Do you know the stonks meme meaning? Chances are if you’ve spent anytime researching investments or the stock market on social media platforms like Reddit or Twitter, you’ve come across the popular Stonks meme. If you’re up to date on your memes and internet lingo, you’ll instantly understand the irony and tongue-in-cheek meaning behind the image.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Stonks meme, it’s a digital image of the computer generated character Meme Man dressed in a suit, standing in front of a fictitious stock market chart. There’s an over-exaggerated orange arrow that is pointing upwards, with the word Stonks in white underneath.
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What Is the Stonks Man Meme Meaning?
What is the stonks meme meaning and where did it come from? The meme first made its appearance on June 5th, 2017 in a posting by the Facebook group Special Meme Fresh. This is an account that posts internet memes and other images that has a following of over 230,000 users.
While the initial posting only received about 3600 likes, the popularity of the meme took off as it was re-posted on other platforms all over the internet. Numerous high-level Redditors re-posted the image in various investment forums.
This was a driving force between the Stonks meme going viral. When sifting through postings in investment areas of Twitter or Reddit, the meme can often be seen when certain popular stocks drop in price. Or if the market in general has a down day.
Pop Culture and Trading
Memes are a pop culture phenomenon. Especially since social media has taken off in the magnitude it has. As a result, memes have made their way into the trading world.
In the past, the stock market consisted of men in suites; i.e. the stonk meme meaning. But with internet came retail traders. And trading was no longer just on Wall Street. Now you see 20 somethings promoting trading on their social media accounts. It’s easier than ever to trade.
And with a young group coming into the trading world. Hence learning the stonks meaning. When I first saw it, I have to admit, I thought they misspelled stocks. And I’m in my early 30s.
Is Stonks Meme Meaning Malicious?
That’s not to say that the Stonks meme is mean-spirited or malicious. It’s a sort of back-handed way of speaking about a novice investor or know-it all person on social media.
There are certainly more callous images out there. However, for the most part, social media memes are meant to be lighthearted and even self-deprecating admission that most of us do not know what will happen in the financial markets.
What Does Stonks Mean?
What is the stonks meme meaning? Obviously Stonks isn’t a real word. Instead it’s a play on the word stocks with the pronunciation by a presumed person of lower intelligence. Mispronouncing words is a popular form of humor and irony on the internet.
For example, it can be seen in other similar viral words like “smol” (something very small and cute) and thicc (a “thick” curvaceous person, usually female).
Stonks is used primarily as an ironic way of depicting a person who thinks they know a lot about investing and the stock market, but actually doesn’t. This year provided a perfect confluence of events that has led to the Stonks meme going viral on social media. The 2020 pandemic has forced a majority of people to quarantine inside of their homes as we await a potential vaccine candidate to help slow down the spread of the virus.
This increase of time in our homes has led to a massive influx of retail investors who’ve been trying to invest their government stimulus checks for some potential quick gains. New traders have flocked to commission free brokers like Webull and Robinhood and droves.
In March of this year, financial markets around the world crashed as we entered into the first bear market in over a decade. The global economy officially entered into a recession.
Though the actual pain from the market crash was short-lived and just a few months later in July, the SP 500 and the NASDAQ both hit all-time highs.
This sudden and extremely volatile situation led to hordes of novice investors making fast gains on stocks that suddenly dropped in value after years of stability.
It truly was the perfect storm for investing to go mainstream. And for many people to begin posting on the internet how easy investing in stocks can be. Hence, the stonks meme meaning.
Many of these novice investors took the platforms like Robinhood to trade stocks. Unfortunately that has given it a negative connotation from veteran investors.
Mega-performers this year like Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM), and Square (NYSE:SQ) as well as numerous potential coronavirus vaccine companies like Inovio (NASDAQ:INO) or Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) have provided unprecedented growth to investor portfolios like we’ve never seen before.
Stonks Usage in Pop Culture
Perhaps one of the more famous internet personalities that uses Stonks on a regular basis, is Barstool Sports founder and president, Dave Portnoy. He kelps give the stonks meme meaning.
During the pandemic Portnoy has shifted from being an avid sports gambler, to a self-professed day-traded. He even went as far as to creating a new persona for himself called Davey Day Trader. Portnoy live streams himself to his millions of fans as he humorously follows the stock market and tries to day trade his fortune. Portnoy’s mix of self-deprecating humor and charismatic personality has made him an internet sensation.
Resulting in his website, Barstool Sports, receiving millions of visits each day. Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ:PENN) recently purchased a 36% stake in Barstool Sports.
That has vaulted shares of the casino and gaming company up more than 240% over the last year. Penn recently released its Barstool Sports mobile sports betting app.
It was released in September to coincide with the start of the NFL and NCAA Football seasons. Sports gambling is back.
Penn Stock has recovered nicely since Portnoy made his entrance into the stock market. Charting platform is TrendSpider.
Wall Street Not Happy
Portnoy has been criticized by Wall Street analysts and others for portraying a reckless investor who many of his fans may try to mimic. Portnoy is famous for saying that “stocks only go up”.
And “if you treat the stock market like Monopoly and you can’t lose”. Despite what seems like misleading his followers, the heart of Portnoy’s shtick is a bumbling investor. One that loses money in the stock market so his fans don’t have to. Has he lost money? Sure. But he’s also gained a loyal following and audience that remain in the Barstool ecosystem.
That only brings more value to his brand. Portnoy is famous for asking his viewers for Stonk suggestions or more Stonks please, as he interacts with the viewers of the Davey Day Trader webcast. He’s given a new stonks meme meaning.
Mainstream Meme
The Stonks meme has become a regular part of investing Twitter and investing Reddit. Posters on these forums use the image as a lighthearted way of commenting on the stock market. The meme has made it into our mainstream media as well.
There are specific products like a Youtooz Stonks meme bobblehead and even songs and music videos dedicated to the meme on YouTube. It’s never been easier for people to get involved in trading stocks.
The popularity of Robinhood and other mobile platforms is proof of this. With other advantages like fractional share purchasing and endless amounts of data, analysis, and tools available on the internet, we may be entering into a golden era of investing.
Final Thoughts
The Stonks meme is a fun reminder that when it comes to investing, we all think we know what’s best when it comes to our money. It’s also a sign of how much the financial world and social media have crossed paths.
FinTwit or financial Twitter is one of the busiest areas of the social media platform on a daily basis. Many variations have popped up on FinTwit and Reddit such as the Not Stonks Meme. This depicts the Meme Man standing in front of a negative stock chart with an arrow pointing downwards.
At the end of the day, the Stonks meme isn’t intended to be a malicious way of attacking someone. Instead it’s a tongue-in cheek way of reminding novice investors that the stock market carries inherent volatility that can cause stocks to fall or rise on any given day.
So next time the stock market falls or a popular stock that has been going up for months suddenly corrects, just shrug your shoulders and say “Stonks”!
Because in the end, there are more important things that are going on in the world than the rise and fall of a stock price. Keep in mind there are different types of memes, just like there are different types of trades, it’s all meant to be fun! Thanks for reading and if you liked this article be sure to check out our latest post on Tinder Stock for more humor!
