Reddit is a social media platform where members can engage in discussion threads about various topics. Wallstreetbets is an eight-million-strong forum where members can talk aboutinvesting in the stock market.
Reddit WallStreetBets Slang:
As you may or may not know, Reddit’s forum is broken into various subreddits, each one dedicated to a particular topic of discussion. The subreddit Wallstreetbets, also known as WSB and r/wallstreetbets, is a space where stock market investors can talk about (what else) the stock market. However, r/wallstreetbets is nothing like the opinion column of the Wall Street Journal or a roundtable discussion between financial pundits on FoxBusiness. Wallstreetbets describes itself as “Like 4chan found a Bloomberg terminal.” For those not in the know, 4chan is an anonymous message board that is frequently the site of humorous imagery (memes, specifically) that has facilitated its own comic and sometimes controversial reputation. And as for a Bloomberg Terminal, that’s a piece of financial reporting hardware and software that allows a financial advisor to take a real-time look at the market.
Put the two together, and you’ve got Wallstreetbets; r/wallstreetbets advertises itself as a place to facilitate tongue-in-cheek discussion of the stock market. Many of its members have been described as young retail investors who are not averse to risk, and who may view day trading as an opportunity to improve their financial situation. The memes and discussion threads on Wallstreetbets frequently inspire highly speculative options trading, much of it leveraged (meaning, with borrowed money—and since many of its members are in their early twenties or thirties, that borrowed money might be, for example, student loans). Wallstreetbets has also become known for its somewhat immature threads laced with profanity and controversial references, as you might expect from a gathering of younger users conversing about competitive topics like tendies (more on what that means momentarily). You might say it’s sort of like the back of the Reddit school bus, replete with its own lingo and slang terms.
But at the same time, the incident with GME stock has shown the world that r/wallstreetbets is a force to be reckoned with, even if it’s a place where the hottest buys on the stock market depend on who can make the best memes. Wallstreetbets has seen its membership surge in recent weeks and months, to a point where moderators have had to close the forum and only allow new members to come in through a vetting process. Of course, there are plenty of other threads and discussion boards about the stock market on the internet, but few have WallstreetBets’ charisma of 4Chan combined with a Bloomberg Terminal.
When Was WallStreetBets Created?
WallStreetBets was created on January 31st, 2012. Though it was already almost a decade old, it wasn’t until the GameStop short squeeze of 2021 that the subreddit known as r/wallstreetbets garnered attention from mainstream news media outlets. After that, the number of members exploded.
Reddit WallStreetBets Slang
If you’re curious in perusing the r/wallstreetbets subreddit, you’ll want to be aware of the slang the community uses within its investing discussions. This jargon includes:
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1. Stonk
Stonk means stock. This term originated with an internment meme of a suited man (presumably a trader) standing in front of some numbers and a big orange arrow, all of it titled “stonks.” The meme was a cheeky reference to making bad financial decisions, sort of like someone who cannot even pronounce stocks correctly.
2. Diamond Hands
The term “diamond hands” refers to holding on to a stock or option despite volatility and losses in the confidence that its price will eventually increase. On memes, the phrase is represented with emojis of a diamond and then hands. The term actually indicates risk-taking, and is sometimes the folly of stubbornly holding on to a stock or option until the bitter end, even when the ship should have been abandoned long ago. Whether having diamond hands is good or bad will probably depend on the final outcome of the ticker symbol.
3. Tendies
This one has a bizarre etymology (to say the least). Tendies is short for chicken tenders, and it comes from 4Chan as part of reference to grown men living with their mothers—men who would be rewarded for good behavior and self-sufficiency with GBP (good boy points), which they could then redeem for their favorite food: chicken tenders (we warned you the background was a little strange). The term moved to r/wallstreetbets where members used it self-deprecatingly in reference to their own living arrangements. Eventually, the term came to be associated with money or profit made from stock trading and options trading, which is how it’s most frequently used today.
Read more aboutThe Ultimate Guide to Reddit’s Wallstreetbets Slang.
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