DIAMOND HANDS
"What's an exit strategy?" — DeepFuckingValue, Reddit, 2021
ONE
THE THESIS
INT. KEITH GILL'S BASEMENT — BROCKTON, MA — JUNE 2019 — NIGHT
A cluttered basement office. Two monitors glow in the dark. Action figures line the shelves. A poster of a cat wearing sunglasses hangs on the wall. KEITH GILL, 33, sits in a gaming chair wearing a red headband and a t-shirt with a cartoon cat on it. He is recording a YouTube video. His audience: four people.
KEITH
(into webcam, genuinely excited)
Okay guys, so I've been looking at this company — GameStop. Ticker GME. And I know what you're thinking. "Isn't GameStop dying?" That's what the short sellers think too. But here's the thing — they're wrong. The short interest on this stock is over one hundred percent of the float. Do you understand what that means? They've sold more shares short than actually exist.
He pulls up a spreadsheet. The numbers are meticulous. Weeks of research distilled into cells and formulas.
KEITH
(leaning forward)
This is a deep value play, not a meme. The company has a billion dollars in revenue, new console cycles coming, and a short squeeze setup that I've never seen before in my life. I'm putting in fifty-three thousand dollars of my own money. My entire savings. My wife knows. She's... supportive. Mostly.
He hits the buy button. The screen shows: 50,000 shares of GME at approximately $5.
KEITH (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
Everyone called me crazy. My coworkers at MassMutual, my friends, the four people who watched my YouTube channel. But I'd done the work. I'd read every filing, every earnings call transcript. I knew this company better than anyone on Wall Street. Sometimes the crowd is wrong. And sometimes being early looks exactly like being wrong.
CUT TO:
INT. MELVIN CAPITAL — NEW YORK CITY — 2020 — DAY
A sleek midtown Manhattan office. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Bloomberg terminals everywhere. GABE PLOTKIN, 42, impeccably dressed, reviews positions with his team. Melvin Capital manages $12.5 billion. The walls display their track record: 30% annual returns.
ANALYST
GameStop short is performing beautifully. Stock's down to four dollars. The company's bleeding cash. We're up sixty million on this position alone.
PLOTKIN
(barely looking up)
Good. Increase the position. GameStop is a dead company walking. Physical retail for video games in 2020? It's like shorting Blockbuster in 2010. This is free money.
Plotkin leans back. Behind him, a Bloomberg terminal quietly shows: GME Short Interest — 140% of float.
ANALYST
(hesitant)
Gabe, the short interest is getting... elevated. If someone were to notice—
PLOTKIN
Who's going to notice? The four retail traders left who still care about GameStop? Relax. Brick-and-mortar gaming retail is finished.
CUT TO:
INT. KEITH'S BASEMENT — SEPTEMBER 2020 — NIGHT
Keith sits at his desk. His Reddit post is open — the username "DeepFuckingValue." He has been posting monthly updates of his GameStop position to the subreddit r/WallStreetBets. Each post shows his portfolio: the original $53,000 investment, slowly growing. The comments are mostly mocking.
KEITH
(reading Reddit comments aloud, amused)
"Bro you're going to lose everything." "GameStop is literally going bankrupt." "This is the worst trade I've ever seen." And my personal favorite: "Positions or ban."
He screenshots his brokerage account. Posts it. The account shows $53,000 invested, currently worth $120,000. He types a simple comment: "I like the stock."
CAROLINE
(from the top of the stairs)
Keith? It's midnight. Are you talking to the internet again?
KEITH
(calling back)
I'm building a community, babe! Also my position is up a hundred and twenty percent. So... there's that.
A long pause from upstairs.
CAROLINE
Don't stay up too late. And don't buy more.
Keith looks at the buy button. Looks at the ceiling. Looks back at the buy button. He buys more.
CUT TO:
INT. REDDIT HEADQUARTERS / WALLSTREETBETS — JANUARY 2021 — DAY
SPLIT SCREEN: On one side, the WallStreetBets subreddit is exploding. Subscriber count ticking up: 2 million... 3 million... 4 million. On the other side, THE REDDIT MODERATOR sits in his apartment staring at his screen in disbelief. His phone won't stop buzzing.
REDDIT MODERATOR
(on phone, panicking)
No, I can't shut down the subreddit! There are four million people in here! Do you know what happens when you try to stop four million people from doing something on the internet? They do it harder!
He scrolls through the forum. Every post is about GameStop. Diamond hand emojis. Rocket emojis. Screenshots of people betting their student loans, their savings, their rent money. The stock chart is nearly vertical: $20... $40... $80... $150...
REDDIT MODERATOR
(to himself)
We're either witnessing the democratization of finance or the largest coordinated financial suicide in human history. Possibly both.
CUT TO:
INT. MELVIN CAPITAL — JANUARY 25, 2021 — DAY
Chaos. The trading floor is in pandemonium. Screens flash red. People are shouting. Gabe Plotkin stands in the middle of it, his tie loosened, face white. GameStop is at $150 and climbing.
ANALYST
(voice cracking)
Gabe, we're down three billion. Three billion dollars in two weeks. We need a capital infusion or we're going to face a margin call.
PLOTKIN
(disbelief)
Call Steve. Call Ken Griffin. We need two point seven five billion by end of day or Melvin Capital is finished.
Plotkin picks up his phone. His hands are shaking. On his Bloomberg terminal, a single Reddit post is bookmarked — DeepFuckingValue's latest update. The portfolio now shows: $53,000 turned into $48 million.
PLOTKIN
(staring at the screen)
Who is this person?
TWO
THE SQUEEZE
INT. CNBC STUDIO — JANUARY 27, 2021 — MORNING
THE CNBC ANCHOR sits at her desk, perfectly composed. Behind her, the GameStop chart dominates the screen. The stock has hit $347 in pre-market trading. She takes a breath. This is the strangest story she has ever covered.
CNBC ANCHOR
(to camera)
Good morning. GameStop shares are up another seventy percent in pre-market trading, bringing the total gain this month to over one thousand, seven hundred percent. The surge, apparently driven by retail investors on the Reddit forum WallStreetBets, has now caused billions in losses for hedge funds including Melvin Capital. And I cannot believe I am saying this on national television, but a man who goes by "Roaring Kitty" and wears a red headband appears to be at the center of all of this.
She pauses. Presses her earpiece.
CNBC ANCHOR
(reacting to producer)
I'm sorry, it's just hit four hundred. GameStop is at four hundred dollars per share. A stock that was four dollars three months ago. This is... this is unprecedented.
CUT TO:
INT. KEITH'S BASEMENT — JANUARY 27, 2021 — DAY
Keith sits in his chair. He hasn't slept. His phone has 2,000 unread messages. His portfolio shows $48 million. His YouTube stream has 300,000 live viewers. He is wearing the red headband. His cat sits on his lap.
KEITH
(on stream, somehow still calm)
Alright guys, so... the stock is at three-eighty. Which is... a lot. Some of you are asking if I've sold. I have not sold. I am not selling. I like the stock. That's it. I just like the stock.
The chat explodes. Diamond emojis fill the screen. Caroline appears at the top of the stairs. She is holding their infant daughter.
CAROLINE
(carefully)
Keith. CNN just called. And CNBC. And the Wall Street Journal. And someone who says they're from the SEC.
KEITH
(long pause)
Which one called first?
CAROLINE
The SEC.
Keith takes off the headband. For the first time, he looks scared.
CUT TO:
INT. ROBINHOOD HEADQUARTERS — JANUARY 28, 2021 — EARLY MORNING
The Robinhood app. The buy button for GameStop. It disappears. Across America, millions of retail investors stare at their phones in disbelief. They can sell GameStop, but they cannot buy. The stock begins to plummet.
January 28, 2021. Robinhood restricts buying of GameStop and other "meme stocks." Users can only sell.
MONTAGE: Reddit erupts. Twitter erupts. Cable news erupts. AOC and Ted Cruz agree on something for the first time in recorded history. The hashtag #RobinhoodIsCorrupt trends worldwide. GameStop plummets from $483 to $112 in hours.
REDDIT MODERATOR
(staring at his screen)
They turned off the buy button. They literally turned off the buy button. The hedge funds were losing, so they changed the rules of the game. And somehow this is legal?
CUT TO:
INT. KEITH'S HOUSE — LIVING ROOM — JANUARY 28, 2021 — NIGHT
Keith and Caroline sit on the couch. The baby is asleep. Keith's portfolio has dropped from $48 million to $14 million in a single day. His phone buzzes constantly. Lawyers are calling. The news is calling him the ringleader of market manipulation.
CAROLINE
(quiet, firm)
Keith. You need to tell me the truth. Did you do anything wrong?
KEITH
(looking at her directly)
I posted my investment thesis on the internet. I shared my position. I never told anyone to buy anything. I just said I liked the stock. Because I do. The fundamentals haven't changed. The short interest is still over a hundred percent. The thesis is still right.
CAROLINE
Fourteen million dollars disappeared today, Keith.
KEITH
(steady)
I'm not selling.
Caroline studies his face. She has seen this look before — the same look he had when he first showed her the spreadsheets, the research, the thesis. Total conviction.
CAROLINE
(after a long beat)
Then we're not selling.
CUT TO:
INT. RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING — WASHINGTON, D.C. — FEBRUARY 18, 2021 — DAY
A congressional hearing room. Virtual format due to COVID. Gabe Plotkin testifies via video. He looks diminished. THE CONGRESSIONAL CHAIRMAN presides.
CONGRESSIONAL CHAIRMAN
Mr. Plotkin, your fund lost approximately fifty-three percent of its value in January. Billions of dollars. Can you explain to the American people how a Reddit forum of retail investors was able to inflict that kind of damage on a professional hedge fund?
PLOTKIN
(carefully)
Mr. Chairman, Melvin Capital was the target of a coordinated attack—
CONGRESSIONAL CHAIRMAN
(cutting in)
A coordinated attack. By individual citizens investing their own money in a publicly traded company. Is that what you're characterizing as an attack, Mr. Plotkin?
Plotkin shifts uncomfortably. The silence stretches.
THREE
I LIKE THE STOCK
INT. CONGRESSIONAL HEARING — CONTINUED — DAY
Keith Gill appears on the video feed. He is wearing a suit and tie. Behind him, on his shelf, visible to everyone: a "Hang In There" cat poster and a red headband draped over a picture frame. He is no longer Roaring Kitty. He is a citizen testifying before Congress.
CONGRESSIONAL CHAIRMAN
Mr. Gill, you are not a registered broker-dealer. You are not a financial advisor in the traditional sense. Yet your posts on Reddit appear to have influenced millions of people to invest in GameStop. How do you respond to the accusation that you manipulated the market?
KEITH
(calm, measured)
Mr. Chairman, I am not a cat. I am an individual investor who used publicly available information to form an investment thesis. I shared that thesis on social media. I did not ask anyone to buy or sell. I posted my positions because the community valued transparency. And I would like to state for the record — I like the stock. I liked it at five dollars. I liked it at twenty. I liked it at four hundred and eighty. And I still like it now.
The room goes silent. Across America, millions of people watch the stream. Reddit crashes from the traffic.
KEITH
(continuing)
As for the hedge funds — they chose to short over one hundred percent of a company's float. That's not investing. That's a bet that a company will die. And when individual investors disagreed with that bet, the system tried to shut us out. The question this committee should be asking is not whether retail investors should be allowed to buy stocks. The question is why the buy button was turned off when we were winning.
CUT TO:
INT. KEITH'S BASEMENT — FEBRUARY 19, 2021 — NIGHT
Keith is at his computer. The hearing is over. GameStop is at $40. His portfolio, once worth $48 million, is now worth approximately $9 million. He opens Reddit. Types his update post. Screenshots his brokerage account. Then he does something that will echo through financial history.
February 19, 2021. Keith Gill doubles his position. He buys 50,000 additional shares of GameStop at $38.70.
The Reddit post goes live. The internet loses its collective mind. He has not sold a single share. He has doubled down. The post receives 250,000 upvotes.
REDDIT MODERATOR
(staring at his phone)
He doubled down. The mad lad actually doubled down. After testifying before Congress. After the entire financial establishment tried to destroy him. He doubled down.
CUT TO:
INT. MELVIN CAPITAL — 2022 — DAY
The office is quiet. Half the desks are empty. Gabe Plotkin stands at the window, looking out at the Manhattan skyline. A JUNIOR ANALYST approaches.
JUNIOR ANALYST
Gabe, the redemption requests... we can't meet them. We're down forty percent for the year on top of the GameStop losses. Investors want out.
PLOTKIN
(barely audible)
Wind it down.
JUNIOR ANALYST
Sorry?
PLOTKIN
(turning from the window)
Wind it down. Close the fund. Melvin Capital is finished.
Melvin Capital closed in May 2022, having lost $12 billion. It was the highest-profile hedge fund collapse since Long-Term Capital Management in 1998.
CUT TO:
EXT. BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS — SUBURBAN STREET — DAY
Keith Gill walks down the street. No headband. No camera. Just a guy in a neighborhood, pushing a stroller. His phone buzzes. He glances at it — GameStop stock alert — and puts it back in his pocket. Caroline walks beside him.
CAROLINE
You know you could buy literally any house in this town.
KEITH
(smiling)
I like this house.
CAROLINE
You like everything.
KEITH
I like the house. I like the street. I like the stock.
She laughs. They keep walking. Behind them, the sun sets over Brockton, Massachusetts, where a financial analyst in a red headband changed the game forever.
CUT TO:
INT. KEITH'S BASEMENT — 2024 — NIGHT
The basement is unchanged. Same action figures. Same cat poster. Same two monitors. Keith sits in his chair. He hasn't posted on Reddit or YouTube in three years. Silence. Then he opens his laptop. Opens Twitter. Posts a single image: a simple sketch of a man sitting forward in a chair, leaning in. No text. No explanation.
On June 2, 2024, Roaring Kitty returned to social media after three years of silence. GameStop stock surged 74% in a single day. His position was revealed to be worth over $300 million.
Keith leans back in his chair. Puts on the red headband. Looks into the camera that isn't on.
KEITH
(to no one, to everyone)
I just like the stock.
FADE OUT.
Keith Gill's $53,000 investment in GameStop became worth over $300 million. He never sold. He never started a fund. He never monetized his fame. Melvin Capital closed. Robinhood paid a $70 million fine. The SEC found no evidence of market manipulation by Gill or the Reddit community. The GameStop saga remains the most consequential retail investor movement in financial history — a reminder that when enough ordinary people believe in the same thesis, they can move mountains. Or, at minimum, bankrupt a hedge fund.