GameStop shares surge another 80% as famed trader Roaring Kitty reveals huge $116 million position and posts cryptic message

Shares of GameStop are surging again after a post on Reddit from the man who started it all in 2021.

Keith Gill, the man who inspired that year's short squeeze, resurfaced Sunday on Reddit and posted a screenshot showing a $116 million position in GameStop stock, plus a big bet the share price will go up. 

It was the first post on the trader's famed 'DeepFu**ingValue' Reddit account since April 2021. 

When pre-market trading opening this morning, the share price jumped as much as 80 percent to more than $40 a share. On Friday, it closed at $23.14. 

Gill had first reapparead on X last month, which caused the share price to jump by more than 100 percent. The stock declined but still stayed up about 20 per cent above the level before the Tweet.

Keith Gill, the man who inspired that year's short squeeze and is also known by his online pseudonym Roaring Kitty, resurfaced Sunday after three years, posting a screenshot of what could be his portfolio in the process. He is seen here back in 2021

In it, a significant amount of GameStop common shares and call options can be seen - the first post on the trader's famed 'DeepFu**ingValue' Reddit account since April 2021

It was a throwback to 2021 when GameStop hit the headlines for a 'short squeeze' on its stock.  Back then, it was a video game retailer struggling to survive as consumers switched rapidly from discs to digital downloads.

Big Wall Street hedge funds were betting against it, or shorting its stock - expecting it to go bankrupt. But Gill and his fans disagreed and bought up millions of GameStop shares.

The screenshot on Reddit showed he had 5 million GameStop shares worth $115.7 million plus $65.7 million in a bet on options. 

These options allow the buyer to purchase GameStop shares at $20 on June 21. The stock closed at $23.14 on Friday - and this morning were at $40. Such options jump in value when the share price jumps. 

These postiions could not be verified. 

'GME YOLO update - June 2 2024', the post begins, offering up the screenshot that since been upvoted more than 52,000 times. 

Around the same time, Gill posted a picture of a reverse card in the game 'Uno' - garnering near 30,000 likes on X.

As for the Reddit post and the unconfirmed screenshot, it was the account’s first in three years.

It shows five million shares bought at $21.27 per share - a display that almost instantly sent the stock rising once again.

It soared more than 19 percent to $27.58 in overnight trading Sunday, despite the market being closed on the weekend.

The move was reminiscent of the so-called meme trader's fateful trade in January 2021, where he spent $2 million to buy 50,000 shares at an average price of $40.

The next month, a day after testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Gill - who also goes by the internet pseudonym 'Roaring Kitty' - revealed also on Reddit that he had doubled the number of shares of GameStop he was holding, from 50,000 to 100,000. 

Gill, who had at that point already made about $13 million in profits from his trades, quickly became an object of fervor and media scrutiny. 

Around the same time, Gill posted a picture of a reverse card in the game 'Uno' - garnering near 30,000 likes on X.

GME soared more than 19 percent to $27.58 in overnight trading Sunday, despite the market being closed on the weekend.

GameStop shares skyrocketed as a result, as retail investors, urged on by popular Reddit forum WallStreetBets, bought the stock as a way to punish hedge funds that had bet massively against it.

The squeeze 'personally humbled' big shots like Melvin Capital's Gabriel Plotkin, whose firm was bailed out with a $2.75 billion dollar lifeline supplied by hedge fund Citadel's Kenneth Griffin and Point72 Asset Management's Steven Cohen.

It went on to become the subject of a 2023 film titled Dumb Money, which featured Little Ms Sunshine's Paul Dano as Gill.

The risky trading strategies seen by the trader and his contemporaries have since drawn the ire of some investing legends, but just as it came, it sputtered out within a few months.

Last month, Gil reignited that fervor by posting an image of a man sitting forward in his chair - a meme used by gamers when things are getting serious. 

The stock rose by an astonishing 119 percent at one point on Monday, despite it not indicating a trade.

It also caused losses of $1 billion for so-called short sellers who have been continued to bet the video game retailer will go bankrupt, years after GameStop was hit with the 'short squeeze' on its stock.

The move was reminiscent of the so-called meme trader's fateful trade in January 2021, where he spent $2 million to buy 50,000 shares at an average price of $40, before buying another 50,000 the next month 

Last month, Gil reignited that fervor by posting an image of a man sitting forward in his chair - a meme used by gamers when things are getting serious 

A 'short squeeze', in this case, refers to when those big investors that had bet against GameStop were forced to buy its rapidly rising stock to offset their massive losses. 

The screenshot Gill posted Sunday, if legitimate, shows he is holding a loss of nearly $2.5 million on his call options - the option to buy assets at an agreed price on or before a particular date.

GameStop shares, meanwhile, closed at $23.14 on Friday, May 31, with shares up 38.8 percent on the year year.

Much of this appears to be boosted by Gill’s return, as Monday's opening bell looms large.

The investor was a former marketer for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. Him and band of retail traders he met online spurred the initial rally.