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GameStop shares almost doubled in value on Monday morning following the apparent return to social media of the day trader at the centre of the 2021 “meme stock” craze.

The account of Keith Gill, also known as “Roaring Kitty”, posted a meme on X on Sunday of a man leaning forwards in his chair, an image that GameStop posted on its own X account in February this year. The account had been inactive since June 2021.

The shares soared in early trading on Monday, rising by as much as 118 per cent. They fell back to trade 83 per cent higher at 10:20am in New York, before being halted by rules designed to stop excess volatility in single stocks. 

Gill encouraged millions of new day traders to invest in GameStop during the frenzied surge in its stock price in 2021, when its price rose by more than 2000 per cent. Gill drew attention to the sizeable hedge fund bets against the company at the time, correctly predicting that a price increase would force hedge funds to buy the stock to cover their large short positions.

Investors in so-called meme stocks also targeted other businesses whose shares were heavily shorted in 2021, including AMC Entertainment and BlackBerry. Both of those companies climbed on Monday, with AMC Entertainment shares up 20 per cent by mid-morning and BlackBerry up 7 per cent. 

Data from S&P Global showed that 29 per cent of GameStop shares were on loan on Friday — a gauge of short interest in the stock.