I never expected any of this says financial adviser-turned YouTuber Roaring Kitty as GameStop frenzy he fueled explodes again – and now he says he wants to buy a house with his $30 million and counting fortune
The suburban Boston dad behind the dramatic surge in GameStop stock price has spoken out – saying he never expected to become the champion of a Reddit rabble that took on Wall Street.
On Thursday DailyMail.com revealed Keith Gill, 34, is the YouTube investing Guru known to his fans as 'Roaring Kitty' and 'DeepF***ingValue'.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday in his rented Wilmington, Massachusetts home, Gill said he wasn't looking to take on the establishment, but that now 'this story is so much bigger than me.'
'I didn't expect this,' he said. 'This story is so much bigger than me… I support these retail investors, their ability to make a statement.'
In June 2019 he decided to buy about $53,000 of shares in the Main Street video game store GameStop, then trading at around $5, after assessing that the company was drastically undervalued.
That decision has now changed his life. Gill is currently sitting on more than $13 million cash and tens of millions more in GameStock stock and options.
On Thursday DailyMail.com revealed Keith Gill, 34, is the YouTube investing Guru known to his fans as 'Roaring Kitty' and 'DeepF***ingValue'. He has spoken out – saying he never expected to become the champion of a Reddit rabble that took on Wall Street
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday in his rented Wilmington, Massachusetts home, Gill said he wasn't looking to take on the establishment, but that now 'this story is so much bigger than me
That decision has now changed his life. Gill is currently sitting on more than $13 million cash and tens of millions more in GameStock stock and options
He quit his job at MassMutual, where he was a financial adviser, and is looking to buy a home for himself, his wife and two-year-old daughter, where he can continue his investing tips YouTube channel, Roaring Kitty
Top Hollywood agencies are even trying to track him down, desperate to secure the life rights for a TV drama about his extraordinary story.
In his latest YouTube videos, filmed in his basement, he has been celebrating his success with as many as 200,000 fans, wearing sunglasses and a sweatband to hold back his shoulder-length hair and dipping chicken tenders (the mascot food of his followers) in Prosecco.
Gill gained notoriety in the Reddit trading forum WallStreetBets as he posted regular updates of his 'YOLO You Only Live ' trade beginning in 2019 under the username DeepF***ingValue.
This month, millions of traders followed his lead and piled into the stock, turning the market into a battle between individual investors and multi-billion dollar hedge funds that had shorted the company, betting on its price declining.
Their frenzy has sent the stock soaring over 1,700%.
But Gill told the Journal his original decision to buy – at first ridiculed in WallStreetBets before it was venerated – was based on fundamentals about the company.
'People were doing a quick take, saying GameStop was the next Blockbuster,' he said, referring to the video store all but destroyed by the decline of retail and the rise of streaming services.
'It appeared many folks just weren't digging in deeper. It was a gross misclassification of the opportunity,' he said.
His mother, Elaine, told the paper her son had always had an eye for deals.
Keith Gill, 34, is the man behind the Roaring Kitty YouTube streams and the DeepF***inValue Reddit posts which caused a buying frenzy for stock of the ailing retailer, and cost hedge fund billions. He's pictured with his wife Caroline
Gill was spotted leaving with bags packed ahead of the weekend, as the GameStop rally he helped spur continued
On Wednesday, as the stock price soared, he posted a screenshot which showed how his initial $745,991 investment was worth $47,973,298 million
DailyMail.com obtained a certificate of formation for Gill's Roaring Kitty, LLC
'He always liked money,' she said. 'As a he would get money from those scratch tickets that people didn't know they'd won. People would throw them on the ground…A lot of times there was still money on them.'
The rocket-fuelled ride of the GameStock stock has now drawn the attention of regulators and even the White House.
On Friday the Securities and Exchange Commission said it would 'act to protect retail investors when the facts demonstrate abusive or manipulative trading activity.'
Gill told the Journal he has not heard from them. But that didn't stop his mother worrying.
'The first thing that I had asked him when this craziness started was: is this illegal or anything dishonest?' Elaine told the newspaper. 'He said, 'No mom, it's not.''
Gill made an initial investment in GameStop of about $53,000 in June 2019. He later added to the investment, ploughing in a total $745,991.
As the stock price fell on Thursday, his account value dropped from almost $48 million down to $33,170,298.84, according to a screenshot he posted on WallStreetBets Thursday afternoon.
But even after shaving off $15 million from his net worth in 24 hours, Gill was still sitting on a $18,575,008.63 profit and $13,840,298.84 in cash.
His account balance also gained millions of dollars on Friday morning, as GameStop traded around 70% higher, and his fans on WallStreetBets are eagerly awaiting his next post updating them with a screenshot of his account balance.
The Reddit forum members commented on his account updates: 'Bro legit might need to hire private security or an army of r**ards to protect him from these hedge funds', 'he is the king of the tards', and 'IF HE IS IN WE ARE IN'.
DailyMail.com was able to establish Gill's identity on Thursday through his company, Roaring Kitty LLC, named after his YouTube channel. The firm was incorporated in 2014 in Concord, New Hampshire, but dissolved 10 months later.
Since 2019, Gill has worked as a chartered financial analyst at MassMutual, giving workshops for company employees to answer their personal finance and investment questions
Gill told the Journal he has not heard from them. But that didn't stop his mother worrying. 'The first thing that I had asked him when this craziness started was: is this illegal or anything dishonest?' Elaine (pictured with Gill) told the newspaper. 'He said, 'No mom, it's not.''
Company documents list Gill as its sole agent and describe the firm's purpose as providing 'investment advisory services'.
Gill was also identifiable in a headshot posted on his former employer's website, In Good Company, a wing of Massachusetts investment firm MassMutual, which the firm has since removed.
Gill graduated in 2009 from Stonehill College, a Catholic liberal arts institution in Easton, Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Accounting.
He was a sports star at high school and college, whose site says he was 'one of the most decorated runners in the rich history of the cross country and track & field programs,' and was named Indoor Athlete of the Year in 2008 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association.
Gill was also a leader in an obscure card game that earned him the nickname 'Mr. Wizard'.
He and his brother Keith were 'honored' in a 2008 newsletter for the game Wizard, loosely based on Trumps and invented by a Canadian entrepreneur, where he was referred to as 'Mr. Wizard' and his brother Kevin as 'Dr. Wizard'.
Gill was pictured grinning while playing at a 2014 'World Cup' for the card game in Rome, where the top players competed for a trophy and a Galaxy tablet.
According to an archived version of his LinkedIn profile, after graduating as an Accounting major, Gill worked as Vice President, Securities Analyst and Chief Compliance Officer at Lucidia, LLC, a now-dissolved New Hampshire investment advisory firm.
While working at Lucidia in 2010 Gill set up his own company, Debris Publishing, which dabbled in financial software by creating Quuve, a program he described as 'the world's first fully customizable investment management ecosystem for professional investors.'
In 2016 he moved on to a two-year stint as an Investment Operations Analyst at LexShares, a company specializing in financing high-value commercial lawsuits.
Since 2019, Gill has worked as a chartered financial analyst at MassMutual, giving workshops for company employees to answer their personal finance and investment questions.
He and his wife Caroline live in a 3-bed, 2.5-bath home in Wilmington, Massachusetts, where they are raising their two-year-old daughter.