Stonks
Etymology
From a 2017 meme image featuring "Meme Man," a surreal 3D head, standing before a rising chart above the word "STONKS." The intentional misspelling spread as ironic finance slang and surged in 2020, especially around the retail-trading and meme-stock frenzy.
noun · /STONKS/
A deliberately misspelled "stocks," used to joke about investing and especially about gains or losses that defy sense.
What it names
It names a self-mocking attitude toward markets — the small investor’s shrug at their own bad decisions, treating finance as an absurd game where "line go up" is the whole strategy.
Example
Bought at the top, sold at the bottom — stonks.
Related idea
A knowing cousin of to the moon: both are meme-era market slang, but "to the moon" is hopeful hype while "stonks" is usually ironic, often self-deprecating.