Internet
gamestonk
What does gamestonk mean?
Shorthand for the whole January 2021 GameStop episode — retail piling into GME on WSB, hedge funds (Melvin, Citadel) getting squeezed, Robinhood pulling the buy button, congressional hearings. The moment retail realised it could move a stock and the moment brokers showed who they actually work for.
"Every finance podcast still dates itself by whether they covered GameStonk in real time or got there a week late."
Origin
Elon Musk tweet, 26 Jan 2021: just the word 'Gamestonk!!' with a link to r/wallstreetbets, mid-squeeze. The tweet sent GME up another ~50% after-hours and locked the term in. Fuses GameStop with the 'stonks' meme (intentional misspelling of stocks, from the 2017 'meme man at a Bloomberg terminal' image).
Frequently asked questions
What does GameStonk mean?
It refers to the 2021 GameStop short-squeeze saga, told in stonks-meme form.
How do you use GameStonk in a sentence?
"Everyone was talking about GameStonk when the share price went vertical."
Where does GameStonk come from?
It combines GameStop with "stonks," the deliberately misspelled internet-meme version of "stocks."
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