Ever since liquidating his GameStop calls ahead of their expiration on the 21st of June, the OG meme stock veteran, Keith Gill, who also goes by the moniker Roaring Kitty on Reddit, has been largely mum on his next moves, barring a rare disclosure of a 6.6 percent stake in Chewy Inc. Now, however, options market data suggests that Roaring Kitty is again building up a sizable stash of calls on GameStop and Chewy, perhaps in the hope of igniting a gamma squeeze event in these retail-exposed names.
For the benefit of those who might not be aware, there are striking similarities between Roaring Kitty's GameStop play and his ongoing gamma-squeeze-inducing moves vis-a-vis Chewy. First, the online retailer of pet-related items has a sizable short interest, corresponding to 14.88 percent of the float. Additionally, Chewy was founded by none other than the current CEO of GameStop, Ryan Cohen, a few years back, creating a plausible if tenuous link between the two entities.
This is unusual.
Today someone bought 5,000 GameStop, $GME, $30 calls expiring 07/19.
A potential different trader ALSO, around the same time, bought similar $CHWY $30 calls for 7/19.
These trade sizes are similar to when Roaring Kitty bought $GME and Chewy before. pic.twitter.com/J1L4kV1q8Y
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) July 10, 2024
This brings us to the crux of the matter. The X account Unusual Whales alerted to an anomalous transaction on Tuesday, which involved the purchase of 5,000 calls on GameStop and another 5,000 on Chewy. Both of these bullish bets expire on the 19th of July. Based on trade size similarities, Unusual Whales alluded to the possibility that Roaring Kitty might again be accumulating a bullish call stake in these two names.
$CHWY $30 calls for 7/19 were alerted on @unusual_whales with a block of 5,000 hitting the ask at $.14 on Tuesday
Today, those contracts hit a high of $.90
Up over 500% since entry. 📝✅😎#CHWY https://t.co/ZUv5vksVfs pic.twitter.com/fHl10QCrdf
— Wolf of My Street🏡 (@Ryan__Rigg) July 11, 2024
This brings us to today when Ryan Rigg, who operates a companion X account to Unusual Whale's, reported that the Chewy calls likely purchased by Roaring Kitty on Tuesday at a cost of $0.14 were now trading at $0.90, corresponding to an unrealized gain of around 500 percent within just the past 48 hours.
Our readers should note that Roaring Kitty's involvement in these transactions can't be confirmed unless he chooses to do so himself. That disclosure, however, will likely materialize once the OG meme stock veteran is done with arranging the proverbial deck to his satisfaction. As such, we look forward to this Sunday for just such an explosive disclosure.
