Reddit Traders Push Rocket Founder’s Fortune $25 Billion Higher

by 24USATVMarch 3, 2021, 3 a.m. 80
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The net worth of Quicken Loans Inc. Chairman Dan Gilbert jumped by $25 billion Tuesday as shares of his mortgage lender Rocket Cos. skyrocketed on speculation it’s in the crosshairs of Reddit day traders.

The move propelled Gilbert, 59 and now worth $64.1 billion, up 19 spots to No. 16 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world’s 500 wealthiest people, marking one of the biggest one-day moves in the listing’s nine-year history. His majority stake in Rocket, which closed the day up 71%, comprises 93% of his wealth.

It’s the second massive jump in net worth for Gilbert over the past year. His estimated fortune more than quadrupled in August after Rocket went public, solidifying the value of the Detroit-based lender.

Shares of Rocket began to climb midday after a CNBC report that the company could be a possible Reddit target due its high short interest.

The biggest home mortgage lender in the U.S., Rocket joins a group of stocks that have recently received massive boosts from retail traders, like those from Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, who’ve piled into heavily shorted stocks in a kind of call to arms against hedge funds on the other side of the trade.

In doing so, the traders have inadvertently further enriched wealthy shareholders like Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, Lacroix sparkling-water tycoon Nick Caporella and Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ellen Gordon.

Gilbert’s one-day leap is just the largest in a year that so far has been distinguished by dramatic fluctuations among the very richest. Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk capped off months of gains to become the world’s richest person in January only to be knocked from the post weeks later by longtime No. 1 Jeff Bezos. The two have since continued to swap places, with Tesla alternately soaring and slumping on Bitcoin mania and a broader tech selloff.

In Asia, Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani retook the title of the region’s richest as Chinese bottled-water magnate Zhong Shanshan’s main asset tumbled 20% in a week, shaving $22 billion from his fortune.

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