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The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

jeromysonne.com

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Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#31

Post by jandrese »

roland35 wrote: post #17
koolk3ychain wrote: post #3

I don't understand why people think /r/wallstreetbets is really that interesting or provides insight into actual wall street? Anyone who knows anything about actual options trading / building strategies knows these people are idiots. Sure, there's a lot of money flowing around - but most people don't realize that to many $60k is pocket change.

There is always an alure of outsmarting everyone and getting rich quick.

How can you be outsmarting people when you're just taking public advice from random people on the Internet?

Unless you're the guy posting the "hot tips" that you just happened to buy a bunch of shares in a few minutes ago hoping that the sheep will push up the price for a moment.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#32

Post by jsonne »

tyleo wrote: post #24
jsonne wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Bloomberg article actually inspired me to write this and provide additional context on the "why" this place even exists in the first place.

It may be useful to link from within your article so readers know what you are responding to.

Good idea. I'll do a quick ninja update.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#33

Post by supernova87a »

It just doesn't add up to me. If you take Gamestop (GME) today's hot item, it's trading 170M shares back and forth, at say, $70. That's $11B sloshing back and forth.

You're telling me 10,000 (if even?) guys sitting at home doing retail trading have $1M each in positions driving this? 100,000 people with $100,000 each, during the day?

I think it's quant and algorithmic trading.

I would love to hear from an expert though.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#35

Post by launch_queue »

notananthem wrote: post #5

This is a poorly written article trying to time a large economic exploitative event. WSB is, genuinely, pretty dumb but they actually advocate normal positions like index holdings, and only trading on "moonshots" with a very small % of portfolio. Their offensive language and such is a product of being on Reddit though.

I think the author was right that its 4chan language. I wouldn't say its a product of being on Reddit. Besides /r/the_donald and /r/wallstreetbets/, I've only ever seen that kind of language on 4chan-specific subreddits like /r/greentext and /r/4chan.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#36

Post by vorpalhex »

This post is a great tutorial in why we shouldn't derive meaning from expressed language. Imagine if you sat in a room of software engineers and tried to make conclusions about their life views based on their jargon: "I think what they're saying is you just need to form a single value store and react to it, dividing life into small composable micro components that are DRY. We can really comprehend how this minimalism impacts engineers..."

Language like WSB uses is meant to frustrate outsiders and limit posers. It makes it hard for the media to reprint things that are said, and even if it does, it would be nonsense. That's intentional.

And yes, there's double meanings and jokes to some of this language. Many WSB'ers comprehend the gambling-esque nature of what they do, and how many of their strategies aren't traditionally recommended.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#37

Post by [deleted] »

koolk3ychain wrote: post #3

I don't understand why people think /r/wallstreetbets is really that interesting or provides insight into actual wall street? Anyone who knows anything about actual options trading / building strategies knows these people are idiots. Sure, there's a lot of money flowing around - but most people don't realize that to many $60k is pocket change.

[deleted]

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#39

Post by draw_down »

Whatever "nihilism" WSB exhibits is as nothing compared to Wall Street and the securities/finance industry overall. It's almost laughable to talk about, I'd say. They're like a dog chasing its tail. It's a mistake to take them more seriously than they're taking themselves.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#40

Post by curiousllama »

supernova87a wrote: post #33

It just doesn't add up to me. If you take Gamestop (GME) today's hot item, it's trading 170M shares back and forth, at say, $70. That's $11B sloshing back and forth. You're telling me 10,000 (if even?) guys sitting at home doing retail trading have $1M each in positions driving this? 100,000 people with $100,000 each, during the day? I think it's quant and algorithmic trading. I would love to hear from an expert thou…

It’s not 11B sloshing. It’s probably 1% of that, if that.

Market cap > available shares Available shares > traded shares Traded shares > actual $ involved

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