5 ms·
"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
by notJim 6y ago
"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 post, you'll see people pressing the person about their job or their portfolio, and you'll find out they're already very wealthy, or working in a highly paid job. Or they started small and have made a number of good bets that ratcheted them up.
I think instead what has happened is that nihilistic language has become the currency of authenticity. It's honestly not that cool to be an option trader or Wall Street guy, but by using this nihilistic language, you get some of that back. There is interesting analysis to be done about that, though I think it honestly leads back to some of the same conclusions found in this article, but at a different level.
- scruple 6y agoCase in point... The reddit user (u/DEEPFUCKINGVALUE) with the largest (publicly proven) gains in the recent GME episode seeded their position with over $750,000. They first showed up on r/WSB in March of 2019 when they first publicized their position.
- v64 6y agoHe started off with $50k, but the cost basis is $750k now because he's cashed out some of the position.
- scruple 6y agoThanks for the correction.
- CTDOCodebases 6y agou/DeepFuckingValue shits all over the writers narrative. Watch the video linked below if you disagree with me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZTr1-Gp74U&t=49m0s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZTr1-Gp74U&t=49m0s I guess if you are not used to interacting with people who have a sense of humour about everything and don’t take life too seriously then you are going to struggle to understand what’s going on in WSB. How can a gambler be nihilistic? Don’t you need hope to gamble?
- buryat 6y agoThe 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.