An Archive of Memes from Stonks’ Heyday in 2021

A year has passed since the WallStreetBets, Gamestop memes first took center stage. The investment phenomenon shook up Wall Street, drove market analysts to monitor Reddit activity, and caused stock market news reporters to scratch their heads in disbelief. The face of the social media collaborators became the enthusiastic memes that people would share, most featuring a confident character with “diamond hands,” often on a rocket. It was a time in market history that was both exciting and confusing. The era will forever have changed what it means to be a self-directed investor. One year since the beginning it feels as though the peak has passed, investors are finding their way around the market with a broader set of tools.

History Book

WallStreetBets users calling themselves “Diamond Hands History” have launched a Kickstarter fund to publish an archive of the fun memes from the era of self-deprecation and intentional misspelling STONKS (stocks), and HODL (hold).

The donation categories to help make “Diamond Hands:
The GME Archive” a reality are as sophomoric as the memes often were. The tiers start at “Baby Ape” $1 and continue to with higher-priced tiers with meme-related levels like “True Ape”, “Ape Chieftain”, and “Richer Than Your Wife’s Boyfriend.”

The creators have a fundraising goal of $20,000 for what they use as a working title,”the epic book of GameStop.” They are expected to rocket right past the goal. According to the fundraiser page, the project intends to “capture the moments in time when GameStop was all anyone was thinking about.”

Challenges

The project is not as easy and straightforward as it appears. The creators had to collaborate with and get legal permission from thousands of social media users. They refer to it as the “first project of this kind in history,” given the collaboration with and legal permission from thousands of social media users. The diamond hands historians parsed through more than 10,000 posts as well as hundreds of thousands of comments for publication — all with consent from the original Reddit users.

Image: Mockup of the forthcoming book

The project description explains, “We decided to archive the most popular primary source documents related to the historic First and Second GameStop Squeezes,” The purpose is easy to understand, “We aim to archive the best WallStreetBets memes, posts, and comments about GameStop into a single book,” according to the Kickstarter page.

A teaser of the project features photos of a GameStop billboard in Times Square, lists of quotes from social media, and a hardcover book sample suitable for anyone’s parlor or even bathroom shelf. The Kickstarter also explains the final book puts the creators in potential legal jeopardy due to the images contained in the memes and copyright issues.

Looking Forward

The meme stocks are still making history but are no longer the force or focus they once were. Such is the way of the investment markets. The trade that works one day, isn’t as powerful once others catch on. Wall Street is now keeping close tabs on social media posts and retail investment trends. Professional investors and trading desks at top
banks and services such as Morningstar are quantifying buzz in order to capitalize on what they learn.

WallStreetBets, the investor forum on Reddit, is picky about who they let interact on their platform. Still they have over 11.5 million members sharing ideas. That by itself is a tremendous feat and a huge audience once the book becomes available.

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

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