Meet the GameStop investor upending the stock market with cat memes,
- Reddit user u/DeepFuckingValue is a leading figure in Wall Street Bets’ clash with short-sellers.
- The value investor, who loves cat memes and reaction GIFs, claimed to have turned a $54,000 bet on GameStop into a $48 million fortune.
- Ten of his Wall Street Bets peers shared their views of him with Insider.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
An amateur investor who goes by u/DeepFuckingValue on Reddit and the name Roaring Kitty on YouTube has become an overnight celebrity in the battle between Wall Street Bets and Wall Street.
DFV’s real name is Keith Gill, a 34-year-old financial educator for a Massachusetts insurance firm, according to the New York Times. He shot to fame this week for turning an initial $54,000 investment in GameStop in 2019 into a $48 million fortune as of Wednesday, according to screenshots he posted on Reddit that Insider was unable to verify.
Members of Wall Street Bets – a retail-investing subreddit – have led the charge in driving GameStop shares up as much as 2,000% this month. They have also worked in concert to spike the stock prices of AMC, BlackBerry, Bed Bath & Beyond, and other heavily shorted stocks. Their goal is to score quick profits and squeeze short-sellers into covering their positions, sending the stocks even higher.
DFV didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from Insider. However, several of his peers on Wall Street Bets shared their insights into his character and explained why he’s earned their respect and admiration.
Cat memes and cash flow
DFV is a far cry from the stereotypical day trader many associate with Wall Street Bets. Rather than flitting from hot stock to hot stock, his only posts on Reddit have been screenshots showing the value of his GameStop position, dating from September 2019 to this Thursday.
His Reddit comment history and Twitter feed may be littered with cat memes and reaction GIFs, but DFV has repeatedly stressed that his goal is to invest shrewdly and maximize his long-term returns.
He’s calmly and confidently defended his GameStop investment thesis since his first post about it. He’s dismissed daily price moves, trumpeted the video-game retailer’s free cash flow, touted its cheap shares, highlighted its competitive moat, underscored the opportunity for share buybacks, and celebrated its shareholder-aligned management.
“I’m a fundamental value investor through and through,” he said in a Reddit post in December 2019.
On his Roaring Kitty YouTube channel, he even described GameStop as a “a roach not a cigar butt a la Warren Buffett,” referring to the famed investor’s analogy that buying cheap businesses in terminal decline can be like picking up a discarded cigar butt and enjoying one final puff.
“GameStop is an established, uniquely…
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