Who is Keith Gill? The meme lord is back (2024)

After re-emerging on X last month for the first time in three years, Gill finally revealed his hand. He posted a screenshot of his brokerage account on Reddit that showed a $260 million position in GameStop as of Monday afternoon.

“He left everybody wondering what his next move was. Then he comes out and reveals this massive position," said Tom Bruni, head of market research at Stocktwits, a social-media platform for investors.

Gill’s social-media activity helped send GameStop shares soaring Monday: The stock surged 21% to $28, extending its gains for the past month to around 70%. Gill’s latest screenshot put his one-day paper gains at $79 million.

So, who is Keith Gill?

Gill made his riches during the 2021 meme-stock mania, when hordes of investors piled into the shares of GameStop, a left-for-dead, bricks-and-mortar videogame retailer. Part of Gill’s appeal is he appears to be a regular guy who struck it big trading with an E*Trade account. At the time, he was working in marketing for MassMutual and registered as a broker.

His last Reddit post in 2021 showed that his GameStop positions were worth about $30 million, a fortune minted largely from GameStop.

His aliases are “Roaring Kitty" on X and YouTube and “DeepF—ingValue" on Reddit.

How has Gill built such a big position in GameStop lately?

We don’t know, at least not yet.

Social media is abuzz with speculation that Gill isn’t working alone, or maybe he’s taken on leverage, borrowing against the holdings in his brokerage account.

One thing we can tell is that he appears to be having some luck in the options market.

Options appeal to some investors because of the outsize gains they can offer compared with stocks. The prices of options can rapidly multiply if a trader’s bet proves correct.

Ahead of a mid-May post on X, Gill started scooping up options tied to GameStop, The Wall Street Journal reported. If Gill purchased call options tied to the shares rising, they likely surged in value—GameStop shares jumped 74% in the trading session after Gill re-emerged on social media.

In recent days, Gill revealed holding June options tied to a $20 strike.

Options outstanding in the calls tied to the $20 strike increased in mid-May and surged dramatically later in the month, Cboe Global Markets data show. As of early May, there were fewer than 10,000 contracts outstanding, a figure that swelled to almost 150,000 as of Friday.

The screenshot shows Gill owns 120,000 of those call options. On Monday, he revealed a $54 million gain tied to that position in one session alone.

Gill could flip the contracts he owns for a large profit, or exercise them to purchase additional shares. The contracts give him the right to buy shares at $20, well below where they are currently trading.

Where is GameStop stock expected to go from here?

Some of the most popular trades in the options market this week have been tied to the shares jumping to $40 or even $128, Cboe Global Markets data show.

That suggests individual investors are lining up to follow Gill.

David Ritz Jr., a 30-year-old delivery worker in Perry, N.Y., said he bought about $300 worth of GameStop shares on Monday morning after seeing the screenshot of Gill’s position in GameStop on Reddit.

“I’m just floored and a little bit jealous," he said of the screenshot. “Anybody can do that and for absolutely free. It’s part of the open market."

Mukesh Oberoi, 33, said he pounced last month when Gill re-emerged. He bought shares for what he considers his speculative account on Robinhood that he keeps separate from his other investments.

Oberoi says he has fond memories of going to GameStop to pick up new games, though he mostly buys them online now. He hasn’t sold.

“That’s my YOLO," he said of the purchase, using the acronym for “You Only Live Once."

Is Gill doing anything wrong?

That is still unclear, too.

The Journal reported Monday that E*Trade is considering telling Gill that he can no longer use its platform after growing concerned about potential stock manipulation. No decision has been made and the firm could decide no action is needed.Gill couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Hannah Miao contributed to this article.

Write to Gunjan Banerji at gunjan.banerji@wsj.com