GameStop booster did well; many devotees won't as shares sag

In this June 7, 2003, photo, Brockton High School runner Keith Gill finishes the boys mile race at the 2003 All State Meet Championship in Norwell, Mass. Gill, a YouTube personality known as Roaring Kitty, became a figurehead in the January 2020 social media-driven GameStop stock-buying frenzy. — AP

WILMINGTON: "IF HE'S STILL IN, I’M STILL IN,” was the constant refrain from followers of Roaring Kitty, the YouTube personality whose enthusiasm about buying stock in video-game retailer GameStop made him an icon in the social media frenzy that shocked Wall Street last week.

His hometown newspaper in Massachusetts dubbed him a "Brockton legend, ” stirring dreams about how the former high school running champion might use his newfound riches to build the city an indoor track. Hollywood studios started sketching out movie proposals about the small-pocketed investors who banded together on social media to vault a troubled brick-and-mortar chain "to the moon” and punish hedge funds that were betting on its failure.