The logo for GameStop is on a monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street on March 22, 2023. Stock prices soared more than 74% on Monday following the reappearance of “Roaring Kitty.” File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
May 13 (UPI) — GameStop stock surged more than 74% on Monday after the person who sparked the computer game store’s stunning 2021 run reappeared on social media.
GameStop stock closed up $12.99 to end Monday’s rally at $30.45, forcing short sellers to lose nearly $1 billion in the video game retailer. Shares were trading up another 11% in after-market trading.
According to data firm S3 Partners, short-selling hedge funds suffered a mark-to-market loss of $838 million.
“Expect short covering in this stock as it already had a 100/100 squeeze score prior to today’s trading,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, S3 managing director of predictive analytics.
Monday’s massive GameStop rally was triggered by the reappearance of “Roaring Kitty.”
Keith Gill, known by his online persona “Roaring Kitty,” posted a picture of a gamer looking intensely at his computer on his X account with no worded message on Sunday evening.
The post went viral with 9,400 comments, 21,000 shares and 78,000 likes in 15 hours.
Gill later followed it with multiple posts including scenes from Breaking Bad, Avengers, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Seemingly taking a cue on Gill’s return, GameStop stock rose as much as 110%, and was up more than 70%, trading at nearly $30 per share just before 1 p.m. EDT.
Trading of GameStop stock was halted multiple times for volatility Monday, including four times within the first half-hour of trading.
The frenzy also rallied other so-called “meme stocks” including AMC, which was up 43.13% to $4.18 per share on Monday afternoon.
In a stock war against big-time hedge fund managers who were betting against GameStop shares in 2021, Gill led a legion of small investors, organized mainly on the Reddit community r/WallStreetBets to rally the computer game store’s stock up above $120 per share.
The action by Gill and his investor rebels drew a lawsuit, which was dismissed, and Congressional hearings about broker practices and gaming stocks.
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