The prices of the meme stocks Gamestop, AMC and Koss, which were already trading soaring in 2021, are exploding again. The hype is triggered by well-known mechanisms and the people involved are not newbies either.
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Things have been quiet on Keith Gill’s X account for almost three years – the US financial analyst and investor has not posted anything since June 2021. And then this: The one who leans forward appears under his nickname “TheRoaringKitty”. That’s it. Seems harmless. But for the trading community on X and Reddit, where Gill goes by the pseudonym “DeepFuckingValue” is the starting signal.
“It is getting serious”, that is the message of the picture. And everyone starts running. They are investing in the stocks that they attacked three years ago: the video game distributor Gamestop, the cinema chain AMC and the headphone manufacturer Koss. The rally in so-called meme stocks was caused by private speculators who met on the Internet to bet against hedge funds that had bet on falling prices. Among other things, and especially by Gill, the Reddit discussion group was used for this purpose “Wall Street Bets” used. There, Gill reported on the profits he made from his investments. This triggered, among other things, a run on Gamestop shares. The price jumped 400 percent in the last week of January 2021 before falling back to pre-surge levels the following week.
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Gamestop prices rise by up to 70 percent
And even after Gill’s post in 2024, the prices rose rapidly again, with Gamestop’s at its peak by 70 percent. The stock exchange regulator in New York suspended the stock from trading several times. The Gamestop price reached an 18-month high of $38.20. The AMC cinema chain also rose by around 45 percent. And individual titles from the headphone manufacturer Koss jumped by 23 percent. There is still no end to the rally in sight on Tuesday, and prices continue to rise.
Gill is considered a fundamental investor who publishes his investment ideas. He wants to convince his internet audience to invest in undervalued stocks with upside potential. However, this is questionable at Gamestop: At the beginning of April, manager Nir Patel, who oversaw Gamestop’s operational business, resigned. The company announced job cuts and other cost-cutting measures last month after disappointing quarterly figures. The US video game retailer’s shares then fell by almost six percent and then settled at a loss of around one and a half percent. The share is therefore not for fundamental investors – but speculators apparently have the shares firmly under control again.
Source: Stern
