If you’re a gamer or a Wall Street investor, you’re probably familiar with the handle “Roaring Kitty.” You likely know about the uproar it caused in the investment world, but you may not be familiar with Keith Gill, the man behind the handle.
As of 2024, Keith Gill has an estimated net worth over $250 million. His wealth is heavily tied to GameStop’s share price and fluctuates on a daily basis. During a recent livestream, Gill revealed he holds 5 million shares and 120,000 call options in his E-Trade brokerage account. Given the size of his position, it’s difficult to sell without crashing the stock.
Early Days
Keith Gill’s early upbringing was both innocuous and normal. He was born in 1986 in Brockton, Massachusetts, and graduated from Stonehill College in 2009.
Gill also displayed an early talent for track and field, to the point where he was named indoor athlete of the year by the US Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association in 2008, and his achievements included running a 4:03 mile.
Gill went on to become a licensed securities broker and a Chartered Financial Analyst as well. But Gill displayed a pronounced tendency for out-of-the-box thinking, along with an inclination to ignore rules, and that combination has basically come to define his adult life.
GameStop and Reddit Shenanigans
Gill first became a finance rebel with a cause in 2019, when he made a trade showing a $50,000 long position on GameStop, a company that various Wall Street firms had been shorting for some time.
Sensing a quick profit, other investors quickly followed Gill’s lead, which led to wild fluctuations in GameStop’s stock price.
Gill’s talent for going against the grain quickly became a trend that caused major losses for hedge funds such as Melvin Capital which lost billions on the trade. Melvin Capital had to be bailed out by Point72 and Citadel has been shutting down.
His wild personas helped draw attention, and Gill quickly gained a following on the WallStreetBets subreddit.
Gill used a pair of outrageous handles, “Roaring Kitty” and “DeepF—Value,” to establish his position as a rebel. Wearing a variety of unconventional outfits, he used the combination of his YouTube channel and Twitter account to argue his counterintuitive financial positions.
As goofy as his antics seemed, they made Gill a lot of money. His portfolio ballooned due to the wild price swings in the stocks he was investing in, and in early 2020 the Wall Street Journal confirmed that Gill’s accounts had swelled to the tune of $33 million.
By the end of January 2021, Gill’s GameStop investment was worth $48 million at its peak with fans cheering his moves as he posted them on WallStreetBets. He also didn’t sell his position at the top to help “hold the line” for retail investors.
A Brush with the Law
Not surprisingly, Gill’s antics drew the attention of authorities. In 2021 he was called to testify before the House Financial Services Committee. He believed GameStop was undervalued and stated he “liked the stock” and was bullish that the company would recover. It’s safe to say the Massachusetts AG’s office was somewhat less impressed.
Gill’s former employer, MassMutual, was fined $4.75 million for failing to supervise Gill properly while he was acting as an agent for the company, but the House Committee and the SEC let him off the hook for any possible charges.
Personal Life
Gill went off the grid shortly after the controversy subsided but returned in June 2024. He married his wife, Caroline, in 2016, and the couple currently lives in Wilmington, Massachusetts, and has one child.
