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[[File:Wsbheader.PNG|thumbnail|center|The /r/wallstreetbets Subreddit Banner]]
 
'''/r/wallstreetbets''' is a subreddit used for discussing day trading, stocks, and sharing individual trades, losses, or gains. The board describes itself as "Like 4chan found a Bloomberg terminal". Users will post images of their portfolio, text posts, and memes about stocks or trading. It's known most famously for incidents where its users have exploited options contracts in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinhood_(company) RobinHood] to leverage millions of dollars, and for posts on the board of users losing up to millions of dollars. Mainstream media has described users on the board as "psychopaths" for discovering the glitch on RobinHood. <ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imUsp_sruTc&feature=youtu.be</ref>
 
'''/r/wallstreetbets''' is a subreddit used for discussing day trading, stocks, and sharing individual trades, losses, or gains. The board describes itself as "Like 4chan found a Bloomberg terminal". Users will post images of their portfolio, text posts, and memes about stocks or trading. It's known most famously for incidents where its users have exploited options contracts in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinhood_(company) RobinHood] to leverage millions of dollars, and for posts on the board of users losing up to millions of dollars. Mainstream media has described users on the board as "psychopaths" for discovering the glitch on RobinHood. <ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imUsp_sruTc&feature=youtu.be</ref>
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Users of the board have fun with this reputation, and mock the idea that they could be doing insider trading or market manipulation, saying "How can we have insider knowledge when we don’t have any knowledge?" <ref> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-26/reddit-s-profane-greedy-traders-are-shaking-up-the-stock-market</ref> However, with many users being active day traders, the structure of a forum discussing trades in a lackadaisical manner tends to genuine concerns about /r/wallstreetbets being brushed off.
 
==Background==
 
==Background==
 
===History===
 
===History===
/r/wallstreetbets was initially created in  2012 by [[Reddit]] user /u/jartek after being run out of /r/investing, a sub with a similar focus on stocks, for advocating risky bets. <ref>https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nedzqm/you-probably-shouldnt-bet-your-savings-on-reddits-wallstreetbets</ref> The subreddit grew in size from less than 10,000 at the end of 2014 to 930,000 by February 2020. <ref>https://subredditstats.com/r/wallstreetbets</ref>  
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/r/wallstreetbets was initially created in  2012 by [[Reddit]] user /u/jartek after being banned from /r/investing, a sub with a similar focus on stocks, for advocating risky bets. <ref>https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nedzqm/you-probably-shouldnt-bet-your-savings-on-reddits-wallstreetbets</ref> The subreddit grew in size from less than 10,000 at the end of 2014 to 930,000 by February 2020. <ref>https://subredditstats.com/r/wallstreetbets</ref>  
On February 21, 2020, /r/wallstreetbets removed itself from /r/all and default subreddits.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/f720hg/wsb_removed_from_rall_and_default_subreddits/</ref> This limited the amount of non-members from viewing the subreddit without a direct link, and was done to reduce the number of users joining the community.
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On February 21, 2020, /r/wallstreetbets opted to remove itself from /r/all and default subreddits, meaning that posts on /r/wallstreetbets wouldn't be seen when filtering through the top posts of all subreddits.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/f720hg/wsb_removed_from_rall_and_default_subreddits/</ref> This limited the amount of non-members from viewing the subreddit without a direct link, and was done to reduce the number of users joining the community.
  
 
===Community===
 
===Community===
The community of /r/wallstreetbets is unified in a bravado that they uphold through coarse language and frequent slurs. Members will call each other "autists", and other derogatory terms, but not in an attempt to provoke or attack. Rather, there is a sense of community among its members, and one where aspects of other young male communities like masculinity are twisted. <ref>https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nedzqm/you-probably-shouldnt-bet-your-savings-on-reddits-wallstreetbets</ref> Instead of making fun of people who lose a lot of money, users feel a sense of solidarity, and have a one-of-us mentality.  
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The community of /r/wallstreetbets is unified in a bravado that they uphold through coarse language and frequent slurs. Members will call each other "autists", and other derogatory terms, but not in an attempt to provoke or attack. There is a sense of connection among its members, and one where aspects of other young male communities like masculinity are twisted. <ref>https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nedzqm/you-probably-shouldnt-bet-your-savings-on-reddits-wallstreetbets</ref> Instead of making fun of people who lose a lot of money, users feel a sense of solidarity, and have a one-of-us mentality.
 +
[[File:Wsbrules.PNG|thumbnail|right|The rules of /r/wallstreetbets]]
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Users who are unaware of the subreddits customs, or those who clearly don't match the common demographics of the subreddit are shunned. The mod team of /u/wallstreetbets has hosted two "paper-trading competitions", which are normally stock competitions where competitors will aim to make the most money with stock trades on paper, and not using real money. Users under 18 were encouraged to participate in the competitions by signing up on a thread. However, the real purpose of these competitions were to weed out users of the subreddit who did not have money in the stock market, as they looked down on them. <ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/f2tjkn/moderators_update_on_paper_trading_competition/</ref> These rooted out users were subsequently permanently banned from the subreddit so that they couldn't participate in any threads or discussions.
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==Ethical Issues==
 
==Ethical Issues==
 
/r/wallstreetbets is a platform used for discussing stocks, but it has been criticized for the atmosphere it fosters and the users attitudes towards. Members of the community will encourage each other to post their "loss porn", which means a screenshot or other documentation of users losing much of their portfolio.<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-26/reddit-s-profane-greedy-traders-are-shaking-up-the-stock-market</ref>  
 
/r/wallstreetbets is a platform used for discussing stocks, but it has been criticized for the atmosphere it fosters and the users attitudes towards. Members of the community will encourage each other to post their "loss porn", which means a screenshot or other documentation of users losing much of their portfolio.<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-26/reddit-s-profane-greedy-traders-are-shaking-up-the-stock-market</ref>  
 
===Groupthink===
 
===Groupthink===
/r/wallstreetbets users tend to be very active, with the subreddit having the 5th most comments per day of any subreddit. <ref>https://subredditstats.com/r/wallstreetbets</ref> However, as there are only a few powerful voices, as the number of posts per subscriber ranks 758th, the same opinion can be spread to many members of the community, allowing an echo chamber to be formed. An example of this is the /r/wallstreetbets community's praise of Martin Shkreli. There have been numerous posts detailing /r/wallstreetbets users fondness for Martin Shkreli, and it has been encouraged by meme posts detailing Martin as a "pharma-bro" with a mentality not unlike that of the /r/wallstreetbets users themselves.
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/r/wallstreetbets users tend to be very active, with the subreddit having the 5th most comments per day of any subreddit. <ref>https://subredditstats.com/r/wallstreetbets</ref> However, as there are only a few powerful voices, as the number of posts per subscriber ranks 758th, the same opinion can be spread to many members of the community, allowing an echo chamber to be formed. An example of this is the /r/wallstreetbets community's praise of Martin Shkreli. There have been numerous posts detailing /r/wallstreetbets users fondness for Martin Shkreli, and it has been encouraged by meme posts detailing Martin as a "pharma-bro" with a mentality not unlike that of the /r/wallstreetbets users themselves. While not everyone on the board holds this view, those who express this are downvoted, and attacked.
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===Manipulation===
 
===Manipulation===
Another aspect of groupthink is that users can swing the stock market with their posts. Approaching a million subscribers, /r/wallstreetbets has genuine weight over penny stocks, and so it is necessary to avoid pump and dump posts in the subreddit.  
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Approaching a million subscribers, /r/wallstreetbets has genuine weight over penny stocks, and so pump and dump posts can be seen that prop up a stock as a good buy, and when enough people buy it, the original poster will sell at the peak. They are profiting off the users of /r/wallstreetbets that they can convince to buy in, and the general public who is unaware that the stock is going to drop in price after the original poster sells off. The community has tried to minimize these posts by introducing guidelines so that posts that match this pattern will be reviewed before going through.
One user named /u/WSBgod gathered a lot of upvotes and attention from the media for posting screenshots of stock gains. It was later found out that he had photoshopped these images, and conspiracies that /u/jartek was behind the /u/WSBgod account were posted.
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Another instance of manipulation is by faking gains or losses to draw attention. One user named /u/WSBgod gathered a lot of upvotes and attention from the media for posting screenshots of stock gains that would put him 20x up or more from before the trade. It was later found that he had photoshopped these images. This incident inspired a rumor that /u/jartek was behind the /u/WSBgod account were posted. Users pointed out that a competition called the WSB Championship that /u/jartek was hosting was sponsored by a trading group that consisted of only members of the /u/wallstreetbets mod team. As well, putting both /u/jartek and /u/WSBgod's posts through a language matching tool yielded an 87% similarity. The purported purpose of this was to advertise both /u/wallstreetbets and the book that /u/jartek had written. /u/jartek has let posts with this theory be posted with minor comment, only asking that personal details be removed so that people aren't doxxed. <ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/wsb/comments/fqa55k/wallstreetbets_exposed_market_manipulation_fraud/</ref>
  
 
==See also==
 
==See also==

Latest revision as of 20:04, 29 March 2020

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The /r/wallstreetbets Subreddit Banner

/r/wallstreetbets is a subreddit used for discussing day trading, stocks, and sharing individual trades, losses, or gains. The board describes itself as "Like 4chan found a Bloomberg terminal". Users will post images of their portfolio, text posts, and memes about stocks or trading. It's known most famously for incidents where its users have exploited options contracts in RobinHood to leverage millions of dollars, and for posts on the board of users losing up to millions of dollars. Mainstream media has described users on the board as "psychopaths" for discovering the glitch on RobinHood. [1]

Users of the board have fun with this reputation, and mock the idea that they could be doing insider trading or market manipulation, saying "How can we have insider knowledge when we don’t have any knowledge?" [2] However, with many users being active day traders, the structure of a forum discussing trades in a lackadaisical manner tends to genuine concerns about /r/wallstreetbets being brushed off.

Background

History

/r/wallstreetbets was initially created in 2012 by Reddit user /u/jartek after being banned from /r/investing, a sub with a similar focus on stocks, for advocating risky bets. [3] The subreddit grew in size from less than 10,000 at the end of 2014 to 930,000 by February 2020. [4] On February 21, 2020, /r/wallstreetbets opted to remove itself from /r/all and default subreddits, meaning that posts on /r/wallstreetbets wouldn't be seen when filtering through the top posts of all subreddits.[5] This limited the amount of non-members from viewing the subreddit without a direct link, and was done to reduce the number of users joining the community.

Community

The community of /r/wallstreetbets is unified in a bravado that they uphold through coarse language and frequent slurs. Members will call each other "autists", and other derogatory terms, but not in an attempt to provoke or attack. There is a sense of connection among its members, and one where aspects of other young male communities like masculinity are twisted. [6] Instead of making fun of people who lose a lot of money, users feel a sense of solidarity, and have a one-of-us mentality.

The rules of /r/wallstreetbets

Users who are unaware of the subreddits customs, or those who clearly don't match the common demographics of the subreddit are shunned. The mod team of /u/wallstreetbets has hosted two "paper-trading competitions", which are normally stock competitions where competitors will aim to make the most money with stock trades on paper, and not using real money. Users under 18 were encouraged to participate in the competitions by signing up on a thread. However, the real purpose of these competitions were to weed out users of the subreddit who did not have money in the stock market, as they looked down on them. [7] These rooted out users were subsequently permanently banned from the subreddit so that they couldn't participate in any threads or discussions.

Ethical Issues

/r/wallstreetbets is a platform used for discussing stocks, but it has been criticized for the atmosphere it fosters and the users attitudes towards. Members of the community will encourage each other to post their "loss porn", which means a screenshot or other documentation of users losing much of their portfolio.[8]

Groupthink

/r/wallstreetbets users tend to be very active, with the subreddit having the 5th most comments per day of any subreddit. [9] However, as there are only a few powerful voices, as the number of posts per subscriber ranks 758th, the same opinion can be spread to many members of the community, allowing an echo chamber to be formed. An example of this is the /r/wallstreetbets community's praise of Martin Shkreli. There have been numerous posts detailing /r/wallstreetbets users fondness for Martin Shkreli, and it has been encouraged by meme posts detailing Martin as a "pharma-bro" with a mentality not unlike that of the /r/wallstreetbets users themselves. While not everyone on the board holds this view, those who express this are downvoted, and attacked.

Manipulation

Approaching a million subscribers, /r/wallstreetbets has genuine weight over penny stocks, and so pump and dump posts can be seen that prop up a stock as a good buy, and when enough people buy it, the original poster will sell at the peak. They are profiting off the users of /r/wallstreetbets that they can convince to buy in, and the general public who is unaware that the stock is going to drop in price after the original poster sells off. The community has tried to minimize these posts by introducing guidelines so that posts that match this pattern will be reviewed before going through.

Another instance of manipulation is by faking gains or losses to draw attention. One user named /u/WSBgod gathered a lot of upvotes and attention from the media for posting screenshots of stock gains that would put him 20x up or more from before the trade. It was later found that he had photoshopped these images. This incident inspired a rumor that /u/jartek was behind the /u/WSBgod account were posted. Users pointed out that a competition called the WSB Championship that /u/jartek was hosting was sponsored by a trading group that consisted of only members of the /u/wallstreetbets mod team. As well, putting both /u/jartek and /u/WSBgod's posts through a language matching tool yielded an 87% similarity. The purported purpose of this was to advertise both /u/wallstreetbets and the book that /u/jartek had written. /u/jartek has let posts with this theory be posted with minor comment, only asking that personal details be removed so that people aren't doxxed. [10]

See also

References

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imUsp_sruTc&feature=youtu.be
  2. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-26/reddit-s-profane-greedy-traders-are-shaking-up-the-stock-market
  3. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nedzqm/you-probably-shouldnt-bet-your-savings-on-reddits-wallstreetbets
  4. https://subredditstats.com/r/wallstreetbets
  5. https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/f720hg/wsb_removed_from_rall_and_default_subreddits/
  6. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nedzqm/you-probably-shouldnt-bet-your-savings-on-reddits-wallstreetbets
  7. https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/f2tjkn/moderators_update_on_paper_trading_competition/
  8. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-26/reddit-s-profane-greedy-traders-are-shaking-up-the-stock-market
  9. https://subredditstats.com/r/wallstreetbets
  10. https://www.reddit.com/r/wsb/comments/fqa55k/wallstreetbets_exposed_market_manipulation_fraud/