Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

jeromysonne.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 277 posts

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#191

Post by buryat »

notJim wrote: post #113

"Most of these people are in hopeless debt with no clear path out anyway" I really really think this misreads who is trading on WSB, especially who are making big trades. There was a thread the other day of someone maxing out his credit cards to buy GME, and the comments were full of people calling him an idiot (albeit a lucky one), and imploring others not to do the same. If you read the comments on any big YOLO pos…

The author doesn’t hold any public stocks nor has investment experience nor been an active visitor of wsb so I don’t know how they can make any broad assumptions about people there.

> I want to preface all of this by saying I am not an investing expert. I currently hold no publicly traded companies’ stock.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#192

Post by jefe_ »

I've perused WSB for a while, but watching GameStop this morning, I'm worried this recent 'short squeeze initiative' opens the door for various retail trading restrictions. Whether phase-out of commission-free trading, per-trade taxes, restrictions on options trading, tightening of pattern day trading restrictions, it seems something is coming. It's tough to envision a circumstance where retail trading is permitted to interfere with such a fundamental activity as short-selling. It's like a DDoS attack on the stock market, and I expect the defenses to be similar: additional vetting, limits, circuit breakers (which already exist but could be modified).

I really hope I'm wrong because their ability to make GameStop, Nokia, and BlackBerry trend in 2021 is genuinely hilarious.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#193

Post by cwhiz »

jefe_ wrote: post #192

I've perused WSB for a while, but watching GameStop this morning, I'm worried this recent 'short squeeze initiative' opens the door for various retail trading restrictions. Whether phase-out of commission-free trading, per-trade taxes, restrictions on options trading, tightening of pattern day trading restrictions, it seems something is coming. It's tough to envision a circumstance where retail trading is permitted t…

Short selling is not a fundamental activity. Short selling should be the thing that is illegal. None of this nonsense would exist if it weren’t for the absurd nonsense that is borrowing a stock, selling it, waiting for the price to drop, buying a stock, and giving it back. Short selling is absurd. All options trading should be banned by the SEC.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#194

Post by roenxi »

Bedon292 wrote: post #132
roenxi wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Well, they apparently do move markets. Seems unlikely. More likely that wsb is a sampling of common knowledge among people who invest in markets, and markets also move based on common knowledge. What is the evidence for this?

The movement of stocks they are talking about, like GME recently, defy traditional analysis. There is no reason for GME to be where it is, in a traditional analysis sense, other than WSB talking about them. At some point they move the needle just enough for the algorithmic trading, and FOMO of others to take over. But it still started there. Although now there is probably some level of watching WSB to see what their…

> There is no reason for GME to be where it is, in a traditional analysis sense, other than WSB talking about them.

It isn't possible to assert that there is no other reason. The world is very large, there are a lot of people in it and strange things happen.

Us not being able to think of a reason apart from WSB is different from WSB being a cause of something.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#195

Post by some_furry »

derision wrote: post #135
some_furry wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can explain it without calling people "autistic losers". Just "losers" is sufficient.

It's not sufficient, because the culture of WSB is such that they refer to themselves as autists. To not use the term would be an inaccurate description

You don't have to use the same language as the people you're talking about.

See, for example, ThoughtSlime's coverage of fascist militias.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZMWQDvZQZs

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#196

Post by defen »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #187
defen wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I think it's funny when people say this when there are still 11 months left in the year. Just because I made $300k on this doesn't mean I'll owe taxes on that

Are you familiar with quarterly estimated taxes and the AMT rule?

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#197

Post by [deleted] »

abrowne2 wrote: post #53
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…

Member of WSB here, no expert The narrative of GME has been building for weeks before any news coverage happened. This isn't the first stock to blow up from WSB, but there are a few others in past weeks (none that have reached GME levels) such as BB, PLTR, and previously ABNB (whatever new stock that has IPO'd). There are a handful of users that have $1M positions (some smaller ones, like a user that reported $250k i…

[deleted]

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#198

Post by tpmx »

treis wrote: post #170
tpmx wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sensible response from society is unfortunately restricting personal bankruptcy laws. Essentially this is an organized attack on civilized society and it needs to be shut down, somehow.

In a country where we just handed out $50 billion dollars to airlines (again) a bunch of poor WSB tards abusing bankruptcy is not really a problem. Especially considering how predatory the CC companies et. al. are. It's like a zebra killing a lion with a lucky kick and thinking "tut tut we need to change the rules of the hunt".

Okay. Luxuary Space Age Communism it is. Everyone shall have all of the money.

(I skipped a few obvious steps.)

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#199

Post by chillacy »

blackrock wrote: post #168
ZitchDog wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They definitely do move markets. What you need to know is that they are buying short-dated call options. These options expire in less than 2 weeks, and are usually far out of the money. They require "dealer hedging" as the market makers providing these options do not want to be exposed to the massive amount of risk implied with the movement of price. The market makers are then required to buy massive amounts of the s…

Lottery tickets. Did anyone make money on GME calls? More often than not, the calls will expire worthless.

They say selling call options is "picking up pennies in front of a steamroller": most of the time you collect premium, and then occasionally you get run over by a steamroller. This is the steamroller.

Re: The nihilism of r/wallstreetbets

#200

Post by blackrock »

chillacy wrote: post #199
blackrock wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lottery tickets. Did anyone make money on GME calls? More often than not, the calls will expire worthless.

They say selling call options is "picking up pennies in front of a steamroller": most of the time you collect premium, and then occasionally you get run over by a steamroller. This is the steamroller.

I think you misunderstood. It was meant for those who bought the GME calls, not for those who wrote the calls.
Post reply on HN