Stonks
what it means
The image is a badly rendered 3D man in front of a rising arrow. "Stonks" celebrates a decision that is obviously terrible with total confidence.
A deliberate misspelling of "stocks", used to joke about bad financial decisions.
the origin story
From a 2017 image posted by the Facebook group Special meme fresh, using a stock 3D character model.
It hit peak relevance during the 2021 GameStop trading surge, when retail investors adopted it as a rallying image. "Not stonks" is the standard inverse for losses, and the aesthetic influenced a whole family of deliberately-terrible 3D memes.
in the wild
Bought the shoes because they were on sale. Spent £200.
Stonks.
Sold everything the day before it doubled.
Not stonks.
how to use it
- Joking about financial decisions, good or bad
- Reacting to any decision with false confidence
- Discussing 2021 meme-stock history
- In actual financial advice or reporting
- About someone's genuine financial loss
- Professionally
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