A significant uptick in trading activity for certain short-dated GameStop options contracts on Wednesday has led market analysts to speculate that famed trader Keith Gill, also known as the influencer Roaring Kitty, might have offloaded part of his recently disclosed options position in the company.
GameStop's (GME) stock price rose 7% on Thursday reaching $27.15 a share in morning trading.
Gill, instrumental in the 2021 meme stock surge, recently posted a screenshot on Reddit on June 2 revealing his extensive GameStop stock and options holdings. According to the screenshot, he held 120,000 GameStop June 21 call options at a strike price of $20, acquired at $5.6754 per contract, amounting to $68.1 million.
Additionally, he owned 5 million GameStop shares worth $115.7 million as of June 2.
On Wednesday, around 93,000 June call options were traded, with some transactions occurring in large blocks of 5,000 contracts or more, Reuters reported. It has not yet been confirmed whether Gill was behind these trades or if the contracts were sold.
Trade Alert data showed that the contracts traded at an average price of $7.65, with many trades occurring below the bid price, indicating a potential seller trying to offload the contracts.
“It looks like he is closing the position,” said Chris Murphy, co-head of derivatives strategy at Susquehanna International Group. “While he did not finish closing, he probably has enough cash now to exercise the rest if he wanted to.”
Overall, GameStop options volume soared to 1.2 million contracts on Wednesday, a 66% increase compared to the average daily volume for the stock's options over the last month, according to Trade Alert data.
Gill's options position has experienced significant volatility in recent sessions, with the value peaking at $341 million before briefly dipping $7.5 million into the red on Tuesday.
Market participants have been closely monitoring Gill's position since his disclosure.
“We won't know for sure until we see the open interest figures [Thursday] morning, but I can't imagine who else would pound out such huge sales at discounts,” said Steve Sosnick, Interactive Brokers' chief strategist.
Gill's 120,000 contracts are now collectively worth $76.8 million at $6.40 each, an $8.7 million gain from his purchase price.