GameStop shares plunge, halted during Roaring Kitty livestream

(The Hill) -- Shares of video game retailer and meme stock sensation GameStop plunged Friday afternoon and were throttled multiple times as the investor responsible for the craze behind them held a livestream.

GameStop shares were down more than 33 percent shortly after 12:45 p.m. Eastern, 45 minutes after Keith Gill, the investor known as Roaring Kitty, began a highly anticipated live presentation on YouTube. The New York Stock Exchange halted the purchase and sale of GameStop shares more than a dozen different times throughout Friday as they plunged in value.

Nearly four years after igniting the 2021 meme stock craze with his quixotic stake in GameStop, Gill spurred another run-up in the retailer's share price last month. The Massachusetts-born former financial advisor was silent on social media for years after he and his legions of amateur internet trader acolytes faced the wrath of Wall Street and Washington.

Shares of GameStop are up more than 90 percent over the past month since Gill returned to the platform formerly known as Twitter with a string of several cat pictures. But they remain well below their peak of more than $81 on Jan. 29, 2021, after which the price of the stock collapsed.

While Gill's acolytes and meme stock traders believe his conduct is no different than the scores of Wall Street investors who hype their holdings in media interviews, financial experts have expressed concerns about the lack of clear investment logic behind several meme stock positions.