Noor Al compares his work as a WallStreetBets moderator on Reddit to tending a garden. Sometimes it’s a mess but it’s always rewarding
The retail trader has been helping moderate the popular investing forum since 2014, long before the GameStop short squeeze of 2021 that made the Reddit forum famous.
“I kept complaining about [stuff] until another moderator stepped in and said, ‘Well, why don’t you fix it?’ And that’s what I did. I did for many, many years in the background, just quietly fixing things in auto moderator, cleaning up posts and sharing my own ideas.”
Founded by Jaime Rogozinski in 2012, the Reddit investing forum would be the breeding ground not just for the GameStop short squeeze, but for the entire meme stock movement
Al recalls the early days of WallStreetBets, long before it became a hub for the retail traders looking to duke it out with Wall Street short-sellers, many of whom would go on to be inspired by fellow user Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty.
At the time, he was still working in corporate finance after graduating from Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier University with a degree in economics. He noted that he wasn’t prepared for what would eventually unfold on the forum.
“It was really intense,” he noted. “I remember taking time off work, just sitting in voice chat with the other moderators and we were just filtering posts 24/7.”
Noor Al.
He added that much of the challenge came from communicating what Wall Street Bets actually is, and what is allowed versus what isn’t. At the time, the forum had users who saw it as a platform to try to pump up stocks for their own benefit, something that Al described as “unjustifiable.”
While Al noted that this was far from easy, he feels confident that he and his fellow moderators kept the platform safe for novice traders as its user count surged, growing by as much as a million a day for multiple days in a row at the peak of meme mania.
“Wall Street bets has always been a place where smart people come and act stupid,” he noted. “I recall that famous quote, ‘any community that gets their laughs from pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by them.’ And I think that was definitely very true for GameStop.”
Indeed, Wall Street Bets refers to its users (and they refer to each other) as “degenerates.” The forum is known for a culture of playful insults, but Al attributes much of his success as an options trader to the platform and the connections he has made there, highlighting the culture of idea-sharing and feedback that thrive there.
“The great part about Reddit is, unlike with equity reports or analyst coverage, you can easily go out and ask people questions about their research,” he said.
Al also highlighted the benefits of being part of a community in which people deliver blunt feedback on trade ideas, which he says can often save people from their own egos and prevent what could have been ill-fated market moves.
Al advises traders to take a contrarian position when it comes to popular ideas and argue with fellow users until they get to the bottom of something they’re interested in.
“I think if you’re a new investor, you want to deeply understand what the trades are that you’re making and why they’re available,” he noted. “There’s a ton of information out there.”
While he happily recalls the helpful trading insights he’s gained from the Reddit community, Al also advises new and aspiring traders to be careful. Reddit is home to many people sharing screenshots of big gains, but that doesn’t mean the information is always reliable.
“If you see someone with a consistently high win rate making tons of money hand over fist, don’t believe that they’re going to sell you their secrets for $500 a month,” he cautioned.
