It’s not exactly Bill Ackman, who hit a net worth of $8.5 billion yesterday after selling a stake in his hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, but after two years of not doing much, Keith Gill AKA Roaring Kitty isn’t doing too bad either.
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Estimates suggest he has already made $6.8 million in paper profits on his $65.7 million call options for GameStop, which has risen 87% in value over the past month and briefly rose 70% yesterday from Monday. Bloomberg says he’s sitting on $170 million in profits on paper, but would have to spend $240 million to exercise options to achieve all of that.
Gill became a meme stem sensation in 2021 when he went by the name Roaring Kitty on YouTube and DeepF — ingValue on Reddit and talked about the value of Gamestop stock, which he repeatedly claimed. However, the CFA Institute only knew him as Keith Gill and expelled him when it was revealed that he was also a charter holder with a job at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. and that he did not report his activity with Kitty to FINRA. Gill subsequently went silent after appearing at a US House Republican hearing and declaring that he was not a cat.
Now it’s back and the fans are here for it. “This man is a savage,” says one titled caffeine and ketamine on the Reddit thread where Gill announced his new position at Gamestop. “Make monkey nipple cream,” says another.
But not everyone is so sure about the new Gill. The Wall Street Journal reports that E*Trade is considering banning its use on its platform. He’s worried about stock price manipulation, but it probably won’t help that E*Trade’s systems crashed in May when Gill first resurfaced and sparked a flurry of meme stock activity. Hank Medina, the man behind the Litquidity Instagram account, thought about the new Gill. “Keith is now just posting random pics to prime the pump,” he tweeted yesterday. “He feels bad that he basically pre-triggers every GameStop pump by buying more stock/calls and then proceeds to tweet, knowing full well that retailers will drive the price up crazy.”
Morgan Stanley, which owns E*Trade, is said to have its global financial crimes unit and outside counsel debating whether Gill’s actions were legal. However, the bank is also wary of banning him from the platform and incurring the wrath of his meme army. “It’s gonna be one hell of a ride boiz,” says one.
Separately, Financial News suggests that jobs in France, Germany and Milan may not be as secure as previously thought. Goldman Sachs cut them by 5% last year, even as JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley added 544 and 100 people, respectively.
Meantime…
Forget Jain Global, Diego Megia launched Taula Capital Management with $5 billion on day one. It employs 68 people in London, Jersey, New York, Dubai, Milan and Switzerland. (Bloomberg)
Panmure Liberum is canceling more than two dozen roles after its merger. (Bloomberg)
“The structure of equity structured products has changed significantly. Before, it was rather pushed out of Europe and Asia. Now much of that activity has shifted and America is in the driver’s seat. Margins in the business are also shrinking as more banks invest in this space and automation increases. Issuance volumes are high, but we are not seeing the same increase in banking income.” (IFR)
If you’re contacting someone between the ages of 18 and 34, it helps to text before you call. (WSJ)
If your salary doubled from $50,000 to $100,000, it would typically have to double again to $200,000 to get an equivalent increase in happiness. (WSJ)
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