Short, Colorful, and Irreverent! A Comparative Analysis of New Users on WallstreetBets During the Gamestop Short-squeeze

Ehsan Ul Haq, Tristan Braud, Lik Hang Lee, Anish K. Vallapuram, Yue Yu, Gareth Tyson, Pan Hui

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceedingConference article published in proceeding or bookAcademic researchpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

WallStreetBets (WSB) is a Reddit community that primarily discusses high-risk options and stock trading. In January 2021, it attracted worldwide attention as one of the epicentres of a significant short squeeze on US markets. Following this event, the number of users and their activity increased exponentially. In this paper, we study the changes caused in the WSB community by such an increase in activity. We perform a comparative analysis between long-term users and newcomers and examine their respective writing styles, topics, and susceptibility to community feedback. We report a significant difference in the post length and the number of emojis between the regular and new users joining WSB. Newer users' activity also closely follows the affected companies' stock prices. Finally, although community feedback affects the choices of topics for all users, new users are less prone to select their subsequent message topics based on past community feedback.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWWW 2022 - Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference 2022
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages52-61
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781450391306
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Apr 2022
Externally publishedYes
Event31st ACM Web Conference, WWW 2022 - Virtual, Online, France
Duration: 25 Apr 2022 → …

Publication series

NameWWW 2022 - Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference 2022

Conference

Conference31st ACM Web Conference, WWW 2022
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityVirtual, Online
Period25/04/22 → …

Keywords

  • Reddit
  • Short Squeeze
  • Trading
  • WallStreet

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Software

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