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Roaring Kitty Is Back, Just as Meme, GameStop, and AMC Stocks Rise Like 2021
The man at the center of the pandemic meme stock craze appeared online for the first time in three years, sending prices of these quirky and volatile stocks rising sharply on Monday.
Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty,” posted an image on Sunday of a man sitting forward in his chaira meme used by gamers when things are getting serious.
He followed that tweet with a YouTube video from years past, saying, “That’s all for now because I’m out of breath. FYI, here’s a quick 4 minute video I made to summarize the $GME bull case.
GameStop in 2021 it was a video game retailer struggling to survive as consumers quickly switched from discs to digital downloads. Gill and those who agreed with him changed the trajectory of a company that appeared to be on the brink of bankruptcy.
At Monday’s opening bell, it appeared that Gill had reignited this phenomenon, as GameStop shares more than doubled at the opening bell and were trading 60% higher at midday. It’s the biggest intraday trading jump for GameStop since the meme craze of 2021. Other meme stocks, such as theater chain AMC, also rose.
Gill became a cause célèbre in 2021 after her posts on Reddit’s Wallstreetbets subcategory sparked a battle between thousands of small retail investors and large hedge funds betting heavily against GameStop’s survival by shorting its shares.
The little guys won, at least for a while, sending shares of GameStop up more than 1,000% in 2021, and other meme stocks as well. Struggling movie theater chain AMC jumped 2,300% in the same year.
And some big traders lost billions.
Citron Research, Melvin Capital and other well-known hedge funds lost around US$5 billion on the other side of commerce in 2021, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.
Gill and other investors in GameStop were betting, in part, on Chewy.com co-founder Ryan Cohen’s ability to take the traditional retailer in a more online direction. Cohen built a stake in GameStop before joining the board and last year becoming its CEO.
However, it wasn’t just GameStop that caught fire on Monday. Some of the same meme stocks that posted astronomical gains in 2021 also rose.
jumped 33%. Headphone maker Koss Co. soared 25% and BlackBerry, once the dominant smartphone maker, rose 7%. Retailer Bed, Bath & Beyond, another meme stock, sought bankruptcy protection last year.
However, some meme stocks, including GameStop and AMC, had already risen higher earlier this month, and quickly.
The story continues
Shares of GameStop Corp., which have been falling steadily since 2021, are up 57% this month. In January, GameStop reported its first annual profit since 2018, although it remains unclear whether Cohen’s turnaround plan will be successful.
AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. is up 10% in the last 30 days.
Gill made a large profit by investing in a struggling video game company, but denied it when appeared virtually at a congressional hearing that he used social media to boost GameStop’s stock price.
He simply told lawmakers at the time, “I like the actions.”
As Roaring Kitty, Gill disappeared from message boards after posting a video in June 2021 of kittens going to sleep.
The story of Roaring Kitty and the meme stock craze was turned into a movie last year called “Dumb Money”.