Page 57 - Money - November 2018

-RZIWX BIG BETS

place where users announce their more than $300,000 left. While it’s hard to know which
bets on the market, which are Cao freely admits all this may be Wallstreetbets trades are genuine,
often centered on so-called meme hard to believe. MONEY reviewed the dozens of posts showing
stocks—like Tesla—securities that images of Cao’s brokerage accounts, pedestrian losses of a few hundred
have transcended their role as including ones not previously posted or a few thousand dollars suggest a
financial instruments to become a online, and interviewed him several good deal of them are, in fact, real.
sort of economic inside joke. The times regarding the details of his “The majority [of users] are
biggest and boldest of these bets— trades. However, in the age of seriously unsophisticated,” says one
like Cao’s—are known as “YOLO Photoshop, his claims are impossible of the site’s moderators who goes by
bets.” Winners brag of spending to truly verify. the name “Chainsaw Vasectomy”
their newly acquired fortunes on
yachts and “tendies”—that’s
chicken tenders—seen in jest as
making up the ultimate luxury
lifestyle. Losers are mocked, often
in language that’s crude and
offensive, but also with a certain
sense of camaraderie. After all,
losers are the ones providing the
most entertainment.

THE ID OF INVESTING
The mix of braggadocio and nihilism
that pervades Wallstreetbets makes
it difficult to tell how much money is
really at stake. One of the best-
known incidents to take place on
the site involved a Canadian user
who went by the username
fscomeau. He shared a video in
which he gambled away his million-
dollar inheritance. The video is now
believed by the WSB community to
be an elaborate fake. 8LMW *VII -RZIWXMRK %TT ,EW
Cao’s story is also remarkable.
He began visiting Wallstreetbets %XXVEGXIH c1MPPMSR 9WIVW
because “literally every other ,IVIŞW ;L] =SY 7LSYPH 7XE] %[E]
Internet forum put me to sleep” and
soon began posting about his own BY RYAN DEROUSSEAU
trades. He claims to have started
investing with just $700, which he INVESTING APP ROBINHOOD has developed a huge
turned into $8,000 betting on following with a tantalizing promise: Trade stocks,
election outcomes on an online cryptocurrencies, and even options without paying a 6SFMRLSSH
QEOIW
gambling site. He says he then single cent in commissions. The app has become a XVEHMRK
increased his winnings with crypto- favorite on the investing forum Wallstreetbets, where JYR ERH
currency trades before turning to users frequently post screenshots of their Robinhood I\GMXMRKŜ
ERH XLEXŞW
stock options. Even after his trades. For long-term investors, though, trading for TEVX SJ XLI
Facebook losses, he claims to have “free” may come with hidden costs. TVSFPIQ

MONE Y. C O M NO VEMBER 2 018