Etymology Deliberate misspelling of stock, possibly under the influence of stink in reference to stocks relating to amateur or bad decisions, or financial loss. Compare stronk (“strong”), thonk (“think”).
Stonk is essentially just a funny way to say “stock” – and once you understand that, it explains everything else that has happened.[2021 January 28, Shelley Hepworth, “What is GameStop, where do the memes come in, and who is winning or losing?”, in The Guardian:
Long before Reddit, the Yahoo message boards of the late 1990s democratized the expression of strong opinions about stocks (they didn’t call them “stonks” in those days).[2021 February 4, Neil Irwin, “How to Win at the Stock Market by Being Lazy”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
2 more examples
Other so-called “stonks” – an intentional misspelling of “stocks” – favoured by retail traders on sites such as Reddit’s WallStreetBets also shot higher.[2021 February 25, Mark Sweney, “GameStop shares surge again as trading frenzy returns”, in The Guardian:
It’s all part of our wild new YOLO FOMO LOL economy, where stonks only go up, memes count as financial advice and stimmies buy Hemis.2021 April 25, Erin Griffith, “We’re All Crypto People Now”, in The New York Times, →ISSN: