GameStop fever stirs questions of market manipulation

Trading firms, former fans of influencer Keith Gill are eyeing him with suspicion

- 

As a renewed bout of GameStop fever gripped the meme-stock faithful, fans of trading influencer Keith Gill waited for one moment: the day their hero, aka "Roaring Kitty", would become a billionaire.

The notion was hardly farfetched. Over the course of two weeks, Mr Gill had been posting images of a massive stake in GameStop and its call options in a portfolio that peaked at more than US$550 million (S$744 million) on June 6. Though he has added even more stock since then, the dollar value of his holdings has dropped along with the company's shares.

With the stock little changed since the early days of its latest mania, a new kind of anxiety is building among Wall Street and retail traders alike.

The original 2021 GameStop rally shook the idea of short selling to its core eroding the appeal of betting against a floundering company when you can wind up feeling the wrath of Redditors. This time around, the question is about what counts as market manipulation.