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“Roaring Kitty”, the investor whose stock market tips are being credited with inspiring the GameStop trading frenzy, has given a first interview to The Wall Street Journal in which he insists he’s nothing more revolutionary than a suburban dad with a hobby.
The Reddit, YouTube and TikTok tipster, known for his bandana, long-hair, aviator sunglasses and taste for prosecco, advises legions of fans in livestreams discussing market prospects.
His real name is Keith Gill and he is indeed a 34-year-old father to an infant daughter based in suburban Wilmington, Massachusetts, who until recently worked for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and before that developed software in New Hampshire and was a long-distance runner in college.
“I didn’t expect this,” Mr Gill said of the week’s extraordinary David-and-Goliath trading battle. “This story is so much bigger than me.”
“I support these retail investors, their ability to make a statement.”
Mr Gill goes by the moniker “DeepF***ingValue” on the WallStreetBets Reddit forum, where the fight between amateur investors and major hedge funds over shares in the failing video games retailer began.
GameStop’s stock price rocketed from a low of $2.57 on 31 December 2020 to close at around $350 on Wednesday thanks to a push from Redditors to punish short sellers from seeking to profit from the brand’s fading fortunes – brought about by store closures due to the pandemic.
On Thursday, it swung between $112 and $483 before closing down 43.2 per cent at $197.44 and shooting back up 60 per cent in after-market trading.
Mr Gill posted a screenshot of his brokerage account on Wednesday, revealing a roughly $20 million gain on GameStop shares and options in just one day.
“Your steady hand convinced many of us to not only buy, but hold. Your example has literally changed the lives of thousands of ordinary normal people. Seriously thank you. You deserve every penny,” one Reddit user, reality_czech, wrote in a message of congratulations.
“He will go down as the greatest legend in the history of WallStreetBets,” said another. “He’s the original OG.”
But Mr Gill insisted he never intended to be a rabble-rouser, recalling that he first invested in GameStop in June 2019 when he noticed its potential despite only being a casual gamer himself and quickly attracted attention when he posted a picture of a $53,000 investment he had made in shares in the retailer that September on Reddit.
“People were doing a quick take, saying GameStop was the next Blockbuster,” he told the newspaper. “It appeared many folks just weren’t digging in deeper. It was a gross misclassification of the opportunity.”
He began his Roaring Kitty YouTube channel last summer to offer advice on playing the stock market, which swiftly garnered popularity with so many people across the world housebound because of coronavirus lockdowns and fantasising about financial deliverance.
“I’m not out for anybody,” Mr Gill said. “Roaring Kitty was an educational channel where I was showcasing my investment philosophy.”
While the investor himself is delighted with his newfound wealth and celebrity, his mother, Elaine Gill from Brockton, Massachusetts, is more cautious.
“The first thing that I had asked him when this craziness started was: is this illegal or anything dishonest? He said, ‘No mom, it’s not,’” she told the newspaper.
“He always liked money,” she reflected, remembering that, as a child: “He would get money from those scratch tickets that people didn’t know they’d won. People would throw them on the ground… A lot of times there was still money on them.”
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