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Keith Gill hosted his first livestream in years on Friday, although it didn’t stem the stock’s steep decline.
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Gill reiterated his bullish view on GameStop, pinning his hopes on CEO Ryan Cohen’s turnaround strategy.
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The stock was stopped several times during the course of the river. Here’s what Gill talked about.
Keith Gill, the trader better known by his online persona Roaring Kitty, showed up to his long-awaited YouTube livestream nearly 30 minutes late, sporting fake bandages, sunglasses and his arm in a sling.
The trader at the center of GameStop’s massive rise since late 2020 didn’t have much news to share with the nearly 650,000 viewers who tuned in during the peak of the stream, although he did reveal his E-Trade portfolio towards the end of the conference.
No surprise: his only position was GameStop stocks and options.
Stoppage of play the stock plunged as much as 41% in volatile trading as Gill hit his stride during the live broadcast, which was his first in more than three years.
The stock experienced several trading halts due to volatility and traded more than 200 million shares, about 650% higher than its 65-day average volume of 31 million shares.
After talking about memes and pouring a beer while the stock was down, Gill reiterated his bullish view on GameStop stock.
“The funny thing is, I have the same feelings about everything,” Gill said.
His account snapshot showed a paper loss of $236 million on Friday, but the trader appeared unfazed and giddy throughout the stream, with the live chat flooded with comments praising his “diamond hands.”
Much of Gill’s bullish view of the video game retailer hinges on GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s turnaround strategy. Cohen took over the company late last year. He co-founded Chewy and helped grow the pet-focused e-commerce platform into a multi-billion dollar company.
“If you take that into account, you don’t think Cohen is an idiot,” Gill said, adding: “And you don’t and you actually think that not only is he not an idiot, but that “He is extremely talented and has the ability to turn things around.”
He added: “It becomes kind of a bet on the team. And from what I’ve seen so far, I think – I reserve the right to change my mind, as you should also – that I believe in it right now. Let’s see what happens from here. But I think with a significant amount of capital, I don’t know, let’s see where it goes from here.
GameStop raised nearly $1 billion in cash after last month’s stock rally and filed a prospectus Friday morning to sell an additional 75 million shares. After selling the last tranche of shares, it could have up to $3 billion in cash to reinvent itself.
Yet Gill later warned his supporters, saying, “I’m wrong. I have done it historically, and I will do it in the future.”
The stock, briefly positive in morning trading, plunged after video game retailer unexpectedly announced its first quarter results, which revealed a 29% year-over-year revenue decline. The company had to…
