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

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.