Keith Gill, the Redditor known as ‘DeepF – kingValue’, who led an army of average Joes to increase the cost of GameStop shares, is all you would expect from him.
He is 34, wears an orange samurai-like headband over his shoulder-length hair, likes cat T-shirts and operates a YouTube channel from a Boston basement behind a desk littered with used cups, various technical equipment, sports hats and Uno cards.
But in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, the man who goes ‘Roaring Kitty’ on YouTube insisted that he is just a normal guy, even though he is a nasty man who has become extraordinarily rich.
“I did not expect that,” Gill, a father of two and the new king of the Wall Street Street Reddit page, told WSJ in an interview published Friday.
“This story is so much bigger than me.”
Gill, who until recently had a day job for a life insurance company, is the force that fueled the GameStop roller coaster that pushed hedge funds billions of dollars into the red and blew up a swinging video game business destined for Blockbuster. infamous, far beyond real value.
Gill, now a pseudo-celebrity who has caught the attention of Congress, the Federal Reserve and probably even the Securities and Exchange Commission, has long been a proponent of unwanted stocks. He first invested $ 53,000 in GameStop in June 2019, when the shares were worth about $ 5 a share – a move that people called crazy at the time when the video game business struggled with the advent of online streaming.
But he held on, and others came on board, driving the stock higher and higher and tackling one of the most dramatic short pressures in recent history – which actually worked. On Wednesday, Gill posted a screenshot of his brokerage account showing a daily profit of $ 20 million on GameStop shares.
‘Your steadfast hand has convinced many of us not only to buy, but to hold. Your example has literally changed the lives of thousands of ordinary people. Thank you very much. You earn every penny, ‘replies a Reddit fan, reality_czech.
Jon Hagedorn, one of Gill’s many fans on the message board website, told WSJ that the amateur investor would be “the greatest legend in the history of WallStreetBets.”
“He’s the original OG,” he said.
Gill maintains trade was just a hobby and his plan was not to take down the business or turn his life around overnight, but he did welcome the sudden influx of cash.
“I always wanted to build an indoor track facility or a field house in Brockton,” the former track star said at the Massachusetts hometown outlet.
“And now it looks like I can do it.”