A waiting page for Keith Gill, a Reddit user credited with inspiring the GameStop rally, before a YouTube livestream arranged on a laptop at the New York Stock Exchange on June 7, 2024.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A sellout in GameStop Shares rose in afternoon trading Wednesday, coinciding with a surge in trading volume in call options owned by meme stock leader “Roaring Kitty.”
The last time Roaring Kitty, real name Keith Gill, disclosed his portfolio was Monday evening, showing he still owned 120,000 call options contracts with a strike price of $20 and an expiration date of June 21.
GameStop calls with exact strike price and expiration traded a whopping 93,266 contracts on Wednesday, more than nine times the 30-day average volume of 10,233 contracts. The price of these contracts fell more than 40% during the session, while the stock fell 16.5%.
It’s unclear whether Roaring Kitty is actually behind the large volume, but options traders said he could be involved since he is such a large holder of these contracts.
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GameStop, 1 day
Options traders have speculated that Gill would have to sell his calls before expiration or convert the position into another call option to avoid having to raise a large amount of cash to exercise on June 21.
Wall Street has been waiting for signs that he would sell the position because it could drive up the stock price.
For Gill to take the calls, he would have to have $240 million to take custody of the shares – 12 million shares purchased at $20 apiece – which is more than he has publicly disclosed his E-Trade account.
CNBC’s “Fast Money” will discuss the GameStop move at 5 p.m. ET.
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2024-06-12 20:55:00
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