Abstract
Financial trading has become commonplace, involving the purchase and sale of securities such as stocks and bonds. While HCI research has investigated people's financial literacy and decision-making and how to design for it, little is known as to how people form financial conversations on social media. To answer this question, we used a grounded theory approach to analyzing financial conversations in the YOLO ('you only live once') posts on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit (WSB), one of today's largest financial online communities. We describe how WSB's discursive culture portrays its gambling-like, high-risk trading by likening trading to gambling, celebrating it, and normalizing financial risk-taking. We discuss the rise of social investing, including how individual investors' affective relationships encourage their outsized risk-taking, as well as reflect on its looming financial risks, especially to already marginalized groups. Lastly, we propose implications for design and policymaking.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems |
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9798400703300 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 11 2024 |
| Event | 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems, CHI 2024 - Hybrid, Honolulu, United States Duration: May 11 2024 → May 16 2024 |
Publication series
| Name | Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings |
|---|
Conference
| Conference | 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems, CHI 2024 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Hybrid, Honolulu |
| Period | 5/11/24 → 5/16/24 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
- Software
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Link to the citations in Scopus
See AlsoUWM Holdings Corporation (UWMC): Why Is Reddit’s WallStreetBets Buying This Stock Now?Q&A: Wall Street meets Reddit—what are the upsides and risks of social investing?Unpacking the tactics of r/wallstreetbets tradersWallStreetBets: Assessing the Collective Intelligence of Reddit for Investment Advice
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Kou, Y., Moradzadeh, S. (2024). Trading as Gambling: Social Investing and Financial Risks on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. In CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems Article 357 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642768
Kou, Yubo ; Moradzadeh, Sam ; Gui, Xinning. / Trading as Gambling : Social Investing and Financial Risks on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2024. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).
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abstract = "Financial trading has become commonplace, involving the purchase and sale of securities such as stocks and bonds. While HCI research has investigated people's financial literacy and decision-making and how to design for it, little is known as to how people form financial conversations on social media. To answer this question, we used a grounded theory approach to analyzing financial conversations in the YOLO ('you only live once') posts on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit (WSB), one of today's largest financial online communities. We describe how WSB's discursive culture portrays its gambling-like, high-risk trading by likening trading to gambling, celebrating it, and normalizing financial risk-taking. We discuss the rise of social investing, including how individual investors' affective relationships encourage their outsized risk-taking, as well as reflect on its looming financial risks, especially to already marginalized groups. Lastly, we propose implications for design and policymaking.",
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Kou, Y, Moradzadeh, S 2024, Trading as Gambling: Social Investing and Financial Risks on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. in CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems., 357, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, Association for Computing Machinery, 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems, CHI 2024, Hybrid, Honolulu, United States, 5/11/24. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642768
Trading as Gambling: Social Investing and Financial Risks on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. / Kou, Yubo; Moradzadeh, Sam; Gui, Xinning.
CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2024. 357 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
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AB - Financial trading has become commonplace, involving the purchase and sale of securities such as stocks and bonds. While HCI research has investigated people's financial literacy and decision-making and how to design for it, little is known as to how people form financial conversations on social media. To answer this question, we used a grounded theory approach to analyzing financial conversations in the YOLO ('you only live once') posts on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit (WSB), one of today's largest financial online communities. We describe how WSB's discursive culture portrays its gambling-like, high-risk trading by likening trading to gambling, celebrating it, and normalizing financial risk-taking. We discuss the rise of social investing, including how individual investors' affective relationships encourage their outsized risk-taking, as well as reflect on its looming financial risks, especially to already marginalized groups. Lastly, we propose implications for design and policymaking.
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Kou Y, Moradzadeh S, Gui X. Trading as Gambling: Social Investing and Financial Risks on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. In CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems. Association for Computing Machinery. 2024. 357. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). doi: 10.1145/3613904.3642768
