/r/wallstreetbets / Internet Investment Cults - Like the Rope Industry left a Bloomberg Terminal out

[HiramTheGrift]

wallstreetbets / Stock and Crypto Trading Cults​

A community that needs no introduction, /r/Wallstreetbets is a subreddit that hopes to combine their collective autism into a Rain Man-like hivemind that can predict the stock market. When they're not obsessively "hodling" and checking to see if the "squeeze has squoze," they post obscene levels of "loss porn" - images of their portfolio having tanked in value, often losing between $10k-$100k. This, like many weird wubreddits (ie: /r/TNO and others, but particularly gaming mod wubreddits) have engaged in (what I call) meme recursion. Meme recursion is when an online group/subreddit primarily exists to create memes, and in order to get the most karma you have to one-up the previous top post. Eventually the stakes are raised so high things can get out of control. /r/wallstreetbets does this, except in involves real money. These people are findoms except their sexual gratification comes from upvotes.
Occasionally, they have been able to give investment firms a run for their money, this is among one of the reasons /r/wallstreetbets has been in the news; particularly the Bloomberg network. All of this attention caused more people to flock to this subreddit in an attempt to win big money. As of last year, /r/wallstreetbets caused such a raucous interference in the stock market that stock (trading platform) Robinhood prohibited the purchasing of "meme stocks" like AMC Theaters (AMC) and Gamestop (GME). This was a shitshow of such epic proportions that a member of the /r/wallstreetbets community had to testify infront of the US Congress about what had transpired.


/r/wallstreetbets are known for their Seal Team Six levels of shitposting. Most of it's just shitty copypastas, but you will find some high quality gifs and vidya come out of their goblin mines. Some have even gone as far as renting billboards.
(video has no sound)

Their greatest memes are their loss porn. Some people gamble enough with options or just follow /r/wallstreetbets' investment advice and lose thousands of dollars

Their general chat has not been doing very well since the market has been looking down. When the market tanked early 2020 due to COVID the mods put a suicide prevention sticky on the top on the page. Since people started offing themselves they termed it "investing in $ROPE"

One of the most famous examples of this was a user /u/controlthenarrative waiting for the market to open and losing $50k live on camera.

There are many times when /r/wallstreetbets exploited Robinhood's systems for free money. We're not going to get technical with what happened, we have videos for that later. Here's the skinny of it: One user exploited a "box spread trading" strategy that he thought was fool-proof, only to lose almost 2,000% of his portfolio's value(archive). Luckily was able to pull $10k out before Robinhood closed his positions.

Another user was able to exploit the leverage feature in Robinhood and essentially generate free money (archive).

Boo this section is just articles and reading. I know. Here's a video that explains all of this to you with fun pictures and an ad by NordVPN™

The Absolute Chaos of r/Wallstreetbets​

(Youtube link)

What happens next is much larger than any of those other sperg moments. User /u/DeepFuckingValue believes GME is underpriced. After a few months of being ridiculed by /r/wallstreetbets for his $50k investment, he begins to make a profit in the seven digits. WSB, naturally, joins along. What they realize is that investment firms are artificially driving GME's price down, and in so doing, squeezing these filthy investment firms. What results is a few people making a lot of money, many people losing decent money, one suicide, and a congressional investigation. The reason why is that their levels collective autism levels were so strong that Robinhood ran into a liquidity problem and could no longer afford the meme stock trades for several days. This was such an Avengers level threat that the unlikeliest of foes joined forces. They even made the Redditor who decided to advertise his investment testify

Another video to explain the GME/Robinhood/Congress situation

The Absolute Chaos of r/Wallstreetbets Part 2 | GME​

(Youtube link)

Ever since then the userbase has been flooded with very interesting and exceptional individuals

Here is how the boomers are talking about WSB

In conclusion, /r/wallstreetbets is the autistic thunderdome of the financial world. They gamble and meme away their money, often with grave real-world consequences. In the rare situation a few of them manage to hit it big, they're paraded and vilified in the media. WSB gets a bad rep outside of their community for stupid reasons, but there are very legitimate reasons to be careful when you're investing around them. This is viewed as a game to a lot of these posters, but it obviously has real world consequences. Much like the Kiwifarms, WSB has killed people. Instead of writing their names down in a thread, however, WSB uses meme magiv to inspire hoards of apes to invest in shit stocks and crypto. You may have lost the money you took out on your mortgage, but you're an internet superstar! Oh yeah, Wall St is hiring WSB gaymers now too (archive). All you need is good Reddit karma and understanding of memes. I'll see you on Wallstreet, baybee

 

[WeWuzFinns]

At least the casino they gamble at isn't run by Indians

 

[Ho Deak]

At least the casino they gamble at isn't run by Indians

Don't the Mormons think that Indians are just punished Jews?

 

[Revo]

First of all, I gotta say congrats to @HiramTheGrift for making another great OP.
Second of all, you gotta appreciate people from /r/wallstreet for making people who are working for big banks and mainstream media reeeing for a few days: https://kiwifarms.net/threads/r-wsb...hedgefund-elon-musk-involved-as-always.83987/ .

 

[WeWuzFinns]

Don't the Mormons think that Indians are just punished Jews?

Those who are neutral in the battle between good and evil were cursed to have black skin. Indians are real Israelites. 5/5 lore.

 

[Epic Fail Man]

Le epic fail for the reddit plebs.

 

[Wheezy Asthmatic]

On one hand, it was fucking hilarious watching the Hedge Boys have catastrophic meltdowns over this. On the other, people made seriously stupid decisions with their money and lost everything. Taking risk is to be expected when you're investing but people entirely new to the game just slamming down $100K on a goose chase just.... baffled me. But I guess that's what makes the subreddit a cow.

WSB would definitely still be lauded as a hero if there wasn't so much scummery and infighting. Pretty sure one of the former mods turned into a massive grifter that was trying to paint the subreddit he got kicked out of as some evil cabal or some shit. I don't remember the specifics so someone more educated than me should be able to fill you in.

Anyways, even though the subreddit attracts massive amounts of autism, I think the whole shit-bang with GME actually got people from the Gen Z & Millenial generation to start learning how to invest. Really didn't learn about any of that shit in school, even though there was a finance class that was mandatory. I was taught to just stick money in a savings account and that it'll magically turn into a million dollars via interest over time. Joke's on them though, the rate of interest doesn't outrun the rate of inflation most times unless you already have a billion fucking dollars in your account already.
Fuckin' bullshit.
Oh well, I guess.

 

[Game master arino]

The group among them are the deep fucking value cultists. her could tell them to jump off a bridge and they would do it.

 

[COME ON OUT YOU RAPIST]

A community that needs no introduction

I think you may be missing the point of these kinds of threads. What are the origins of this community? What are the particulars of those involved? I want more information about the mod team of the subreddit, such as the rumors that they organized this GME short seller-buying scheme alongside DeepFuckingValue. Coverage of Citadel, the "villain" of the GME fiasco would also be welcome.

Spoiler: There is a lot of materiel there

Some people gamble enough with options or just follow /r/wallstreetbets' investment advice and lose thousands of dollars

While this is objectively true, it's also very common for anybody who invests in the stock market in any serious capacity. Portfolios rise and fall by thousands, tens or thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars every single day. Warren Buffet alone has about ten quotes attributed to him on this topic. To put it simply having red numbers in your portfolio isn't unique to lolcows. "You are losing money" is a pointless jeer for an agent de change, your investments may suddenly become profitable (or unprofitable) at any passing moment.

Overall this thread is a good idea. I have serious doubts they will ever replicate the drama surrounding GME however (as short-selling is now seen as infamous in just how badly it may go.)

 

[Blamo]

Sometimes I imagine that these investment hypes could be driven by bad actors, in theory. Imagine having a plan and basically recruiting the idiots whose money you will take. lol It's 90s daytrading with maymays.

 

[WolfeTone]

 

[Boobalover]

The amount of Indians that beg for free crypto and hopelessly shill their dying coin is absurd.
They can often be identified by their poor English and tendency to address every single person as "sir."
Most commonly seen in the comments of any notable crypto account.


WORLD CRYPTO LEADER 2030!!!

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

I wouldn't call the Game Stop/AMC shit attempting to predict the stock market, I'd call that straight-up active manipulation.

Granted, it's what the hedgies have been doing for years but still.

 

[Realistic]

I don't know if it's me but I'm having doubts about them being lolcow material and yes I do frequent /r/wallstreetbets though not as frequently since the sub lost it's luster for me.

The idea of fighting hedge funds is interesting but of course, momentum runs out on movements like /r/wsb and of course, all the work they put in is for naught since the stocks they invested in are going down and the entire thing is being labeled a "meme stock frenzy" instead of a active attempt to change the stock market system.

And of course, the stock market is only used two ways.

1. As a way for rich people to make more money through "investments"
2. As a way for rich people to make more money by pumping stocks and selling when the stocks get high.

It would be nice if us regular people could invest in the stocks and actually make money but of course, nobody wants ordinary people to get rich; they want rich people to stay rich and only a select few to get rich. Screw the American dream, nobody gets rich unless the rich say so!

Sad but true. I might be compelled to participate if more lolcowy material was shown.

 

[Troonos]

I don't care. All I know is that I made $48,000 on AMC. Apes stornger together! Diamond hands! Hodl, brothers!

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

I don't know if it's me but I'm having doubts about them being lolcow material and yes I do frequent /r/wallstreetbets though not as frequently since the sub lost it's luster for me.

The idea of fighting hedge funds is interesting but of course, momentum runs out on movements like /r/wsb and of course, all the work they put in is for naught since the stocks they invested in are going down and the entire thing is being labeled a "meme stock frenzy" instead of a active attempt to change the stock market system.

And of course, the stock market is only used two ways.

1. As a way for rich people to make more money through "investments"
2. As a way for rich people to make more money by pumping stocks and selling when the stocks get high.

It would be nice if us regular people could invest in the stocks and actually make money but of course, nobody wants ordinary people to get rich; they want rich people to stay rich and only a select few to get rich. Screw the American dream, nobody gets rich unless the rich say so!

Sad but true. I might be compelled to participate if more lolcowy material was shown.

Maybe not "lolcow material", but definitely community watch.

 

[Tims]

Might be worth going into more details on the origins of R/wsb as @Wayneright mentioned above, the original admins split off from r/investing when the sub was first established as they were advising people to make very very risky investments & they were essentially shoaed out of the subreddit & thus had to make wsb. Which in the beginning, was just a slightly ediger version of r/investing to start with but all of the sensible traders got pushed out early on by people completely new to investment & people making puts with insane odds & losing their dosh constantly. A lot of potential here OP just needs fleshed out a bit more

 

[Neil]

Good OP.

I feel really bad for WallStreetBets and how their lingo was coopted by con artists and bandwagoners rather than the genuine earnest retards trying to make money off stupid investments. That sub used to call each other retards and faggots because they made purposefully dumb/risky investments, but when media (and reddit moderator) attention was focused on them, then they softened their language and started going for "apes".

The whole GME thing started a wave of pump n dump investment cults, which is why so many douchebro youtubers are so deep in all of these crypto scams. GME popularized the lingo, Dogecoin popularized the methods. Every time I hear "to the moon" or "diamond hands" or "hodl" or "apes strong" my eyeballs roll so hard they could form an orbit. Especially with "not financial advice". It's a meant to be joke so people don't blame you for following you on a dumb investment idea and getting fucked hard on it, not as a serious legal defense, especially if you've intentionally fucked over and conned enough people to be SaveTheKids coin's scale.

 

[The Wicked Mitch]

Good OP.

I feel really bad for WallStreetBets and how their lingo was coopted by con artists and bandwagoners rather than the genuine earnest retards trying to make money off stupid investments. That sub used to call each other retards and faggots because they made purposefully dumb/risky investments, but when media (and reddit moderator) attention was focused on them, then they softened their language and started going for "apes".

The whole GME thing started a wave of pump n dump investment cults, which is why so many douchebro youtubers are so deep in all of these crypto scams. GME popularized the lingo, Dogecoin popularized the methods. Every time I hear "to the moon" or "diamond hands" or "hodl" or "apes strong" my eyeballs roll so hard they could form an orbit. Especially with "not financial advice". It's a meant to be joke so people don't blame you for following you on a dumb investment idea and getting fucked hard on it, not as a serious legal defense, especially if you've intentionally fucked over and conned enough people to be SaveTheKids coin's scale.

WSB used to be such a good time, especially before the coofhoax. By the time GME came along Jaydon couldn't even talk about his discount prostitutes anymore without being assaulted by Karens whining.

By the way they changed their language because of Reddit Anti-Evil Operations, what does this team do? Permaban you for saying faggot.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

Good OP.

I feel really bad for WallStreetBets and how their lingo was coopted by con artists and bandwagoners rather than the genuine earnest retards trying to make money off stupid investments. That sub used to call each other retards and faggots because they made purposefully dumb/risky investments, but when media (and reddit moderator) attention was focused on them, then they softened their language and started going for "apes".

The whole GME thing started a wave of pump n dump investment cults, which is why so many douchebro youtubers are so deep in all of these crypto scams. GME popularized the lingo, Dogecoin popularized the methods. Every time I hear "to the moon" or "diamond hands" or "hodl" or "apes strong" my eyeballs roll so hard they could form an orbit. Especially with "not financial advice". It's a meant to be joke so people don't blame you for following you on a dumb investment idea and getting fucked hard on it, not as a serious legal defense, especially if you've intentionally fucked over and conned enough people to be SaveTheKids coin's scale.

Kinda reminds me of the CIA Nigger, glow in the dark meme being used by people who have no idea who Terry is.