WallStreetBets

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About

WallStreetBets or /r/wallstreetbets is a subreddit which primary focus is risky stock market trading and memes about it. Similar to 4chan's /biz/ board, the subreddit spawned multiple memes about stock trading and has been featured in a number of mainstream financial outlets.

In January 2021, the subreddit achieved global recognition following the events of the GameStop Stock Surge in which it played a defining role.

History and Notable Events

On January 31st, 2012, Redditor^[1] jartek (real name Jaime Rogozinski) created /r/wallstreetbets, with the community shaping up to become a forum for discussion of risky market trades and memes about stock trading. Over the years, a number of users acquired iconic status in the community due to their extreme gains or losses, with the subreddit forming its own lingo and memes.

In 2013, jartek and another user americanpegasus had a competition in which jartek traded options and americanpegasus traded penny stocks.^[5]^[6]

In 2015, the subreddit experienced a "modpocalypse," with hundreds of random users being added as moderators for several months.

In January 2019, Redditor 1RONYMAN^[7]^[8] abused stock trading app Robinhood's poor risk management and lost nearly 58,000 USD on what he thought was a risk-free box spread trade. He was subsequently assigned short calls, and his account was suspended by Robinhood, although 1RONYMAN managed to withdraw $10,000 before the suspension. Robinhood later removed the option for using box spread trading on the platform.

Between July 2019 and August 2019, 19-year-old /r/wallstreetbets user Analfarmer2 gained and subsequently lost nearly $700,000 in a series of YOLO call and put options.^[9]

In late October 2019 Redditor /r/ControlTheNarrative discovered a loophole in Robinhood that allowed to increase his leverage indefinitely. After effectively raising his leverage 25:1, he bought Apple put options and lost nearly $45,000 in one day, posting a recording of himself watching his loss on /r/wallstreetbets. Upon seeing his major loss, /r/ControlTheNarrative uttered "Guh," with the exclamation becoming a major meme in the subreddit.

In March 2020 the subreddit^[10] was featured on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek.

On January 29th, 2020, /r/wallstreetbets founder and moderator Jaime " jartek" Rogozinski published a book "WallStreetBets: How Boomers Made the World’s Biggest Casino for Millennials" about the subreddit. In April 2020, jartek was ousted from /r/wallstreetbets due to monetizing the subreddit and luring people into the community with fake success posts from his alternative accounts.^[11]

GameStop Stock Surge

GameStop Stock Surge or GameStop Short Squeeze refers to the massive surge in the price of of GameStop shares in the stock market in January 2021, when it rose from $17 to $76, largely due to a campaign by users in /r/WallStreetBets subreddit. The hype resulted in GameStop (GME) becoming of the most traded stocks on Wall Street that month, and on January 22nd, there were 134 million trades of the stock.

Lingo and Memes

/r/wallstreetbets has its own humorous trading-related lingo which it partially shares with 4chan's /biz/ board.

AMD CEO Lisa Su – the CEO of multinational company Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). In /r/wallstreetbets, Lisa Su acquired a status of a cult personality, a mascot and even a waifu, with memes and copypastas about her being posted, partly due to $AMD being a popular stock both as a meme and a trading choice.

Bagholder – a person holding shares that have severely drop in value with a low likelihood of regaining it.

$BECKY – a set of securities which are associated with goods and services in demand among white college girls, namely $ETSY (Etsy), $LULU (Lululemon Athletica), $ULTA (Ulta Beauty, $GOOS (Canada Goos), $SBUX (Starbucks).

Calls and Puts – call options and put options are bullish and bearish options.^[3]^[4]

Diamond Hands 💎✋ / Paper Hands – Diamond Hands refers to traders who believe in the eventual profitability of their stocks and securities and keep holding them while their value drops below the initial. Paper Hands refer to those traders who either sell their securities too early before the profit is maximized.

Disney / The Mouse – similar to AMD, Disney, often referred to as "the mouse," is a popular stock in /r/wallstreetbets, both as a meme and a trading choice.

DD – due diligence; pre-analyzing your planned trade and its potential consequences to avoid significant financial damage.

FD (Faggot's Delight) – an at the money (ATM) or out of the money (OTM) option that expires within a short amount of time, usually within a week. FDs are a popular choice among the traders in the community due to enabling quick large profits or losses.

Gain Porn / Loss Porn – posts which chronicle major successes and losses.

Gay Bears 🌈🐻/ Gay Bulls 🌈🐂 – bears and bulls are investors who have a bearish (stocks will go down) or bullish (stocks will go up) market outlook. On /r/wallstreetbets, bears and bulls are commonly referred to as gay bears and gay bulls.

GUH – an exclamation uttered by Redditor /r/ControlTheNarrative upon quickly losing approximately $45,000 on Apple puts on October 31st, 2019.^[2] The sound often referred to as "the sound of a soul leaving a man's body," with the exclamation being used synonymously to "a major loss."

"It literally can't go tits up" – a phrase said by fabled /r/wallstreetbets user 1RONYMAN before it all went tits up and he lost nearly $58,000 on a single trade.

JPOW – Jerome Hayden Powell, the Chair of the US Federal Reserve.

Robinhood – a commission-free broker popular among /r/wallstreetbets users.

Sir, This Is an Arby's / Wendy's – a popular humorous punchline, often used after lengthy posts to highlight that the content's quality is too high for the community.

Tendies – profits (especially large).

YOLO – an all-in risky trade.

Highlights

[This video has been removed]

Traffic

As of April 14th, 2020, the subreddit had nearly 1.1 million subscribers. On January 23rd, 2021, the subreddit reached two million subscribers.^[12] As of January 27th, 2021, the subreddit had over 2.8 million subscribers.