Stonks Meaning: Where the Meme Came From and How Traders Use It

Stonks is a deliberate misspelling of "stocks," taken from a popular internet meme and used ironically to joke about investing, money or any decision that looks smart but probably is not. When someone posts "stonks" after a trade, they are usually laughing at themselves, whether the trade worked out by accident or went wrong in a way they really should have seen coming.

The word started as a joke about people who barely understand the market and ended up as part of the market's own vocabulary. This guide covers where it came from, how it is used in slang and in trading, and the words that tend to travel with it.

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Where the stonks meme came from

The meme features Meme Man, a smooth, bald, 3D rendered head that became a recurring character in surreal internet memes. In the stonks version he is placed in front of a stock market chart with an arrow pointing upward, above the single misspelled word "Stonks." The image began spreading around 2017 and is usually traced back to a surreal meme page on Facebook, before it moved on to Reddit, Twitter and pretty much everywhere else.

The whole joke lives in the spelling, since Meme Man characters tend to be confidently clueless and the misspelled word captures someone who has wandered into investing with total certainty and no idea what they are doing. That is why the meme fits so many situations, from a genuinely good trade to a terrible one, as long as the person posting it is in on the joke.

Stonks meaning in slang

In everyday slang, stonks has drifted a long way from the market. People use it for anything that looks like a profit, however small or questionable, such as finding twenty dollars in an old jacket, getting a free drink because the barista got the order wrong or selling a used console for more than they paid for it. The word works as a mock celebration, a way of calling something a win while admitting at the same time that it is a silly one.

Stonks meaning in the stock market

Among traders, stonks is almost always ironic, and it became far more common during the retail trading boom of 2020 and 2021, when commission free apps, stimulus checks and the GameStop short squeeze brought a wave of new traders into the market and onto forums like WallStreetBets. Typical posts from that crowd look like this:

• "Bought at the high, sold at the low, stonks."
• "My portfolio is down 12% this month but the one stock I forgot I owned is up 40%, stonks."
• "Company announces layoffs and the share price jumps 8%, stonks."

The last example shows the other common use, which is pointing out when the market reacts in a way that seems backwards to anyone outside it. Used like that, stonks is shorthand for the old line that the market is not the economy and has no interest in your opinion of it.

There is also a reverse version, usually called "not stonks," which shows Meme Man with the arrow pointing down and gets used for losses, failed trades and any plan that went wrong in an entirely predictable way.

Related words and memes

Stonks belongs to a family of ironic trader slang that grew up on the same forums, and most of it is explained in our trader slang guide. These are a few of the words you will often see next to it:

• Stocks only go up: a sarcastic line used when the market keeps rising against all logic, and quoted rather bitterly when it stops.
• Tendies: short for chicken tenders, used to mean trading profits, as in the meal you buy when the trade pays.
• Diamond hands: holding a position through heavy losses or big swings without selling, which our diamond hands guide explains.
• Paper hands: the opposite habit of selling at the first sign of pressure, covered in what paper hands means.
• Bagholder: someone stuck holding a position that has fallen far below what they paid, which our bagholder guide explains.
• To the moon: the hype phrase for a price that someone expects to soar, usually posted with a rocket emoji.

Why the joke lands with traders

Stonks has lasted because it carries a little truth about how people actually trade. Most of us have bought something with more confidence than research, and the meme lets you admit that without writing a long post about your mistakes. It also keeps the market in perspective, since a word that sounds this silly is hard to say while you are taking yourself too seriously.

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Stonks lives in the same corner of the internet as to the moon and NFA, and once you know all three you can follow most meme stock threads without a translator.

Frequently asked questions

What does stonks mean in slang?

In slang, stonks is an ironic way to celebrate a profit or a win, often a small, lucky or questionable one. It comes from a meme that misspells "stocks" and is used to poke fun at confident decisions that may not be as smart as they look.

What is the stonks meme?

The stonks meme shows Meme Man, a 3D rendered character from surreal internet memes, in front of a rising stock chart with the word "Stonks" as the caption. It began circulating around 2017 and became widely popular during the retail trading boom of 2020 and 2021.

What does stonks mean in the stock market?

In the stock market, stonks is used ironically about trades, prices and market reactions, either to mock a bad decision or to point out when stocks move in a way that seems to make no sense at all.

This guide explains a phrase and is not financial advice.

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