Keith
Gill,
known
on
Reddit
under
the
pseudonym
DeepF——-Value
and
as
Roaring
Kitty,
is
seen
on
a
fragment
of
a
youtube
video
displayed
on
a
smartphone
screen
in
front
of
GameStop
logo.
Pavlo
Gonchar
|
Lightrocket
|
Getty
Images
Almost
five
years
ago,
GameStop
champion
Keith
Gill
revealed
a
$53,000
bet
in
his
favorite
video
game
retailer.
This
week,
Gill’s
net
worth
is
over
$289
million.
The
meme
stock
leader,
who
can
move
the
stock
by
simply
posting
cryptic
messages
online,
shared
a
screenshot
of
his
portfolio
Monday
night,
showing
he
held
onto
his
5
million
shares
of
GameStop
and
120,000
call
options
even
after
a
21%
rally.
He
made
a
whopping
$79
million
on
paper
on
Monday
—
a
single
trading
day.
Gill,
whose
handle
is
“DeepF——Value”
on
Reddit
and
“Roaring
Kitty”
on
YouTube
and
X,
started
sharing
his
GameStop
position
in
September
2019
with
a
$53,000
stake,
encouraging
a
band
of
retail
traders
to
squeeze
out
short-selling
hedge
funds.
By
the
end
of
the
jaw-dropping
episode
in
April
2021,
Gill
exercised
his
call
options
position
to
have
200,000
common
shares.
The
size
of
his
positions
dramatically
increased
when
he
resurfaced
online
three
years
later.
Meanwhile,
GameStop,
a
stock
he
originally
bought
because
he
thought
it
was
a
deep-value
bet,
is
still
struggling
with
shifting
away
from
brick-and-mortar
video
game
purchases
to
e-commerce.
“The
most
successful
players
are
those
that
are
just
out
of
their
minds.
You
have
to
be
made
of
something
different
to
trade
like
that,”
said
Michael
Khouw,
co-founder
and
chief
strategist
of
OpenInterest.PRO.
“You
would
never
see
a
professional
trader
make
those
kinds
of
numbers,”
Khouw
added.
“Most
of
our
risk
managers
would
have
come
down
on
this
way
before
you
ever
got
to
something
swinging
around
like
this.
It’s
just
unimaginable.”
Gill
could
run
into
some
trouble,
though.
The
Wall
Street
Journal
reported
that
Morgan
Stanley’s
E-Trade
broker
was
considering
booting
him
because
of
the
worry
that
what
he
was
doing
could
amount
to
market
manipulation.
CNBC
was
unable
to
verify
what
Gill
has
shared
about
his
GameStop
stake
and
portfolio.
Next
steps?
The
last
screenshot
of
Gill’s
portfolio
showed
120,000
call
options
against
GameStop
with
a
strike
price
of
$20
that
expires
June
21.
Put
another
way:
If
the
stock
closes
above
$20
that
day,
Gill
could
exercise
the
options
at
$20
apiece,
leaving
him
owning
an
additional
12
million
shares.
A
total
of
17
million
shares
would
make
him
the
fourth-biggest
shareholder
in
GameStop,
coming
in
behind
Vanguard,
BlackRock
and
Ryan
Cohen’s
RC
Ventures,
according
to
FactSet.
The
notional
value,
if
exercised,
would
be
$240
million
worth
of
stock
bought
at
$20.
“Unless
you
have
the
money
to
take
custody
of
the
stock
after
exercising
the
calls,
you’re
just
renting
them
with
the
assumption
of
selling
them,
or
selling
stock
against
them
before
they
expire,”
said
CC
Lagator,
co-founder
of
brokerage
Options
AI.
“The
issue
on
a
position
of
that
size
is,
it
would
be
very
apparent
to
other
market
participants
that
those
calls
or
stock
versus
those
calls
was
being
sold,
putting
a
lot
of
pressure
on
the
stock.”
$1
billion?
If
Gill
exercises
the
calls,
that
would
leave
him
with
17
million
shares.
At
Monday’s
close
of
$28,
the
stake
would
be
worth
$476
million.
At
GameStop’s
recent
peak
of
$64.83
on
May
14,
it
would
be
worth
$1.1
billion.
(His
cost
to
acquire
such
a
stake
this
way
would
be
$421.4
million.)
Gill
could
also
roll
those
call
options
to
a
further
expiration
date
to
buy
some
time,
which
means
exiting
the
current
position
and
immediately
entering
a
similar
position.
However,
that
could
be
a
costly
option.
“The
problem
with
that
is
he’s
going
to
be
wasting
money
on
new
option
premium
each
time
he
does
that,”
Lagator
said.
Shares
of
GameStop
fell
5.4%
on
Tuesday.
