Yahoo Finance Andrew Left Closes Bold GameStop Short After Latest Cash Raise
(Bloomberg) -- Andrew Left closed out his gutsy short position against GameStop Corp. as the meme-stock company raised $3 billion in the past month, leaving it well capitalized and with a soaring share price.
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“Took my short off, made my money, move on,” Left said in an interview. “The company’s got $4 billion in cash. They have a fervent supporter. You’ve got to respect the markets.”
Left placed new bets against the video-game retailer in May and June, he said. While he didn’t disclose the size of the positions, he said they were much smaller than previous ones placed against the video game retailer. He has steadily been closing them since the end of last week. Shares of GameStop are down around 1% and swinging wildly in early trading Wednesday after rising 23% on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, GameStop announced that it was raising more than $2.1 billion in a share sale program to capitalize on the rally in its stock price. The company raised $933 million in late May, also by selling equity.
Left and GameStop have a lengthy history. In early 2021, Left’s firm Citron Research suffered staggering losses from a short bet against the meme stock, Left announced that his firm would no longer publish short-selling research, ending a two-decade-long practice. Citron Research has since returned to publishing short reports, but with much less frequency than before.
The firm has also been at the center of a U.S. Justice Department investigation into short selling by hedge funds and research firms.
GameStop’s wild swings over the past few weeks have whiplashed traders in the last few weeks as Keith Gill, an investor and meme stock influencer who goes by DeepF—-ing Value on Reddit and Roaring Kitty on X, returned to social media and hosted a YouTube livestream, sparking speculation about his bets on GameStop. Gill rose to fame in 2021 by rallying retail traders on Reddit.
“I still think it’s ridiculous, and I think this whole Roaring Kitty live stream was a joke,” Left said. “If it gets to a certain price, I’ll probably short some.”
--With assistance from Bailey Lipschultz.
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