Meme stock trader Roaring Kitty: "I'm clearly cuckoo"
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Keith Gill during his livestream Friday June 7, 2024. Screenshot: Roaring Kitty/YouTube
Adorned in fake bandages while holding a beer and at one point a Magic 8 ball, GameStop meme trader Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, hosted a YouTube livestream Friday afternoon that proved — at least for the day — fun couldn't win over fundamentals.
Why it matters: The video game retail chain issued a surprise earnings report earlier in the day which disclosed a steep drop in first-quarter sales and a plan to sell additional stock.
- "The Roaring Kitty premise is gone," famed short seller Andrew Left of Citron Research said on CNBC ahead of the livestream.
Zoom in: During his nearly hour-long broadcast, Gill reiterated past arguments he's made in support of GameStop's direction and leadership, including its transformation strategy and new CEO as of September, meme stock king Ryan Cohen.
- "That's not a guarantee. It's kind of based on feel — you've heard me say that, right?" said Gill, behind white framed sunglasses.
Zoom out: More than 644,000 people watched his broadcast concurrently during one peak period.
- For context, that's more than four times the audience of a typical business news show on cable.
- Before the stream began, the stock was down about 19% and those losses deepened to about 40% by the end.
- More than 160 million shares of GameStop had been traded already during the session heading into his one-man show, and by the time it ended, the volume of activity ballooned to over 200 million — or more than three times the average daily volume over the past 30 trading days, CNBC's Dominic Chu noted.
The big picture: Gill's return to social media a few weeks ago to share memes and screenshots of his GameStop positions has reignited retail investor frenzy as well as scrutiny over his influence.
- While many analysts believe that he has not run afoul of any regulatory concerns, Gill himself is keenly aware of the spotlight and speculation around his behavior, saying multiple times that he's not an institutional investor and that he's not working with "anybody else."
What we're watching: Far from becoming a billionaire Friday, as some expected, the value of Gill's holdings, including options, fell by over $235 million as he neared the end of his broadcast, according to a screenshot he shared during his stream.
- Most of the comments during the livestream cheered him on and were filled with emojis and LOLs, but the tone turned to concern as the stock fell further.
- "Am I OK?" Gill read out loud.
- "I don't know. I will say I'm probably not. I mean I'm clearly cuckoo, you know, clearly right? I'm off. That should be apparent now. … But it's kind of fun. … Y'all are off too … Crazy sticks together."
