At this point it’s no secret that Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets forum has gained it’s infamous popularity through a plethora of users losing money. The members of the sub-reddit refer to each other as “autists” in a satirical attempt at being called geniuses (similar to Rainman, but not quite). It’s one of the largest options-trading forums on the internet and gained popularity in late 2019 when Youtube stars inadvertently promoted the sub on their channels. What else is the sub-reddit known for? Well, their motto is to “go to Valhalla or go broke” as many users like to say.
The trades displayed in the forum posts are what they call “YOLOs”, essentially high-risk high-reward options bets placed that have expiration dates shorter than a carton of milk that’s been left open. Browsing the sub-reddit you would be in disbelief at some of the “gainz” you will see as users turn $5,000 into $100,000 in just a single trade. While those profits might seem like they occur frequently, the truth is that they are few and far between. For every $50k overnight gain, it’s important to remember there are countless of accounts blown up anywhere from $5k to $500,000 that have gone to zero in just a few trades. Every screenshot of an account gone to zero you can probably find the YOLO-er saying “I did it for the meme” in true WallStreetBets fashion.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest trades and YOLOs from the later part of 2020. If you want to track these trades down for yourself, SwaggyStocks does a pretty good job of keeping track of these top YOLOs. Not only that, but they do some pretty neat sentiment analysis on the forum as well.
#5:
Here we have a user that is celebrating a $1,700 gain on a $4,500 account, but here’s the kicker, their YTD account value is down $110,000. Yep you heard me right, 110 thousand dollars. Ouch. 11,000 upvotes and infinite popularity among the forum for losing 100 grand, classic WallStreetBets.
#4:
In this trade we have someone celebrating a 6-figure trade, incredible! The only problem is that it was a 6-figure loss of $100,000 as their account is down 95% on the all-time chart. Chalk up another 13,000 upvotes (the forum’s way at displaying likes) as this superstar made one of the hottest plays over the summer.
Enough for the losses, it’s time to display some of the bigger gains the sub-reddit saw over the last few months.
#3:
This user has been live-blogging his positions he entered on Gamestop (GME). What started out as a $140,000 YOLO has turned into $1.8 million profit for a total return of almost 1,400%. The most-upvoted comment on this thread is a user saying “True WSB yolo. 10 bagger. Thank fuck it isn’t another $2000 gain post. Congrats and fuck you.”
#2:
Tesla has created many millionaires in the sub-reddit. This user turned $50,000 to $1,000,000 in just a few weeks on Tesla call options. A verified autist-in-the-making with a return of 2,000% on the play. In the meme he posted with his trade position he mocks how we was investing in “value” stocks with no return for months and has now finally made it to Valhalla on just one YOLO.
#1:
Last, but not least. This user made $6 million in profit (before taxes) in just one year of trading options. This is the content many people come to the sub-reddit to see. Often times gainz like this look so easy to be done and are mimicked day after day only to see the position go to zero. Let’s not forget that for every one screenshot of epic gainz there is most likely another 200 of people losing their account. Stay safe out there.
