Topline
Shares in GameStop, AMC Entertainment and other meme stocks were on a rollercoaster during premarket trading Friday after “Roaring Kitty,” the finance influencer credited with kickstarting the original meme stock craze, scheduled his first livestream in years.
GameStop is one of the meme stocks soaring after a return to activity for Roaring Kitty.
Key Facts
GameStop shares fell by 15% to $40 in premarket trading Friday morning after the retailer reported poor sales and a $3 billion stock offer, erasing earlier games of more than 30% in premarket after shares jumped more than 47% during regular trading on Thursday.
The rally comes after Keith Gill, who uses the handle “Roaring Kitty” on YouTube and X, scheduled a livestream for 12 p.m. ET Friday on YouTube, his first video in more than three years.
Gill’s forthcoming screening appears to have rekindled trader interest in a number of other so-called meme stocks as well, with AMC Entertainment Holdings, another popular target for traders following influencers like Gill, closing more than 12% up on Thursday, though prices were extremely volatile in premarket trading, fluctuating from a gain of around 13% to a loss of around 10% at the time of writing.
Shares for fallen smartphone titan BlackBerry, struggling big box retailer Bed Bath & Beyond and headphone maker Koss were also volatile, ranging from losses as much as 7% to gains between 2% and 3% in premarket trading during the process of writing, for example, after climbed more than 15% during regular trading on Thursday.
Shares for hyped electric vehicle maker Faraday Future were volatile but surged to between 16% and 25% in premarket trading after gaining more than 2% in regular trading hours the day before and another popular meme offering, Tupperware, climbed nearly 2% in premarket after gaining more than 6% Thursday.
Trading platform Robinhood — which is popular among retail investors and played a role in allowing the meme stock craze to take off — has become something of a meme stock in its own right, gained 6.5% in regular trading Thursday and 2.5% in premarket trading Friday, though it’s possible this may have been influenced by news it had inked a deal to by crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200 million.
Who Is Roaring Kitty?
‘Roaring Kitty’ is the pseudonymous username handle used byGill on YouTube and X. On Reddit, home to influential trading forums like r/WallStreetBets, Gill goes by the handle “DeepFuckingValue,” often abbreviated to just DFV. He is an influential figure among retail investors and on online trading forums and is widely credited with sparking the meme stock frenzy in 2021. He is reported to have made a small fortune in that period, though he has been largely absent from social media and public life since. Before making it big as a social media influencer, Gill worked as a financial analyst. He has faced heavy criticism for his posts that helped fuel the investor mania for meme stocks but defended himself in testimony before Congress and said his content was for educational purposes only. His recent return to social media and post on Reddit revealing a nearly $116 million position in the game retailer have sparked GameStop frenzies. Forbes has been unable to verify Gill’s position or the image posted purporting to prove it.
Further Viewing
Roaring Kitty’s livestream is scheduled for 12 p.m. ET on Friday.
What We Don’t Know
Gill has not revealed what he plans to discuss or showcase during the livestream, though previous broadcasts have involved him hyping market movements for various meme stocks like GameStop, revealing positions he holds and explaining his investing philosophy. Gill’s last YouTube livestream in January 2021 attracted more than 1.2 million viewers and at the time of writing, 15,000 people were already listed as “waiting” for Friday’s broadcast to begin.
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Key Background
Gill is a legend among retail traders on social media and has developed a cult-like following that helped fuel the original meme stock rally in 2021. He made a splash last month when he began posting again after a years-long hiatus, reigniting interest in many stocks popular during the original mania. Shares for firms like GameStop and AMC are popular targets in these kinds of rallies, and while many experience only transitory spikes, GameStop has experienced more enduring benefits from the surges of popular interest. Many traditional investors and analysts have viewed the meme stock phenomenon as an aberration driven by modern investment tools, with prices jumping to unjustifiable levels based on interest and hype rather than typical metrics like profit. By its nature, investing in such shares can be a volatile and unpredictable endeavor and movements in blocks of multiple tens of percent in a single day are not unusual.
Tangent
Gill’s upcoming broadcast appears to have sparked a rally in a GameStop inspired cryptocurrency, GME. The Solana-based memecoin has soared more than 142% over the last 24 hours and now has a market capitalization of $197 million. This forms part of a week-long rally that has seen the token’s value increase sevenfold.