By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A sharp rise in trading in some short-term GameStop options contracts on Wednesday suggested to some market participants that Keith Gill, the stock influencer known as Roaring Kitty, might have sold some of his recently disclosed options position in the company.
Gill, who helped launch the meme stock phenomenon in 2021, recently disclosed a large position in GameStop stock and options in a screenshot posted to Reddit on June 2. The screenshot showed he held 120,000 GameStop call options on June 21 at a $20 strike price, purchased at $5.6754 per contract, or $68.1 million in total. The screenshot also showed that he owned 5 million shares of GameStop worth $115.7 million on June 2.
On Wednesday, some 93,000 June call options changed hands, some in large chunks of 5,000 contracts or more.
Reuters was unable to independently verify whether the contracts were sold or whether Gill was behind the transactions.
Considering Wednesday’s trading volume, contracts changed hands at an average price of $7.65, according to Trade Alert data. Many transactions occurred below the bid price, indicating that a seller may have attempted to dump contracts, according to Trade Alert data.
“(It) looks like he’s closing the position,” said Chris Murphy, co-head of derivatives strategy at Susquehanna International Group.
“While he hasn’t completed the closing, he probably has enough cash now to exercise the remainder if he wanted to,” Murphy said.
Overall, GameStop options volume jumped to 1.2 million contracts on Wednesday, 66% higher than the average daily stock options volume over the past month, according to Trade Alert data.
Gill’s options position has seen big swings in recent sessions, with the value of the options position soaring as high as $341 million before briefly going $7.5 million into the red on Tuesday.
Options market participants have been watching the position closely since Gill disclosed them.
“We won’t know for sure until we see the open interest numbers tomorrow morning, but I can’t imagine who else would achieve such huge sales at a discount,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers .
Based on their closing price of $6.40 per contract, Gill’s 120,000 contracts would have closed the session valued at $76.8 million, up some $8.7 million from then. where he bought them, according to Reuters calculations.
GameStop shares ended the session down 16.5% at $25.46. Shares are up 45% for the year.
(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; editing by Rod Nickel)
