Keith Patrick Gill (born 1986) is an American

financial analyst A financial analyst is a professional, undertaking financial analysis for external or internal clients as a core feature of the job. The role may specifically be titled securities analyst, research analyst, equity analyst, investment analyst, ...

and

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some specie ...

known for his posts on the

subreddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

r/wallstreetbets r/wallstreetbets, also known as WallStreetBets or WSB, is a subreddit where participants discuss stock and option trading. It has become notable for its colorful and profane jargon, aggressive trading strategies, and for playing a major role in ...

. His

analyses Analysis (plural, : analyses) is the process of breaking a complexity, complex topic or Substance theory, substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics a ...

GameStop GameStop Corp. is an American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer. The company is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), and is the largest video game retailer worldwide. , the company operates 4,5 ...

stock, and details of his resulting investment gains—posted on

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

under the username DeepFuckingValue (DFV) and on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

as Roaring Kitty—were cited as a driving factor in the

GameStop short squeeze In January 2021, a short squeeze of the stock of the American video game retailer GameStop () and other securities took place, causing major financial consequences for certain hedge funds and large losses for short sellers. Approximately 140 ...

of January 2021, and as a spark for the subsequent trading frenzy in retail stocks. The rising stock value allowed Gill to turn a investment into one worth close to $50 million ( Gill's posts were described as "forthright, spreadsheet-laden content". His Reddit username derives from the investing term ''deep value'', as Gill claims to be a proponent of

value investing Value investing is an investment paradigm that involves buying securities that appear underpriced by some form of fundamental analysis. The various forms of value investing derive from the investment philosophy first taught by Benjamin Graham ...

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

revealed his identity to the public on January 28, 2021, after an investigation of

public records Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential and generally pertain to the conduct of government. For example, in California, when a couple fills out a marriage license application, they have the optio ...

and social-media posts. Gill gave testimony as part of a virtual hearing held by the US House Financial Services Committee on February 18, 2021 as part of a discussion about when "short sellers, social media, and

retail investors An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

collide". Gill testified he "did not solicit anyone to buy or sell the stock for isown profit."

Personal life

Keith Gill was born on June 8, 1986, to Steven and Elaine Gill, and was raised in Brockton,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. He had two siblings; his sister died in 2020. He graduated from

Stonehill College Stonehill College is a Private college, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Easton, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1948 by the Congregation of Holy Cross and is located on ...

in 2009 and holds several school records in

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

. Gill was named the indoor athlete of the year in 2008 by the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association after he won the 1,000-meter race at the New England Championships with a time of 2:24.73, and recorded a personal best time of 4:03 in the mile that year. He married his wife, Caroline, in 2016; they have one child.

Professional life

Gill is a

Chartered Financial Analyst The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program is a postgraduate professional certification offered internationally by the American-based CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research, or AIMR) to investment and fina ...

(CFA) charterholder. He was a licensed securities broker registered with the

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA is the successor to the National Associati ...

(FINRA) from July 2012 with no disclosed regulatory infractions. As of February 26, 2021, Gill was no longer a registered financial broker; January 28 was his last day of employment with

MassMutual The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, also known as MassMutual, is a Springfield, Massachusetts-based life insurance company. MassMutual provides financial products such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term ...

and a FINRA spokeswoman said, "a person’s registration is terminated when he or she is no longer employed by a registered firm." Between 2010 and 2014 he worked for a family friend at a start-up in New Hampshire, working on a software program to help investors analyze stocks. He worked for

LexShares LexShares is an online marketplace for investing in litigation. It connects plaintiffs in commercial legal disputes with investors to fund their cases. Founded in 2014, LexShares is privately owned with an office presence in New York City. The Le ...

until March 2017. Gill was employed at MassMutual from April 2019 until his resignation on January 28, 2021.

Position on GameStop

In September 2019, Gill, under the username "u/DeepFuckingValue", posted on the

a screenshot of a trade consisting of a roughly $53,000

long position In finance, a long Position (finance), position in a financial instrument means the holder of the position owns a positive amount of the instrument. The holder of the position has the expectation that the financial instrument will increase in valu ...

; Gill's

posts and

videos argued (through both

fundamental Fundamental may refer to: * Foundation of reality * Fundamental frequency, as in music or phonetics, often referred to as simply a "fundamental" * Fundamentalism, the belief in, and usually the strict adherence to, the simple or "fundamental" idea ...

and

technical analysis In finance, technical analysis is an analysis methodology for analysing and forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume. Behavioral economics and quantitative analysis use many of the sam ...

) that the stock was undervalued. The position was 50,000

shares In financial markets, a share is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation, and can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Share capital refers to all of the shares of an ...

and 500

call option In finance, a call option, often simply labeled a "call", is a contract between the buyer and the seller of the call option to exchange a security at a set price. The buyer of the call option has the right, but not the obligation, to buy an ...

s. In a YouTube video, he noted that his argument did not constitute

financial advice A financial adviser or financial advisor is a professional who provides financial services to clients based on their financial situation. In many countries, financial advisors must complete specific training and be registered with a regulatory ...

, saying "I don't provide personal investment advice or stock recommendations during the stream." Nonetheless, his argument "helped attract a flood of retail cash into GameStop". During the first days of the valuation spike in late January 2021, hundreds of thousands of people downloaded investment apps like Robinhood to "join the action". Ultimately, Gill's investment in the stock of GameStop (which began in June 2019, when the stock was $5 per share) inspired other posters and readers to invest. Subsequent investment in the stock (and other "

meme stock A meme stock is a stock that gains popularity among retail investors through social media. The popularity of meme stocks is generally based on internet memes shared among traders, on platforms such as Reddit's r/wallstreetbets. Investors in such st ...

s" such as

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** AM ...

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

, and

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

) would result in controversy; the 2021

would result in several

hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as sho ...

s and other

institutional investor An institutional investor is an entity which pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked co ...

s experiencing significant financial difficulty, as well as many retail investors (and other institutional investors) seeing significant gains. By January 27, according to screenshots he posted on Reddit, Gill's original investment was worth nearly $48 million. However, the value of the stock continued to fluctuate wildly; he lost $15 million in one day, and when markets closed on January 29, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' confirmed that his

brokerage account A securities account sometimes known as a brokerage account is an account that holds financial assets such as securities on behalf of an investor with a bank, broker or custodian bank, custodian. Investors and trader (finance), traders typically ha ...

s held $33 million. In an interview with ''The Wall Street Journal'', Gill said he "wasn't a rabble-rouser out to take on

the establishment ''The Establishment'' is a term used to describe a dominant social group , group or elite that controls a polity or an organization. It may comprise a closed social group that selects its own members, or entrenched elite structures in specific ...

, just someone who believes investors can find value in unloved stocks". After a two week break from posting regular updates on his position, Gill posted a new screenshot to r/wallstreetbets on February 19, 2021, showing that he had doubled the number of shares of GameStop he held (raising the total to 100,000). On April 16, 2021, he exercised all of his 500 call options with a

strike price In finance, the strike price (or exercise price) of an option is a fixed price at which the owner of the option can buy (in the case of a call), or sell (in the case of a put), the underlying security or commodity. The strike price may be set b ...

of $12, which were to expire that same day, and purchased an additional 50,000 shares, increasing his ownership to 200,000 GameStop shares.

Regulatory issues

On February 4, 2021, it was announced that William Galvin, the

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth is the principal public information officer of the government of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The Secretary of the Commonwealth oversees the Corporations Division, the Elections Division, the ...

, wrote to Gill's previous employer MassMutual to investigate whether or not Gill or the company broke any rules related to his activities in promoting the GameStop stock. A week earlier, Galvin had called for a 30-day suspension of trading in GameStop securities and insisted that the share price was "irrational." Gill testified to the

House Financial Services Committee The United States House Committee on Financial Services, also referred to as the House Banking Committee and previously known as the Committee on Banking and Currency, is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees t ...

on February 18, 2021, saying: "I did not solicit anyone to buy or sell the stock for my own profit", and "I like the stock." In September 2021, MassMutual was fined $4 million by Massachusetts regulators for failing to supervise Gill's trading and online activity. The consent order entered by Secretary Galvin’s office against MassMutual alleged that Gill had executed approximately 1,700 trades on behalf of three other individuals, and appeared intended to suggest that Gill had engaged in manipulation of GameStop’s share price. However, an attorney for Gill said that those trades were executed for "three family members" and that " ss than 5 percent of the trades in those accounts were in GME"—raising speculation that Secretary Galvin’s office had selectively omitted detail of Gill’s conduct to fit a narrative consistent with the statements he had made in January. In October 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission released a 45-page report that acknowledged that "People may disagree about the prospects of GameStop and the other meme stocks" and did not indicate that any market manipulation had occurred.

References

External links

Keith Gill
on

* * * Committee Hearing ** , US House Committee on Financial Services hearing ** {{DEFAULTSORT:Gill, Keith 1986 births 21st-century American people American financial analysts American YouTubers CFA charterholders Living people People from Brockton, Massachusetts Reddit people Stonehill College alumni