He’s not exactly Bill Ackman, who yesterday achieved a net worth of $8.5bn after selling a stake in his hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, but after two years of doing not much, Keith Gill AKA Roaring Kitty isn’t doing badly either.
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Estimates suggest he’s already achieved $6.8 million in paper gains on his $65.7 million of call options for GameStop, which has increased in value 87% over the past month and yesterday briefly rose 70% vs. Monday. Bloomberg says he’s sitting on paper gains of $170m, but would need to spend $240m exercising the options to achieve all that.
Gill became a meme stonk sensation in 2021, when he flew by the names of Roaring Kitty on YouTube and DeepF—ingValue on Reddit and talked up the value of Gamestop stock, which he has repeatedly professed a genuine liking for. The CFA Institute, though, knew him merely as Keith Gill and ejected him when it became apparent that he was also a Charterholder with a job at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., and that he hadn’t declared his Kitty activity to FINRA. Gill subsequently went quiet after appearing at a House of Republicans hearing in the US and declaring that he was not a cat.
Now he’s back, and the fans are there for it. “This man is a savage,” says one called caffeineandketamine on the Reddit thread where Gill proclaimed his new Gamestop position. “Get the nipple cream ready apes,” says another.
Not everyone is so sure about the new Gill, though. The Wall Street Journal reports that E* Trade is thinking of banning him from its platform. It’s concerned about stock price manipulation, but it probably doesn’t help that E*Trade’s systems crashed in May when Gill first reappeared and prompted a rush of meme stock activity. Hank Medina, the man behind the Litquidity Instagram account, has been wondering about the new Gill. “Keith is now just posting random images to trigger a pump,” he said on Twitter yesterday. “Feels wrong that he essentially front runs every GameStop pump by buying more stock / calls and then proceeds to tweet, knowing full well the retail traders will drive the price up an insane amount.”
Morgan Stanley, which owns E*Trade, is said to have its global financial-crimes unit and external counsel discussing whether Gill’s actions were legal. However, the bank is also wary of banning him from the platform and evoking the ire of his meme army. “Gonna be a helluva ride boiz,” says one.
Separately, Financial News suggests that jobs in France and Germany and Milan might not be as secure as once thought. Goldman Sachs cut 5% of them last year, even while JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley added 544 and 100 people, respectively.
Meanwhile…
Forget Jain Global, Diego Megia launched Taula Capital Management with $5bn on day one. He employs 68 people across London, Jersey, New York, Dubai, Milan and Switzerland. (Bloomberg)
Panmure Liberum is eliminating more than two dozen roles following its merger. (Bloomberg)
“The equity structured products landscape has changed massively. Before, it was more driven out of Europe and Asia. Now, much of that activity has shifted and America is in the driving seat. The margins in the business are also compressing as more banks invest in this space and automation increases. Issuance volumes are high, but we’re not seeing the same rise in bank revenues.” (IFR)
If you’re contacting someone aged between 18 and 34, it helps to text before you call. (WSJ)
If your pay doubled from $50,000 to $100,000, it typically would need to double again to $200,000 to generate an equivalent happiness boost. (WSJ)
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