WallStreetBets Hero Faces Lawsuit
In our next story, we will look at the man, the myth, the legend, Roaring Kitty — A.KA. Keith Gill.
Roaring Kitty was the hero of WallStreetBets during the GameStop mania in January. He’s a financial advisor and drafted a bullish investment thesis for GameStop, creating detailed YouTube videos and Reddit posts of his research. Since early last year, Roaring Kitty held call options in GameStop, seeing his portfolio grow by millions of dollars in January as retail traders sent the stock to the moon. Now, he faces a lawsuit alleging securities fraud.
The class-action lawsuit alleges Kitty manipulated the markets by artificially inflating the stock price. It also alleges he misrepresented himself as an amateur trader instead of disclosing that he was a financial advisor.
I’m an avid user of Reddit, and I watched WallStreetBets as people originally called Kitty a madman for holding tens of thousands of dollars of call options in GameStop. Not many people believed in the company, but when Kitty’s investment thesis came true, he was hailed as a hero. No one knows precisely how much money Kitty made from his GameStop position, but he said he and his family were millionaires in December — when the stock was just $20.
I wanted to bring this story to our Invstr’s attention because the dangers of mixing social media and personal finance have never been more apparent than today. What can start as a fun way to discuss investments with like-minded people can quickly spiral into a costly legal battle.
I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.
