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Reading Reddit's WallStreetBets has been unintentionally hilarious. https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/ https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/ Folks we

Reading Reddit's WallStreetBets has been unintentionally hilarious. https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/ https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/ Folks were leveraging up all last week and buying puts, thinking the market was tanking to zero and we're all going to die of "beer virus" as they call it -- and are getting a harsh lesson about timing the market today. They’ve been giving so much leverage to broke young people, I wouldn’t even be surprised to read that they’re insolvent someday after a big, unexpected move.

danhak 7y ago
There’s nothing unintentional about the hilarity. That community is totally self-aware and rife with in-jokes and satire. The folks that post there see their gambling for what it is.
- nostromo 7y ago
  I think there's a mix of in-on-the-joke and not. I've read some sad stories about, for example, a student betting student loan money in the market and losing it instantly, lured to make risky bets from the other stories of dumb luck success. Here's someone I don't think is in on the joke: https://i.redd.it/at7gloeb5ck41.jpg https://i.redd.it/at7gloeb5ck41.jpg ... oops
  - ethbro 7y ago
    hmm, i wondeR if reddiT Has somE Depressing histOry of coNfusing sAtiricaL content with the real worlD.
  - remote_phone 7y ago
    It’s a obnoxious to know nothing about the culture of wallstreetbets and then to make declarations as if you know after reading a few posts. Posts like that are par for the course. Its called “Loss Porn”. The subreddit is absolutely geared towards stock/options trading as gambling and if you think otherwise then you’re wrong. They are very self-aware and do it for fun. And yes some may lose a lot of money but they know exactly what they are getting themselves involved in.
    - deleted 7y ago
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  - Infinitesimus 7y ago
    Marjory if what happens in that sub is humorous. And its pretty clear that there is a lot of satire and it's not the place you go to for in depth analysis 99% of the time. Loss and gain porn are a normal part of the culture as are the slurs used. The gains and losses are often real but this is the community you go to the laugh about such things
  - kintalo 7y ago
    The person posting it in the subreddit clearly understands the theme of the subreddit. Whoever took the screenshot and shared it somewhere likely doesn't even know what WSB is.
  - manigandham 7y ago
    There are people making and losing fortunes every day in the market. These kind of crazy bets aren't new, just more visible. I remember being in college in 2005 and seeing people going wild with Forex and penny stocks. WSB is just a small subset of traders who like to discuss it on social media.
  - sombremesa 7y ago
    They didn't actually lose that much money, since they bought options. By my mental math they lost about $9000 (give or take a few hundred). Still bad, but better than losing hundreds of thousands. Edit: I stand corrected, see below.
    - manigandham 7y ago
      How are you calculating this? You wouldn't have a total return of -$722k if you only lost $9k. They could easily have 1M worth of options that have now decreased in value, which is what it looks like since AMZN went up Friday and today.
      - sombremesa 7y ago
        Edit: see below. My math was a bit off.
        thefreeman 7y ago
        no... it’s 140 option contracts which provides the option for 14000 shares. they were bought for $66 x 100 x 140 = $924,000 and are now worth $14.43 x 100 x 140 = $202,000.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
        kenneth 7y ago
        Risk / reward is proportional. You could have easily made a killing if the markets moved the right way. In fact, anything could happen by Friday. He only needs and 10% move up be in the black
- nate_meurer 7y ago
  The robinhood thread has made me laugh all day: > 5QxjKb7SI2j1d9Zs3jcs · 809 points · 11 hours ago > As a proud cuck, not gonna lie I get off on being locked out of my account while it gets pummeled and I can do nothing but watch. > BippityBoppityZop · 156 points · 10 hours ago > Don’t stop I’m almost there > SensualKoala · 47 points · 9 hours ago > "Oh yeah FUCK my savings harder" > TRAIN_WRECK_0 · 84 points · 9 hours ago > Anyone feel like barfing? It's almost like my wife's boyfriend stopped fucking her and starting fucking me, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. @nostromo can't have read very much of that thread. It's one big in-joke.
- UncleMeat 7y ago
  Almost all satirical communities eventually lose the satire as new members cannot distinguish between satire and genuine content.
predictmktegirl 7y ago
Some of us had puts from last month which were well in profit. I personally have lost over $5k from this outage even though I'm technically not negative on my position. Painting all RH users as gamblers is pretty arrogant.
- unknown2374 7y ago
  I am pretty sure he was talking about the community of r/wallstreetbets, not RH users.
- esoterica 7y ago
  Buying short-dated options to bet on which direction the market is going to move is 100% gambling.
nodesocket 7y ago
I see a bunch of comments of people saying I lost $x amount because of the outage, however I wonder if that's actually true. It's much easier to say I was going to do x when doing x was unavailable.
- cranky_coder 7y ago
  It might be some of that, but folks on that subreddit tend to take super risky positions that can go south on them very fast. It’s possible a few made some really stupid bets during the crash and they couldn’t get out today.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- manigandham 7y ago
  It's impossible to know since the entire platform was down and both current positions and order entry were unavailable. I'm sure there's a lot of exaggeration but today was also the single best day of the DOW right after a 10% decline last week. That volatility can have massive changes in option pricing, especially short-dated expirations (like SPY options expiring today).
ISL 7y ago
All of us learn the hard way sooner or later. The key is never playing for more than we can afford to lose.
thepenguinco 7y ago
Been following this for the longest time. Unreal.
Der_Einzige 7y ago
Long term puts (at least 2 weeks out) on the market are the safest investment that you could possibly make. The market recovery today is a dead cat bounce. Mark my words I guarantee you that I will be right about this
- nostromo 7y ago
  Yes, always double down on a loss, that's the WSB way! Or, you know, buy for the long term and ignore today's news.
- Jommi 7y ago
  How much money are you putting on this? Any screenshots for proof?
- zigzaggy 7y ago
  I think you’re right that we’ll retest lows but I’m not sure that’s it’s elevator down time. However, we have been on a long run, and the machines are selling to lock in profits. Maybe we do keep going. Guess we’ll find out soon enough!
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
manigandham 7y ago
It's probably one of the most suspenseful market opens in history. The tug of war between bulls and bears across the entire sub has been incredibly entertaining. Regarding leverage: buying options is a fixed loss against the cash in your account. RH also only allows selling secured options. There's no way to lose more than you started with (at least with the current app, they had problems before). Retail investors using standard accounts can't buy options on margin, it's only used for faster settlement.
- grandridge 7y ago
  Haha, you clearly weren't around for bear Stern's and lehman
  - manigandham 7y ago
    I watched all that live and saw my own holdings tumble. There wasn't that much suspense though, nobody thought the market would suddenly go up.
    - remote_phone 7y ago
      I bought Bear Sterns calls thinking it would blow over. The idea that Bear Sterns could just disappear like that was unfathomable at the time.
      - manigandham 7y ago
        You thought the market would go up? Specifically a bank? Sure the bankruptcy was a surprise but I really don't know of anyone back then who was expecting a recovery or even a minor bounce at all that year. Hopefully your options were LEAPs.
        1123581321 7y ago
        Many people thought either their situation was overstated or they would be rescued in some way that preserved more of the market value.
wasdfff 7y ago
Sprinkled in there are people who blew threw their student loans and margin gambling on options
oarabbus_ 7y ago
>Folks were leveraging up all last week and buying puts, thinking the market was tanking to zero and we're all going to die of "beer virus" as they call it -- and are getting a harsh lesson about timing the market today. This aged terribly. Anyone who did that received a massive windfall.

danhak 7y ago

There’s nothing unintentional about the hilarity. That community is totally self-aware and rife with in-jokes and satire. The folks that post there see their gambling for what it is.

nostromo 7y ago
I think there's a mix of in-on-the-joke and not. I've read some sad stories about, for example, a student betting student loan money in the market and losing it instantly, lured to make risky bets from the other stories of dumb luck success. Here's someone I don't think is in on the joke: https://i.redd.it/at7gloeb5ck41.jpg https://i.redd.it/at7gloeb5ck41.jpg ... oops
- ethbro 7y ago
  hmm, i wondeR if reddiT Has somE Depressing histOry of coNfusing sAtiricaL content with the real worlD.
- remote_phone 7y ago
  It’s a obnoxious to know nothing about the culture of wallstreetbets and then to make declarations as if you know after reading a few posts. Posts like that are par for the course. Its called “Loss Porn”. The subreddit is absolutely geared towards stock/options trading as gambling and if you think otherwise then you’re wrong. They are very self-aware and do it for fun. And yes some may lose a lot of money but they know exactly what they are getting themselves involved in.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- Infinitesimus 7y ago
  Marjory if what happens in that sub is humorous. And its pretty clear that there is a lot of satire and it's not the place you go to for in depth analysis 99% of the time. Loss and gain porn are a normal part of the culture as are the slurs used. The gains and losses are often real but this is the community you go to the laugh about such things
- kintalo 7y ago
  The person posting it in the subreddit clearly understands the theme of the subreddit. Whoever took the screenshot and shared it somewhere likely doesn't even know what WSB is.
- manigandham 7y ago
  There are people making and losing fortunes every day in the market. These kind of crazy bets aren't new, just more visible. I remember being in college in 2005 and seeing people going wild with Forex and penny stocks. WSB is just a small subset of traders who like to discuss it on social media.
- sombremesa 7y ago
  They didn't actually lose that much money, since they bought options. By my mental math they lost about $9000 (give or take a few hundred). Still bad, but better than losing hundreds of thousands. Edit: I stand corrected, see below.
  - manigandham 7y ago
    How are you calculating this? You wouldn't have a total return of -$722k if you only lost $9k. They could easily have 1M worth of options that have now decreased in value, which is what it looks like since AMZN went up Friday and today.
    - sombremesa 7y ago
      Edit: see below. My math was a bit off.
      - thefreeman 7y ago
        no... it’s 140 option contracts which provides the option for 14000 shares. they were bought for $66 x 100 x 140 = $924,000 and are now worth $14.43 x 100 x 140 = $202,000.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
        kenneth 7y ago
        Risk / reward is proportional. You could have easily made a killing if the markets moved the right way. In fact, anything could happen by Friday. He only needs and 10% move up be in the black
nate_meurer 7y ago
The robinhood thread has made me laugh all day: > 5QxjKb7SI2j1d9Zs3jcs · 809 points · 11 hours ago > As a proud cuck, not gonna lie I get off on being locked out of my account while it gets pummeled and I can do nothing but watch. > BippityBoppityZop · 156 points · 10 hours ago > Don’t stop I’m almost there > SensualKoala · 47 points · 9 hours ago > "Oh yeah FUCK my savings harder" > TRAIN_WRECK_0 · 84 points · 9 hours ago > Anyone feel like barfing? It's almost like my wife's boyfriend stopped fucking her and starting fucking me, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. @nostromo can't have read very much of that thread. It's one big in-joke.
UncleMeat 7y ago
Almost all satirical communities eventually lose the satire as new members cannot distinguish between satire and genuine content.

predictmktegirl 7y ago

Some of us had puts from last month which were well in profit. I personally have lost over $5k from this outage even though I'm technically not negative on my position. Painting all RH users as gamblers is pretty arrogant.

unknown2374 7y ago
I am pretty sure he was talking about the community of r/wallstreetbets, not RH users.
esoterica 7y ago
Buying short-dated options to bet on which direction the market is going to move is 100% gambling.

nodesocket 7y ago

I see a bunch of comments of people saying I lost $x amount because of the outage, however I wonder if that's actually true. It's much easier to say I was going to do x when doing x was unavailable.

cranky_coder 7y ago
It might be some of that, but folks on that subreddit tend to take super risky positions that can go south on them very fast. It’s possible a few made some really stupid bets during the crash and they couldn’t get out today.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
manigandham 7y ago
It's impossible to know since the entire platform was down and both current positions and order entry were unavailable. I'm sure there's a lot of exaggeration but today was also the single best day of the DOW right after a 10% decline last week. That volatility can have massive changes in option pricing, especially short-dated expirations (like SPY options expiring today).

ISL 7y ago

All of us learn the hard way sooner or later. The key is never playing for more than we can afford to lose.

thepenguinco 7y ago

Been following this for the longest time. Unreal.

Der_Einzige 7y ago

Long term puts (at least 2 weeks out) on the market are the safest investment that you could possibly make. The market recovery today is a dead cat bounce. Mark my words I guarantee you that I will be right about this

nostromo 7y ago
Yes, always double down on a loss, that's the WSB way! Or, you know, buy for the long term and ignore today's news.
Jommi 7y ago
How much money are you putting on this? Any screenshots for proof?
zigzaggy 7y ago
I think you’re right that we’ll retest lows but I’m not sure that’s it’s elevator down time. However, we have been on a long run, and the machines are selling to lock in profits. Maybe we do keep going. Guess we’ll find out soon enough!
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

manigandham 7y ago

It's probably one of the most suspenseful market opens in history. The tug of war between bulls and bears across the entire sub has been incredibly entertaining. Regarding leverage: buying options is a fixed loss against the cash in your account. RH also only allows selling secured options. There's no way to lose more than you started with (at least with the current app, they had problems before). Retail investors using standard accounts can't buy options on margin, it's only used for faster settlement.

grandridge 7y ago
Haha, you clearly weren't around for bear Stern's and lehman
- manigandham 7y ago
  I watched all that live and saw my own holdings tumble. There wasn't that much suspense though, nobody thought the market would suddenly go up.
  - remote_phone 7y ago
    I bought Bear Sterns calls thinking it would blow over. The idea that Bear Sterns could just disappear like that was unfathomable at the time.
    - manigandham 7y ago
      You thought the market would go up? Specifically a bank? Sure the bankruptcy was a surprise but I really don't know of anyone back then who was expecting a recovery or even a minor bounce at all that year. Hopefully your options were LEAPs.
      - 1123581321 7y ago
        Many people thought either their situation was overstated or they would be rescued in some way that preserved more of the market value.

wasdfff 7y ago

Sprinkled in there are people who blew threw their student loans and margin gambling on options

oarabbus_ 7y ago

>Folks were leveraging up all last week and buying puts, thinking the market was tanking to zero and we're all going to die of "beer virus" as they call it -- and are getting a harsh lesson about timing the market today. This aged terribly. Anyone who did that received a massive windfall.