Stockholm – “Stocks are only going up” concludes a video montage of televangelists, dancing Ghanaian pallbearers and Donald Trump’s personal pastor who repeatedly says she can hear the “sound of victory”.
The humorous meme, supposed to characterize the bullish mood in the stock markets when news broke of Pfizer BioNTech’s successful Covid-19 vaccine, has been viewed more than 1 million times on Instagram and Twitter.
Going beyond broker research notes, memes play a pivotal role in a new form of financial literacy – or illiteracy, depending on your view – behind the frenzied boom in retailing cryptocurrencies or stocks on platforms like Robinhood.
With images from pop culture overlaid with market commentary, they are praised – and defamed – for making trading fun and playful.
