confidence is extremely high, and this is one of the ways that it manifests."
More than 46 million shares changed hands before 10:15 a.m. in New York, roughly 21-times what's been normal in that stretch over the past month, as trading was halted for volatility nine times within the opening 90 minutes of trading. Shares rose as much as 119% Monday and traded up close to 69% at $26.49 as of 1 p.m. in New York.
GameStop ripped off a three-week rally in the lead up to Monday's pop, its longest such winning streak this year as shares soared 68% over that stretch as of Friday's close.
The stock famously soared more than 2,000% in early 2021, bringing the meme-stock frenzy into the broader public consciousness. When adjusting for a stock split, the shares peaked at $86.88 near the end of that month before crashing about 88% in three weeks.
Roaring Kitty helped draw attention to the stock's eye-popping short-interest ratio — some 140% of available shares were sold short — as investors bet on the entrepreneur-turned-retail trading icon Ryan Cohen.
Cohen, the video-game retailer's largest shareholder who has a cult-like following among individual investors, built out a stake through early 2021 and pushed to essentially take over the company as retail traders cheered him on.
After selling Chewy Inc., the pet retailer he co-founded, for more than $3 billion in 2017, he plowed much of that into Apple Inc. stock, which went on to rally. His firm, RC Ventures LLC, first disclosed its GameStop stake in 2020 when the shares traded below $2 on a split-adjusted basis (the retailer executed a four-for-one stock split in 2022).
The billionaire has since built his position to some 36.8 million shares, accounting for 12% of the company, as he became chief executive officer, president and chairman of the board. Late last year, the company disclosed an unorthodox plan for its roughly $900 million in cash and equivalents: allowing Cohen to buy stocks of other companies.
'An Almost Empty Bag'
While Gill and Cohen have been cast as icons among the hoards of retail traders who praise the duo, many who were late to the initial mania were left holding an almost empty bag.
Shares have lost nearly three-quarters of their value from a January 2021 peak when so-called Reddit Raiders flocked to the stock. It'd take another 3,700% boom from Monday's levels to recoup all of their losses.
