(Bloomberg) — A manic two-week stretch for GameStop Corp. investors — featuring an annual meeting kiboshed by a technical glitch and the company’s most visible stockholder shaking up his portfolio — has the stock price essentially back where it started.
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Shares of the video-game retailer, which are up 20% since the start of the month, have seen double-digit percentage swings in each of the last 10 sessions. While that kind of volatility is somewhat par for the course in the world of meme stocks, GameStop’s catalysts were anything but typical. Take Thursday, when the shares jumped 14% despite technical difficulties forcing thousands of GameStop speculators to find unofficial Twitch, X and YouTube streams to tune into a meeting that was eventually adjourned before it really began.
Read: ‘Roaring Kitty’ Appears to Have Exited GameStop Call Options
Within hours of the postponement, Keith Gill — the meme-stock investor known online as “Roaring Kitty” — posted a screenshot showing that he exited his 120,000 call options while adding to a heap of shares. The post on Reddit, where Gill is known as “Deep F—-ing Value,” showed Gill no longer held GameStop call options that were set to expire next week and had a strike price of $20. Instead, the screenshot showed he had more than nine million common shares, up from five million on Monday, a position worth some $250 million based on Friday’s trading, and one that would put him among the company’s biggest holders.
Of course, when it comes to meme stocks, the retail crowd is key. Indeed, individual investors’ adoration of GameStop Chief Executive Officer Ryan Cohen has driven others to jump in after Gill or double down on their own bets. With Gill’s options unloaded, the contract with the highest open interest on Friday was a $128 call that needs the stock to more than quadruple to come in the money by the end of the session.
Iterations of that contract have been in vogue for weeks, ever since Gill’s return on social media platforms X, Reddit and YouTube. Hundreds of thousands of loyal followers flocked to his livestream last week where he promoted his GameStop holdings and faith in Cohen. Meanwhile, shareholders must wait until Monday to attend the company’s delayed meeting.
Excitement surrounding GameStop has been apparent with how heavily it’s been trading in recent weeks. More than 570 million shares changed hands this week, which is down slightly from last week’s more than three-year high of 776 million. But it still marks a sixth week of volume that’s more than double what’s been typical since the original meme craze fizzled.
Meanwhile, the number of outstanding call options skyrocketed to its highest level in two years as traders take on leveraged bets that shares might just launch higher.
For all the maneuvering, GameStop shares are trading around $28 at midday Friday, roughly where they were at the end of trading two weeks ago. In between, the stock has seen double-digit percentage swings in its last 10 sessions. And the company has used those moves to sell shares and shore up its balance sheet. This week, it completed an offering that raised $2.14 billion, and over the past month it has brought more than $3 billion in new capital.
GameStop’s improved cash position drove skeptics like Andrew Left to close their bearish bets. But pundits are still questioning what’s next for the retailer that has continually seen sales decline.
“It’s clear GameStop is less about fundamentals,” said Rohan Reddy, director of research at Global X Management. “This all points to an enhanced state of euphoria.”
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