Keith Gill (DeepF***ingValue / Roaring Kitty)

Keith Gill is a US individual investor who became one of the most recognizable figures of the 2021 'meme stock' phenomenon. On Reddit's r/wallstreetbets he posted as 'DeepF***ingValue,' while on YouTube and X he used the persona 'Roaring Kitty.' Beginning in September 2019, he shared a screenshot of a roughly $53,000 long position in GameStop and published analyses and videos arguing that the company was undervalued, building a following over the following year and a half.

Gill is widely cited in news coverage as a key catalyst of the January 2021 GameStop short squeeze, during which the stock's price spiked dramatically, producing large losses for short-sellers and major swings across related securities. Reporting frequently connects his posts and disclosures to retail-investor enthusiasm for the stock, though characterizations of his influence vary by source. On February 18, 2021, Gill testified before the US House Financial Services Committee, telling lawmakers, 'I did not solicit anyone to buy or sell the stock for my own profit,' and famously adding, 'I like the stock.' In his prepared remarks he called the idea that he had used social media to promote GameStop to 'unwitting investors' preposterous.

At the time of his most-publicized posts, Gill had been employed at MassMutual, where he worked in marketing and financial education; he has said he was not a financial advisor and did not sell securities for the firm, and he resigned in late January 2021. In September 2021, Massachusetts securities regulators fined MassMutual US$4 million for failing to supervise his outside trading and online activity. A separate US Securities and Exchange Commission report in October 2021 examined the meme-stock episode but did not assert that market manipulation had occurred; no finding of market manipulation against Gill himself resulted from these events. Allegations of manipulation should be attributed to the parties making them rather than treated as established fact.

Gill largely withdrew from public view after 2021 before returning to social media in May and June 2024 amid renewed GameStop volatility, after which he disclosed large GameStop holdings and later a position in Chewy. In July 2024 a GameStop shareholder, Martin Radev, filed a proposed class-action securities-fraud suit in Brooklyn federal court alleging a 'pump and dump,' but Radev voluntarily dismissed the suit without prejudice within days of filing it. Gill's saga has since become a touchstone in discussions of retail investing, online communities, and the power of social media to move markets.