Dave Portnoy made headlines last week by announcing that he made big purchases in GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) amid Keith Gill's, aka Roaring Kitty, return to social media and subsequent meme stock rally.
Portnoy, who livestreams his trades under the alias "Davey Day Trader," said he owned nearly $1 million of GameStop shares and about $700,000 of AMC shares.
Roaring Kitty returned to social media a few weeks ago, sharing memes and video clips causing a spike in speculation regarding GameStop and related stocks. Then, he took it a step further, and posted a screenshot on Reddit of his brokerage account, showing stock holdings and options bet worth more than $100 million, all in GameStop.
On top of the X.com posts and Reddit screenshot, Roaring Kitty also returned to streaming, conducting his first live stream on Friday in more than two years. The video, which he hosted on YouTube, held more than 500,000 concurrent viewers at one point.
Since the livestream, GameStop's stock has sold off. Portnoy, in a livestream of his own, said Roaring Kitty made a "tactical error" with his livestream.
"Roaring Kitty was half an hour late to it and then he did it," Portnoy said. "And to me, it was a little bit underwhelming. A lot of his fans like, 'No, it's Roaring Kitty. It's what he does.' I really don't know what I was expecting. The stock is down what? 50, 60% since he did the livestream. I think it was a tactical error."
Portnoy went on to explain that part of Roaring Kitty's strength was the secrecy surrounding his posts. The memes, like a picture of an Uno card, weren't exactly clear what they meant, but were able to drum up speculation and excitement. Portnoy said that Roaring Kitty's livestream lacked this secrecy and mystery.
"This shroud of secrecy almost with him and he just puts [up] a Uno card, it goes nuts," " Portnoy said. "He just puts [up] a meme. It goes nuts. Didn't really work out with the livestream."
Photos: Dave Portnoy, Zach Catanzareti Photo via Flickr; GME, Shutterstock; Roaring Kitty, created using artificial intelligence MidJourney
