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Know This Meme

Stonks Meme

Quick answer

'Stonks' is internet-speak for 'stocks', used to mock a financial decision that makes no sense. The classic image is a grey, armless statue-like figure holding an upward arrow — the visual shrug of 'the market did something stupid again'.

'Stonks' is a deliberate misspelling of 'stocks', mocking absurd financial decisions — classically paired with a grey, featureless statue-like figure holding an upward arrow.

Type: image-macroYear: 2019Updated Sep 27, 2026

What does 'Stonks' mean?

Stonks = "stocks", misspelled on purpose. It is used to mock any financial decision — personal or institutional — that is confidently, gloriously wrong.

The canonical image is a grey, featureless, statue-like figure (the "Meme Man") standing under an upward-trending arrow graph, implying that the market "went up" for reasons nobody can explain.

Origin

  • 2017: The "Meme Man" 3D head originates in the Facebook group "special meme fresh" as a stock-image-style surreal character.
  • 2019, March: The Stonks image (Meme Man + upward arrow) is posted and spreads fast on Reddit's meme-economy boards.
  • 2020–2021: The word crosses into real-world usage during the GameStop / WallStreetBets era — "stonks only go up" becomes a whole worldview.

Examples

  • Buying high and selling low, captioned stonks
  • A company announcing a price increase and a quality decrease at the same time — stonks
  • Personal budgeting that somehow makes sense to no one but you — "my financial plan: stonks"

Translation

  • Literal reading: "stocks", with a typo.
  • Actual meaning: "this financial logic is absurd, and I am acknowledging the absurdity instead of correcting it." It is never used to describe legitimate investing.
  • Cross-language note: the misspelling is the joke, so each language localizes with its own deliberate typo rather than translating — e.g. French communities use 'les stonks' as-is, Chinese communities use 涨（zhǎng）plays like 起飞 or the transliteration 史东克 ironically.

FAQ

Who is the grey figure in the Stonks meme?

"Meme Man", a 3D-rendered head from the special meme fresh Facebook group, adopted as the mascot of confused economics.

Is it spelled stonks or stocks when you mean the joke?

Always 'stonks' for the joke — spelling it correctly defeats the purpose.

Did WallStreetBets actually invent it?

No — the image spread in 2019 on general meme subreddits; WallStreetBets just gave it a second, real-world wave in 2021.

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