Stonks, Apes, and HODL

If you were following the stock market earlier this year, you heard about some crazy things with Gamestop and AMC stock. These stocks also created a new language and the key terms are Stonks, Apes, and HODL. The reddit boards have detailed discussions, but here are definitions of Stonks, Apes and HODL to help you understand the lingo. These are basic terms that are being used by this group of retail investors as they create their own culture and appear to be working against the mainstream stock market.

Stonks

So what are Stonks? Stonks is simply a deliberate misspelling of the word “stocks”. The word has been around for a number of years and was a pretty funny meme. In the last 12 months, the term stonk has really taken off. Stonk is used today to generally describe these “meme” stocks, like AMC, Gamestop, etc. Stonks are now the symbol of the little guys taking on Wall Street and is really tied to GME. You can show your support with a “stonk” shirt or just know what the Apes are talking about.

Apes

Apes are what the users on Reddit refer to themselves as. It is a bit self deprecating and has a number of meanings, but is generally acceptable to describe oneself as an Ape if you are holding some AMC or GME stock. The Apes may have taken that name as part of the backlash against wallstreet. These Reddit users appear to be heavily male in nature as well, so the Ape name may have some other meanings. Ape actions were looked down on and cast as less than intelligent, or ape like in nature, mainstream financial experts. Apes are said to have diamond hands. They don’t “fold” like paper hands when the going gets tough or there are big swings in the market. The diamond hands allow the apes to hold or hodl their investments through big swings.

The term likely comes from the movie “War for Planet of the Apes” when the chimpanzee leader said, “Apes Strong Together.” The shoe fit, so the Reddit users wear it. There appear to be some gorilla adoptions being made with unrealized GME gains as well, see the article here. So the Ape name has really stuck.

HODL

HODL or “Hold on for Dear Life” appears to have been a term coined in the Crypto world. Bitcoin has had a lot of large swings. One trader stated words to the effect of, “they can only take your money” if you sell, so I am going to HODL. Rumor is that he was drunk posting about the HODL, but it stuck. A number of memes came out immediately and it became an anthem for those who bought and held crypto. I think someone clever figured out that HODL could be hold on for Dear Life, but it likely was a drunk typo.

HODL has now bled over into the Meme stock world as well. Apes with diamond hands Hodl their positions in an effort to take the stocks to the moon. It seems that these stocks are either going to go to the moon or they are going to crash, not a lot of middle ground. So if you see a young man in a “HODL” shirt, he does know how to spell, but is choosing to “HODL” his bitcoin or meme stock in an effort to take it to the moon.