Keith Gill

Keith Patrick Gill[1] (born 1986) is an American financial analyst and investor known for his posts on the subreddit r/wallstreetbets.[2][3] His analyses of GameStop stock, and details of his resulting investment gains—posted on Reddit under the username DeepFuckingValue (DFV) and on YouTube and Twitter as Roaring Kitty—were cited as a driving factor in the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021, and as a spark for the subsequent trading frenzy in retail stocks.[4][5] The rising stock value allowed Gill to turn a US$53,000 investment into one worth close to $50 million (as of January 28, 2021).[4]

For the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference, see Keith Gill (athletic director).

Keith Gill
Born
Keith Patrick Gill

(1986-06-08) June 8, 1986
NationalityAmerican
Other names
  • DeepFuckingValue
  • Roaring Kitty
Alma materStonehill College
OccupationFinancial analyst
Known forInvolvement in the GameStop short squeeze

Gill's posts were described as "forthright, spreadsheet-laden content".[6] His Reddit username derives from the investing term deep value, as Gill claims to be a proponent of value investing.[7][8] Reuters revealed his identity to the public on January 28, 2021, after an investigation of public records and social-media posts.[2][7]

Gill gave testimony[9] as part of a virtual hearing held by the US House Financial Services Committee on February 18, 2021 as part of a discussion about when "short sellers, social media, and retail investors collide".[10] Gill testified he "did not solicit anyone to buy or sell the stock for [his] own profit."[1]

Early life and career

Keith Gill was born on June 8, 1986, to Steven and Elaine Gill,[11] and was raised in Brockton, Massachusetts.[3] He had two siblings; his sister died in 2020.[12] He graduated from Stonehill College in 2009 and holds several school records in track and field.[13] Gill was named the indoor athlete of the year in 2008 by the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association after he won the 1,000-meter race at the New England Championships with a time of 2:24.73, and recorded a personal best time of 4:03 in the mile that year.[13][14] He married his wife, Caroline, in 2016; they have one child.[7][15][16]

Gill is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.[2] He was a licensed securities broker[17][18] registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) from July 2012 with no disclosed regulatory infractions.[19] As of February 26, 2021, Gill was no longer a registered financial broker; January 28 was his last day of employment with MassMutual and a FINRA spokeswoman said, "a person’s registration is terminated when he or she is no longer employed by a registered firm."[20] Between 2010 and 2014 he worked for a family friend at a start-up in New Hampshire, working on a software program to help investors analyze stocks.[16][21] He worked for LexShares until March 2017.[16] Gill was employed at MassMutual from April 2019 until his resignation on January 28, 2021.[22]

Position on GameStop
Further information: GameStop short squeeze
A GameStop store in a mall

In September 2019, Gill, under the username "u/DeepFuckingValue", posted on the subreddit r/wallstreetbets a screenshot of a trade consisting of a roughly $53,000 long position in GameStop;[6] Gill's Reddit posts and YouTube videos argued (through both fundamental and technical analysis) that the stock was undervalued.[2] The position was 50,000 shares and 500 call options.[23] In a YouTube video, he noted that his argument did not constitute financial advice, saying "I don't provide personal investment advice or stock recommendations during the stream."[2]

Nonetheless, his argument "helped attract a flood of retail cash into GameStop."[2] During the first days of the valuation spike in late January 2021, hundreds of thousands of people downloaded investment apps like Robinhood to "join the action".[7] Ultimately, Gill's investment in the stock of GameStop (which began in June 2019, when the stock was $5 per share) inspired other posters and readers to invest.[7]

Subsequent investment in the stock (and other "meme stocks" such as AMC, BlackBerry, and Nokia) would result in controversy; the 2021 GameStop short squeeze would result in several hedge funds and other institutional investors experiencing significant financial difficulty, as well as many retail investors (and other institutional investors) seeing significant gains. By January 27, according to screenshots he posted on Reddit, Gill's original investment was worth nearly $48 million.[2] However, the value of the stock continued to fluctuate wildly; he lost $15 million in one day, and when markets closed on January 29, The Wall Street Journal confirmed that his brokerage accounts held $33 million.[7] In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Gill said he "wasn't a rabble-rouser out to take on the establishment, just someone who believes investors can find value in unloved stocks."[7]

After a two week break from posting regular updates on his position, Gill posted a new screenshot to r/wallstreetbets on February 19, 2021, showing that he had doubled the number of shares of GameStop he held (raising the total to 100,000).[24] On April 16, 2021, he exercised all of his 500 call options with a strike price of $12, which were to expire that same day, and purchased an additional 50,000 shares, increasing his ownership to 200,000 GameStop shares.[25]

Regulatory issues
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On February 4, 2021, it was announced that William Galvin, the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, wrote to Gill's previous employer MassMutual to investigate whether or not Gill or the company broke any rules related to his activities in promoting the GameStop stock.[18] A week earlier, Galvin had called for a 30-day suspension of trading in GameStop securities and insisted that the share price was "irrational".[26][27][28] Gill testified to the House Financial Services Committee on February 18, 2021, saying: "I did not solicit anyone to buy or sell the stock for my own profit", and "I like the stock."[16] In September 2021, MassMutual was fined $4 million by Massachusetts regulators for failing to supervise Gill's trading and online activity.[29] The consent order entered by Secretary Galvin's office against MassMutual alleged that Gill had executed approximately 1,700 trades on behalf of three other individuals, and appeared to suggest that Gill had engaged in manipulation of GameStop's share price.[29] However, an attorney for Gill said that those trades were executed for "three family members" and that "[l]ess than 5 percent of the trades in those accounts were in GME"—raising speculation that Secretary Galvin's office had selectively omitted detail of Gill's conduct to fit a narrative consistent with the statements he had made in January.[26][27][28] In October 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission released a 45-page report that acknowledged that "People may disagree about the prospects of GameStop and the other meme stocks" and did not indicate that any market manipulation had occurred.[30]

Gill is portrayed by Paul Dano in the 2023 film Dumb Money, a biographical drama about the short squeeze.[31]

References
  1. "Testimony of Keith Patrick Gill Before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services" (PDF). Washington: US House of Representatives. p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  2. Prentice, Chris; Schroeder, Pete (January 28, 2021). "Famed GameStop Bull 'Roaring Kitty' Is a Massachusetts Financial Advisor". Reuters. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  3. Stephen, Bijan (January 29, 2021). "Go Read This Profile of the Trader Whose Huge Bet on GameStop Moved the Entire Market". The Verge. New York: Vox Media. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  4. Dixon, Dan (January 28, 2021). "Anarchy, In-Jokes and Trolling: The GameStop Fiasco Is 4chan-Think in Action". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  5. Daly, Kyle (January 29, 2021). "How Reddit Explains the GameStop Saga". Axios. Arlington, Virginia. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  6. Baker, Katie (January 28, 2021). "The GameStop Stock Market Saga Explainer Dictionary". The Ringer. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  7. Verlaine, Julia-Ambra; Banerji, Gunjan (January 30, 2021). "The Man Who Drove GameStop Mania". The Wall Street Journal. New York. p. A1. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  8. Levine, Matt (February 18, 2021). "Money Stuff: Congress Wants to Talk About GameStop". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  9. Gill, Keith Patrick. Opening Statement Before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.
  10. "Virtual Hearing - Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide". U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. Archived from the original on August 9, 2022. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
  11. "Stonehill Men's Cross Country". Stonehill. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  12. "Testimony of Keith Patrick Gill Before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services" (PDF). Washington: US House of Representatives. p. 5. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  13. Hambleton, Brittany (January 29, 2021). "The Man Behind the GameStop Stock Market Frenzy Is a Former College Track Star". Canadian Running. Toronto: Gripped Publishing. Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  14. Robinson, Joshua; Cohen, Ben; Verlaine, Julia-Ambra; Banerji, Gunjan (February 1, 2021). "Market Disrupter Built Up Steam as School Track Star". The Wall Street Journal. New York. p. B5. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  15. Popper, Nathaniel; Browning, Kellen (January 29, 2021). "The 'Roaring Kitty' Rally: How a Reddit User and His Friends Roiled the Markets". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  16. "Testimony of Keith Patrick Gill, aka 'Roaring Kitty'". The Washington Post. February 17, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  17. Ruf, Renzo (February 2, 2021). "Dieser 34-Jährige setzte frühzeitig auf Gamestop: Wie das "brüllende Kätzchen" Millionen verdiente". Luzerner Zeitung (in German). Lucerne, Switzerland: CH Media. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  18. Goldstein, Matthew (February 4, 2021). "A GameStop Evangelist's Videos Draw a Regulator's Attention". The New York Times. p. B6. Archived from the original on February 7, 2021. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  19. "Keith Patrick Gill". BrokerCheck. FINRA. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  20. "'Roaring Kitty' No Longer Has Financial Broker License: Filing". Reuters. March 1, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  21. "Testimony of Keith Patrick Gill Before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services" (PDF). Washington: US House of Representatives. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  22. Michaels, Dave (February 5, 2021). "GameStop Trader 'Roaring Kitty' and Former Employer May Face Federal Regulatory Scrutiny". The Wall Street Journal. New York. Archived from the original on February 7, 2021. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  23. Crump, James (February 3, 2021). "GameStop Stock Tipster Roaring Kitty Reveals He Lost $13M in One Day". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  24. Banerji, Gunjan; McCabe, Caitlin (February 19, 2021). "Reddit Legend Keith Gill Boosts Stake in GameStop". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on February 20, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  25. Yang, Yueqi (April 17, 2021). "'Roaring Kitty' Boosts GameStop Bet After Exercising Options". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  26. DeCosta-Klipa, Nik (January 27, 2021). "Mass. Secretary of State Bill Galvin Calls for 30-Day Suspension of GameStop Stock Trading". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  27. Salzman, Avi (January 27, 2021). "GameStop Trading Should Be Halted for 30 Days, Says State Securities Regulator". Barron's. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  28. Stankiewicz, Kevin (January 27, 2021). "Massachusetts Regulator Says GameStop Speculation Is a Danger to the Whole Market, as TD Ameritrade Restricts Trading". CNBC. Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  29. Phillips, Matt (September 16, 2021). "Ex-Employer of GameStop Trader 'Roaring Kitty' Fined for Lack of Oversight". The New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2021.
  30. Staff Report on Equity and Options Market Structure Conditions in Early 2021 (PDF). Securities and Exchange Commission (Report). October 14, 2021. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  31. "'Dumb Money' First Look: The GameStop Stock Frenzy Is Now a Movie". Vanity Fair. June 21, 2023. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
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