r/WallStreetBets

/r/wallstreetbets, also known as WallStreetBets or WSB, is a community on Reddit where participants discuss stock and option trading. It is known for its aggressive trading strategies, which primarily revolve around highly speculative, leveraged options trading. Members of the subreddit often ignore conventional investment practices and risk management techniques; the activity is often considered gambling.[1][2][3][4][5]

/r/WallStreetBets
Logo of the Subreddit
Type of site
Subreddit
Available inEnglish
FoundedJanuary 31, 2012 (2012-01-31)
Country of originUnited States
Founder(s)Jaime Rogozinski (removed as admin in April 2020)[1]
RegistrationOptional
Users1,200,380
Current statusActive

Contributions to the Robinhood trading platform

Many members of the subreddit use the popular Robinhood mobile app to trade stocks and options. Some members have been responsible for significant feature removals and bug fixes after identifying and publishing methods of exploit, occasionally resulting in 5-figure financial losses to the brokerage.

Box spread ban

A user known as u/1R0NYMAN sold a box spread creating a $300,000 credit that should have netted him from $40,000-$50,000 over the course of 2 years. He described the trade as a way to make "risk free money", but he was unaware of the assignment risk. A few days later some of the options were exercised against him, causing a loss of over $60,000; calculating from the original amount in the user account, $5,000, the return of the trade was -1832.99%.

As a result, Robinhood decided soon after that it would no longer allow the trading of box spreads. The user somehow withdrew $10,000 from the account before the positions were closed and it is believed that the brokerage itself took the majority of the loss.[6]

The "infinite leverage" glitch

A user known as ControlTheNarrative found a bug in Robinhood's trading platform and exploited it to leverage his original deposit of $2,000 all the way up to roughly $50,000, resulting in a ratio of approximately 25:1 leverage. He sold covered calls and, thanks to the bug, the credit that he received appeared as liquid money on his account. He used the money to buy put options on Apple stock, and the trade led to a loss of $46,000, enormous relative to his initial deposit of only $2,000.[7] He recorded the live reaction to the loss and uploaded it on his YouTube channel.[8]

Bibliography

  • Rogozinski, Jaime (2020). WallStreetBets: How Boomers Made the World’s Biggest Casino for Millennials. ISBN 979-8606685684.

References

  1. Davidson, Jake (October 25, 2018). "Meet the Bros Behind /r/WallStreetBets, Who Lose Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars in a Day—And Brag About It". Money. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  2. Weisenthal, Joe; Alloway, Tracy (March 5, 2020). "How a Profane Subreddit Moved the Market (Podcast)". Odd Lots (Bloomberg). Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  3. Kiberd, Roisin (December 11, 2017). "You Probably Shouldn't Bet Your Savings on Reddit's 'Wallstreetbets'". Vice. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  4. Kawa, Luke (February 26, 2020). "Reddit's Profane, Greedy Traders Are Shaking Up the Stock Market". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  5. Anthony, KS (March 2, 2020). "Irrational Exuberance: An Interview With WallStreetBets Founder Jaime Rogozinski". SumZero. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  6. Langlois, Shawn. "Trader says he has 'no money at risk,' then promptly loses almost 2,000%". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  7. GmbH, finanzen net. "Robinhood's 'infinite money' glitch shows the dangers of turning investing into a game, expert says | Markets Insider". markets.businessinsider.com. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  8. "wsb yolo".
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