“Roaring Kitty” raises the GameStop (GME) bet after exercising the options

Photographer: Daniel Acker / Bloomberg

The Reddit user who helped fuel the rising price of GameStop Corp. shares. this year it doubled its bet, exercising its call options and buying even more shares.

Keith Gill, called “Roaring Kitty” and “DeepF___gValue,” posted a screenshot of his portfolio showing that he exercised 500 GameStop call options that expire on Friday at a weighted price of $ 12, providing him with 50,000 more shares. The stock closed at $ 154.69 on Friday.

In addition, Gill bought another 50,000 shares of the video game retailer, effectively doubling its holdings to 200,000 shares from 100,000 earlier this month. His total investment in GameStop is now worth more than $ 30 million, giving him a profit of almost $ 20 million.

Gill’s mother, Elaine Gill, contacted by phone at her childhood home in Massachusetts, confirmed the Reddit screenshots posted by her son.

Gill became famous this year as one of the most influential voices on Reddit and YouTube amid retailers’ efforts to squeeze GameStop short sellers. He testified at a congressional meeting in February, where he said he did not call on anyone to buy or sell the shares for his own benefit.

The comments came when he was hit with a trial that accused him of misrepresenting himself as an amateur investor. The lawsuit alleges that he was in fact a licensed securities trader who manipulated the market for profit, which he denied.

Read: Roaring Kitty throws himself as a solo trader, GameStop Fan

On Friday, GameStop CEO George Sherman, who is expected to leave, sold nearly $ 12 million in shares. The company is looking for a new CEO, as part of a shake-up triggered by activist investor and co-founder of Chewy.com, Ryan Cohen, said a person with knowledge about this issue.

GameStop shares have risen 721% so far this year, although they are less than half of the maximum level in January.