Why GameStop (GME) shares have been halted after recent price surge
GameStop (GME) shares soared to around 110% on Monday and were halted several times due to market volatility after the return of “Roaring Kitty” to social media.
Stock in GME spiked to its highest level in more than a year when the New York Stock Exchange opened on Monday but the catalyst for the surge happened online.
‘Roaring Kitty’, previously identified as Keith Gill, posted on X/Twitter for the first time since 2021, creating a flurry of activity on Monday.
On Sunday, he posted a meme of a gamer leaning forward as if to be taking the game seriously, following on from the chain of events three years ago when he created a similar tailspin.
— Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty) May 13, 2024
Yesterday, he followed up his meme with a series of clips from superhero titles, featuring Thanos and Wolverine, accompanied by the caption “Fine, I’ll do it myself”.
Why is GME rising?
It was this activity that propelled GameStop shares with the huge early rise being followed by a drop, balancing out up 78% toward the end of the morning session.
Gill rose to prominence for his commentary on why GameStop stock would rise and he went on to testify at Congress on the ‘short squeeze’ of January 2021 influenced by many retail traders.
The engineering of the squeeze happened when a mass squad of meme traders attempted to strike back at Wall Street and the heavyweight financial institutions which were left scrambling to recover their figures after their bets against GameStop backfired.
It was the actions of the ‘Roaring Kitty’-influenced legions which sent GME soaring in the first instance.
This whole episode was transformed onto the silver screen last year when a Hollywood production saw Gill played by Paul Dano, the main protagonist in Dumb Money.
The real-life character has kept a low profile in recent times but his return to social media over the weekend is a change of tack, attributed as the key factor in the sudden GameStop stock surge.
Image credit: Ideogram
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