A man invested his family's $53,000 in savings into a dying video game company that was thought to be ending
Later, in the basement of his home, he turned that investment into $48 MILLION.
Keith Gill was a 34 year old financial analyst at a Boston insurance firm in 2019.
He was just your average 9-5 worker with an average salary, but his conviction was something else.
He believed GameStop, a mall video game retailer trading at $5 a share, was one of the most undervalued companies in America, even though it was struggling with the rise of the digital age.
Wall Street disagreed. Hedge funds had shorted the stock so much that more shares were shorted than what actually existed.
Everyone was certain GameStop was going to zero.
But not Gill.
Gill invested $53,000 of his family's savings and started posting his analysis online under the name DeepFuckingValue on Reddit and Roaring Kitty on YouTube.
Nobody took him seriously. He kept posting anyway, week after week, with nothing but spreadsheets and his own strong conviction.
In January of 2021 retail traders on Reddit's WallStreetBets discovered his posts.
Retail started buying and the stock went from $5 to $483 in three weeks time. A 9,600% gain.
Wall Street's Hedge Funds that shorted the stock lost BILLIONS. One firm alone lost over $6 BILLION and had to be bailed out by the other hedge funds.
On January 27, 2021, Gill's $53,000 investment was worth $48 MILLION.
He lost $13 MILLION in a single day when the stock started going down. He held anyway, without a second thought.
Robinhood restricted buying of GameStop without warning.
Retail traders were angry. Congress then had summoned Gill to testify.
He showed up in his Roaring Kitty headband and said three words that became the most quoted phrase in finance that year,
"I like the stock." - Keith Gill
His employer fired him and paid a hefty $4 MILLION fine for failing to supervise his trading.
He went quiet for three years.
Then in May 2024 he posted a single image on X. GameStop surged 50% the next morning before he said a single word.
By June 2024 his position was worth $289 MILLION.
A Hollywood film called Dumb Money was made about the event, with Paul Dano. Gill has never spoken publicly about it.
Roaring Kitty will forevr be a name that is recognized in the finance world, and his legacy will not stop.