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The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

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Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#141

Post by sfblah »

aaahayatav wrote: post #46
curiousllama wrote: post #30

WSB is hilarious. It’s also such a place of sadness. Taking credit card advances to YOLO into short-dated OTM call options is drug-addict level desperation. People joke about YOLOing their inheritance - and I suspect there’s some reality to it. Their parents’ entire life’s wealth can’t dig them out of whatever hole their in. The CNBC guys freaking out is incredible. Their Cramer feud is gold. But... this trend is dif…

I highly suspect the reason for this is because there is less income security for the young generation in 2021 compared to 1999. In 1999, people under 40 were gambling large sums that, if lost, could be made back through x months of work. In 2021, people under 40 are gambling any random ad hoc payment they receive in the attempt of calling it a career. The reason? 10% of our country have great jobs, and the rest have…

Agreed. Just wanted to add that the policy in question is reacting to recessions using monetary policy instead of fiscal stimulus, because of gridlock and regulatory capture. The government is largely at fault for the current bubble. I fear for what will happen if/when it pops.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#142

Post by Scoundreller »

virmundi wrote: post #81

I love WSB. Up 200% on GME, 240% NIO, 60% on Carnival Cruise. They have decent insight when you learn their lingo. They also admit this is gambling. Current GME argument. A short squeeze will come around April. Long term the guy that fixed Chewy is going to take over. It will become a good company again. However between those two sentences is a gap where the stock will go back down to 5-10. Current theory: ride the f…

I’d be surprised if there are any shorters left right now. Probably all got margin called and forced to exit.

VW’s squeeze was different as it turned out their parent was holding almost all the shares. There was only one seller left.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#143

Post by diveanon »

mechEpleb wrote: post #134
nabla9 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Language like WSB uses is meant to frustrate outsiders and limit posers. This is true, but WSB is also fundamentally nihilistic. 4Chan started as teenage boys from middle class families saying bad things for and fun trolling for fun. "haha lol normies take it seriously" Typical teenage nihilism that is normally not very harmful. Then it gradually escalated into really hurting people and crazy people joining. https:/…

4chan is still mostly teenagers and 20-somethings from middle class families shitposting for fun

Qanon disagrees.

4chan trolling nearly resulted in a coup, its reached a new level of seriousness.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#144

Post by treis »

curiousllama wrote: post #30

WSB is hilarious. It’s also such a place of sadness. Taking credit card advances to YOLO into short-dated OTM call options is drug-addict level desperation. People joke about YOLOing their inheritance - and I suspect there’s some reality to it. Their parents’ entire life’s wealth can’t dig them out of whatever hole their in. The CNBC guys freaking out is incredible. Their Cramer feud is gold. But... this trend is dif…

>Taking credit card advances to YOLO into short-dated OTM call options is drug-addict level desperation.

It's actually somewhat rational. Say you just graduated college and make 30k as a waiter. You scrape together savings, loans, CCs, etc. and pull together 20k. Take that to Robinhood 2-3x it with margin and place a 50k bet that has a 8% chance to pay off 10x. If you "win" you're up 15 years of wages or more. If you lose, well, you declare bankruptcy and shit gets wiped. It's not like you were buying a house or a nice car on 30k a year anyways.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#145

Post by whoknew1122 »

vorpalhex wrote: post #36

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…

Language like WSB uses is meant to amuse edgelords and (hopefully) upset 'normies'. When normies are offended by cavalier use of slurs and labels (and if you're offended, you're by definition a normie), the edgelords point and laugh at the normie who doesn't share their same nihilistic worldview.

WSB is what happens when immature, nihilistic, overly online middle class boys grow up into immature, nihilistic, overly online men-children. The only thing that changed as they aged is now they have to hide their power level while in normie society.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#146

Post by mywittyname »

nostromo wrote: post #82
vorpalhex wrote: post #36

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…

This comment reads like a "they're really playing 4-dimensional chess" moment. There are definitely some smart people on wsb, but I very much doubt the use of silly language (like, say, calling bears "gay bears") is anything other than users being intentionally ridiculous and funny.

The language there is definitely used as a shibboleth, a stenograph, and a ward. Enough of the people there are knowledgeable enough to know 1) the types of automation that go into mining social media, and 2) how to communicate in a manner that maintains plausible deniability in the event of interest from authorities. Everyone else plays along so they can be part of the group.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#147

Post by in3d »

dfraser992 wrote: post #74
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…

I have been paying attention to r/wallstreetbets for the past few weeks - I don't have the source handy (it was on WallStreetBets), but there are reputable big name funds / companies who are long on GME. Other big name companies are short, of course, and the WSB community has picked a side in this battle. So the idea that WallStreetBets is a significant player in all this is nonsense and actually might be propaganda…

I’m very sure you’re wrong. If you’ve ever traded a larger position, you quickly realize that it doesn’t take a ton of volume to move the price of a stock like GME. Take a look at how quickly the GME threads on WSB get 100k posts and take a look at how many posters there are on the WSB Discord and note that the ratio of lurkers to posters is high on most forums.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#148

Post by dvtrn »

jsonne wrote: post #32
tyleo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How did you come to the “autism” conclusion, was that meant to be read clinically?

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#149

Post by dstola »

diveanon wrote: post #143
mechEpleb wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4chan is still mostly teenagers and 20-somethings from middle class families shitposting for fun

Qanon disagrees. 4chan trolling nearly resulted in a coup, its reached a new level of seriousness.

>4chan trolling nearly resulted in a coup

A few things:

1. It wasn't a coup, it was a protest to protest the unfair election and overall left wing bias. Same way BLM was to protest the unfairness of how black people are treated.

2. It was mostly organized on Facebook and the general "normie" web

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#150

Post by defen »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #123
bmitc wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like going to /r/wallstreetbets. I'm not even sure if those YOLO posts are real. Maybe some are. But it seems a lot of people are there just to have fun. I want to think that someone who posts about YOLOing on GME is really someone just invested in ETFs. Every now and then, there's actually really good advice on /r/wallstreetbets. It's one of the rare subreddits where you can just let loose joining in on the fun an…

I posted a quarter million GME YOLO on WSB over a week ago and it was real (ended up making around $300k and I only have 1000 shares left, so even if it went to $0 right now I'd still have a nice profit)

Don't forget about taxes if it wasn't in a retirement account.
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