The share value of GameStop (GME) experienced a surge of 47% on Thursday following a YouTube livestream notification for Friday at noon ET from an account believed to be associated with investor Keith Gill, popularly known as “Roaring Kitty” on social media.
Following the close of the market, a screenshot was posted by Reddit user DeepF***ingValue, an account previously linked to Gill, showing a dramatic increase in their position in the video game retailer to $586 million, which includes stock holdings and unexercised options positions.
Earlier in the week, the same user claimed they had spent $175 million on a position in GameStop, which was valued closer to $210 million at the time. This disclosure also caused the shares to surge.
The scheduled livestream on Friday marks the first live appearance on the channel since Gill played a significant role in sparking the meme stock rally last year with his bullish videos and posts about the video game retailer.
The description of the YouTube account states, “The Roaring Kitty channel and live streams are for educational and entertainment purposes only. I don’t provide personal investment advice or stock recommendations during the stream.”
The channel has garnered more than 730,000 subscribers.
GameStop shares have seen significant fluctuations over the past month following Gill’s reappearance on social media.
On Monday, after the user resurfaced over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that E-Trade executives at Morgan Stanley were contemplating closing an account linked to the screenshot. This news caused GameStop shares to drop by around 5% the following day.
Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, expressed his skepticism to Yahoo Finance earlier this week, stating, “Is whoever controlling this account doing this in your best interest or in their best interest? And, really, you should think that one through because, to me, it [is] pretty obvious whose interest it’s in.”
“If you’re chasing the stock up here, you’re more likely than not the source of liquidity for whoever is controlling this account to sell into your enthusiasm.”
GameStop experienced a rally of 180% over a two-day period in mid-May after “Roaring Kitty” made his first post on Twitter since 2021.
However, the rally was short-lived, and analysts warned that the meme stock activity this time was significantly less than the level of retail inflows seen in 2021.
Gill, the CEOs of Robinhood (HOOD), Citadel, Reddit (RDDT), and Melvin Capital, were all part of a congressional committee’s investigation into the unprecedented retail investor-driven short squeeze of GameStop’s stock price over three years ago.
During his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Gill presented his arguments for investing in the struggling video game retailer.
Correction: A previous version of this article misidentified E-Trade as JPMorgan’s trading platform. However, it is owned by Morgan Stanley. We apologize for the error.
Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre.
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