Following a report that E*Trade may kick stock meme guru Roaring Kitty off its platform, some of his fans have questioned whether his alleged market manipulation is exactly what Wall Street politicians and traders do on a daily basis.
Senior executives at the Morgan Stanley-owned brokerage are concerned that Roaring Kitty, whose real name is Keith Gill, has enormous influence online, which could lead to him manipulating stocks for his own gain. Wall Street Journal reportedciting people familiar with the situation. Those mulling the decision at E*Trade and Morgan Stanley were particularly concerned about the large amount of options Gill bought just before he helped bring GameStock trading back to life with his first social media post in years last month. Now, this week, a screenshot of Gill’s brokerage account showed he had $260 million in stocks at play.
Since Gill returned to social media last month after a three-year hiatus, he has posted a series of cryptic posts on X. His posts are mostly memes, with few directly mentioning GameStop. The company’s shares were up 56% since the last trading day before Gill returned to social media.
Report that Gill could be banned from E*Trade has revived resentment against the establishment this caused the meme craze for the first time in 2021, as shown in the film. Dumb money. At the time, retail traders attacked hedge funds such as Ken Griffin’s $62 billion Citadel and the now-defunct Melvin Capital, accusing them of fraud.
While it’s unclear whether E*Trade will actually ban Gill or back down on the issue, some fans of the retail investor say what he’s doing is no different from what Wall Street bigwigs do regularly.
“How can you be on national television crap on stocks or tell people what to buy and not manipulate the market, and that’s what it is?” wrote one Reddit fan goes by the name CedgeDC.
Wall Street traders and other experts often appear on television and talk about publicly traded companies. Short sellers are especially known to public campaigns against the stocks they are shorting.
Some on social media also noted that politicians often trade stocks, even for companies. influenced directly their legislative committees, without violating the law.
Morgan Stanley-owned E*Trade is considering banning Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty or DeepFuckingValue, from its platform due to concerns about potential stock manipulation related to his recent purchases of GameStop options.
So… politicians can trade using inside information…
— Capital (@CapStonkHQ) June 3, 2024
Gill owned about $140 million worth of GameStop stock. Monday update on Reddit, where he goes by the pseudonym Deep F——Value. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also reportedly looking into options trades that occurred around the time of Gill’s tweets. Magazine reported, although it is unclear whether they are directly investigating Gill.
An E*Trade spokesperson declined to comment on whether the company is considering removing Gill from the platform. An SEC spokesman said it does not comment on the existence or non-existence of a possible investigation. Gill did not immediately respond to the message on Reddit.
While E*Trade is looking into whether to ban Gill, it is also weighing whether the move could trigger user exodus from the platform. Gill’s 1.4 million followers on X could quickly turn on the platform if he stood up to them, some Morgan Stanley employees reasoned, according to Magazine.
Distrust of institutions owned by Gill’s army of loyal retail traders means E*Trade’s indecisiveness has only made it more attractive to them.
“An interesting move from E*Trade. If they’re thinking about firing Roaring Kitty, it just proves he’s up to something big,” one fan. published on X.