What's The Deal With 'Stonks'?

If you were to transport a caveman or ancient Roman to modern times and try to explain things to him, it's likely that one of the most difficult things to translate would be the stock market. Or, as people put it in memes, the stonks.

Even most people living today don't understand stonks, and for good reason: they are extremely complicated and purposefully so. The system which runs the world economy and plays a part in all of our lives makes very little sense. You might say it's a kind of surreal situation. Stonks, a surreal meme, has stepped in to describe the way they make us all feel.

What Are Stonks?

A stonk is a share in a company purchased on a public exchange. People and institutions purchase stonks in order to speculate, betting they can sell their stonks later on for more money than they originally paid. Through various intricate processes, people also bet against stonks, bundle stonks together, and attempt to manipulate stonk prices.

"Stonk" is an intentional misspelling of "stock." Often, the word is used to express both ignorance of how stocks work and a distaste for stocks and the stock market in general. Many surreal memes use intentional misspellings to make familiar language unfamiliar and weird, making users question the world around them.

Where Did 'Stonks' Come From?

The first post using the intentional misspelling of "Stonks" paired the word with a clip art-esque graphic representing a financial chart and Meme Man, the protagonist of many surreal memes. It was posted on Facebook on June 5th, 2017.

The inclusion of Meme Man brings stonks into the surreal memes tradition: the meme intends to confuse you as much as to entertain you. Seeing a stonks post, you might ask yourself, "why would somebody make this?" And there is no good answer, which is why people find it funny.

Why Do People Post About Stonks?

But maybe the real question isn't "why would somebody make a stonks meme?" but "why would somebody make a stock market?"

The baffled response which "stonks" inspires may make you wonder why you don't have the same baffled response to "stocks." The stock market is a pretty surreal thing: these days, it's mostly run by computers and seems increasingly disconnected from the real economy. The people running the stock market, like Meme Man, present themselves as anonymous, well-dressed and authoritative.

Humor — even seemingly surreal, bizarre humor — is often grounded in reality, and the stonks meme seems to be an example. A lot of people don't like the stock market, finding the entire thing pretty annoying. The most famous example of the often-hostile relationship between the stock market and memes is /r/WallStreetBets, which uses the word "stonk" pretty frequently. The use of the word "stonks" tries to strip Wall Street of some of its prestige. It is a little act of resistance by posters online.

For the full details on stonks, be sure to check out our entry on the meme here for even more information.