Understanding Characteristics of Catalyst Users in the WallStreetBets Community

Ehsan Ul Haq; Yiming Zhu; Zijun Lin; Haodi Weng; Gareth Tyson; Lik Hang Lee; Reza Hadi Mogavi; Tristan Braud; Pan Hui

doi:10.1145/3625007.3627595

Understanding Characteristics of Catalyst Users in the WallStreetBets Community

Ehsan Ul Haq, Yiming Zhu, Zijun Lin, Haodi Weng, Gareth Tyson, Lik Hang Lee, Reza Hadi Mogavi, Tristan Braud, Pan Hui

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceeding › Conference article published in proceeding or book › Academic research › peer-review

Abstract

WallStreetBets (WSB), a Reddit community, impacted stock markets during the 2021 GameStop Short Squeeze. We examine the content and user properties that influence engagement in WSB. Despite WSB's association with emojis and informal terms, engagement among community members depends on more than surface-level factors. Although emojis are commonly used, they are not as effective at fostering interactions among users. Community members engage more with posts that have longer and topic-specific text. Simply producing a high volume of posts is not enough to attract an audience. Consistent topical focus, reciprocal interactions, and previous authorship of catalyst posts influence engagement. WSB posts, regardless of length, generally remain relevant to the community's theme of stock trading. Our findings provide insights into WSB engagement patterns and can be useful for downstream research, such as financial predictive tasks using WSB data.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023
Editors	B. Aditya Prakash, Dong Wang, Tim Weninger
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages	320-324
Number of pages	5
ISBN (Electronic)	9798400704093
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3625007.3627595
Publication status	Published - Nov 2023
Event	15th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023 - Kusadasi, Turkey Duration: 6 Nov 2023 → 9 Nov 2023

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023

Conference

Conference	15th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023
Country/Territory	Turkey
City	Kusadasi
Period	6/11/23 → 9/11/23

Keywords

catalyst
engagement
reddit
WallStreetbets

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Artificial Intelligence
Computer Networks and Communications
Information Systems
Information Systems and Management
Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
Social Psychology
Communication

More information

10.1145/3625007.3627595

Cite this

Haq, E. U., Zhu, Y., Lin, Z., Weng, H., Tyson, G., Lee, L. H., Mogavi, R. H., Braud, T., & Hui, P. (2023). Understanding Characteristics of Catalyst Users in the WallStreetBets Community. In B. Aditya Prakash, D. Wang, & T. Weninger (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023 (pp. 320-324). (Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1145/3625007.3627595

Haq, Ehsan Ul ; Zhu, Yiming ; Lin, Zijun et al. / Understanding Characteristics of Catalyst Users in the WallStreetBets Community. Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023. editor / B. Aditya Prakash ; Dong Wang ; Tim Weninger. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2023. pp. 320-324 (Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023).

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title = "Understanding Characteristics of Catalyst Users in the WallStreetBets Community",

abstract = "WallStreetBets (WSB), a Reddit community, impacted stock markets during the 2021 GameStop Short Squeeze. We examine the content and user properties that influence engagement in WSB. Despite WSB's association with emojis and informal terms, engagement among community members depends on more than surface-level factors. Although emojis are commonly used, they are not as effective at fostering interactions among users. Community members engage more with posts that have longer and topic-specific text. Simply producing a high volume of posts is not enough to attract an audience. Consistent topical focus, reciprocal interactions, and previous authorship of catalyst posts influence engagement. WSB posts, regardless of length, generally remain relevant to the community's theme of stock trading. Our findings provide insights into WSB engagement patterns and can be useful for downstream research, such as financial predictive tasks using WSB data.",

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author = "Haq, {Ehsan Ul} and Yiming Zhu and Zijun Lin and Haodi Weng and Gareth Tyson and Lee, {Lik Hang} and Mogavi, {Reza Hadi} and Tristan Braud and Pan Hui",

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year = "2023",

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doi = "10.1145/3625007.3627595",

language = "English",

series = "Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023",

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Haq, EU, Zhu, Y, Lin, Z, Weng, H, Tyson, G, Lee, LH, Mogavi, RH, Braud, T & Hui, P 2023, Understanding Characteristics of Catalyst Users in the WallStreetBets Community. in B Aditya Prakash, D Wang & T Weninger (eds), Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023. Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, pp. 320-324, 15th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023, Kusadasi, Turkey, 6/11/23. https://doi.org/10.1145/3625007.3627595

Understanding Characteristics of Catalyst Users in the WallStreetBets Community. / Haq, Ehsan Ul; Zhu, Yiming; Lin, Zijun et al.
Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023. ed. / B. Aditya Prakash; Dong Wang; Tim Weninger. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2023. p. 320-324 (Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023).

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceeding › Conference article published in proceeding or book › Academic research › peer-review

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AU - Mogavi, Reza Hadi

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AU - Hui, Pan

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Haq EU, Zhu Y, Lin Z, Weng H, Tyson G, Lee LH et al. Understanding Characteristics of Catalyst Users in the WallStreetBets Community. In Aditya Prakash B, Wang D, Weninger T, editors, Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. 2023. p. 320-324. (Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2023). doi: 10.1145/3625007.3627595

Understanding Characteristics of Catalyst Users in the WallStreetBets Community

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