Meme stock: Gamestop is back: What's behind the hype this time?

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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 drawing of a man on a red chair leaning 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,” it’s the starting signal.

“Things are getting serious,” 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, Gill used the Reddit discussion group “Wallstreetbets” for this purpose. 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.

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.