The Astrology of r/WallStreetBets

I briefly looked into the astrology of GameStop last week when I (and millions of others around the world) became fascinated by the short squeeze that is currently happening with that stock. Over the course of reading and researching this, I saw several people comment on how it would be interesting to look at the chart for r/WallStreetBets – the subreddit responsible for the current short squeeze shenanigans, with a long history of members gaining and losing stacks of cash breathtakingly fast.

As it turns out, today is the birthday of WallStreetBets (WSB) so it’s the perfect time to take a peek at its natal chart. I used Mexico City as the birthplace because that’s where founder Jaime Rogozinski lived at the time. A fellow RSPM gave the exact birth time as 9:26pm GMT (3:26 local time) based on the API. Here’s the chart:

Mercury is making an applying conjunction to the Sun in Aquarius in the eighth house, which is the house of debt, taxes and other people’s assets. This is a message board where people around the world are focused (Sun) on communicating (Mercury) about their dealings on the stock market (eighth house).

Venus is tightly conjunct the Midheaven (MC) in Pisces, the sign in which she is exalted. The ruler of Pisces is Jupiter, who is in Taurus along with the Moon; the Moon is exalted in Taurus. So you’ve got both benefics in mutual reception (i.e. in signs ruled by each other), linked by sextile aspect. That’s a really positive, beneficial relationship.

One of the main slang terms used on WSB is “diamond hands” to describe someone who has made a bunch of “tendies” (financial gains) – Venus is perfectly aligned with the image/idea of diamond hands, so it makes sense that she’s conjunct the MC: on WSB, people with diamond hands are lauded above all others and held in prominence (Midheaven). Also, “tendies” is apparently slang for chicken tenders. I can’t think of anything more Taurus than using chicken tenders/food as a symbol for material wealth. (Remember that Venus rules Taurus, and that Jupiter, the greater benefic, is located in Taurus.)

A Cancer Ascendant usually denotes someone who comes across as introverted and private. Cancer is ruled by the Moon who is exalted in Taurus in this chart, and in the eleventh house of groups and alliances. Having an exalted Moon and Jupiter (in mutual reception with Venus conjunct the MC, to boot) in the eleventh house is part of why WSB has been such a long-standing and successful community – that’s a lot of very good, productive energy in the house denoting a community of strangers on the internet. Not to mention that Taurus is aligned with material goods/wealth, and that’s certainly the focus of WSB – they are here to make money on the stock market.

Having the ruler of the reserved Cancer Ascendant in a very strong, gregarious eleventh house could suggest that the average WSB member tends to be introverted and quiet in real life, but is able to communicate and express themselves freely (maybe too freely) on an internet forum, from the comfort and privacy of their own home.

One of the main terms used on WSB to describe members is “autist” and it’s used both pejoratively when someone loses a massive amount of cash, and congratulatory when someone gains a huge amount. Setting aside the irreverence/offensiveness of this term, it does seem quite emblematic of an exalted Moon in the eleventh house of a Cancer rising chart. One of the hallmarks of autism are difficulties in communicating; I can’t help but wonder if WSB users have a hard time communicating with people outside the relative freedom of their subreddit.

Mars way down in the third house in Virgo shows the detailed analysis (Virgo) required to make significant wins (Mars) on the stock market; however, it’s retrograde so that suggests reversals are just as likely to occur – and WSB reveals that its users experience both scenarios in spades. Virgo is a mutable earth sign so that mutability helps move WSB’s attention around to whatever catches its fancy at the moment; it’s also ruled by Mercury in Aquarius. In this chart, Mercury is combust (conjunct the Sun) which is a debilitated condition that certainly plays out in the, ahem, debilitated way that WSB users talk to each other. Mercury and the Sun are in Aquarius, a fixed air sign – that certainly fits the fact that WSB is an online (air) forum, and recall this is the eighth house of other people’s money (i.e. stock market – which also now exists solely online, pretty much).

Mars is in the third house which is associated with communication; that matches well with its Mercury dispositor. Mars is also opposite Venus, and whenever I see a Mars-Venus opposition it always reminds me of a sort of “boys versus girls” dynamic; the casual sexism and homophobia in WSB users’ interactions is a perfect expression of the most juvenile, schoolyard name-calling version of Mars vs. Venus.

Uranus in Aries is in the tenth house, widely conjunct the MC; this is pretty self-explanatory. Uranus = disruption and one of its key associated images is lightning. WSB users regularly reference lightning for the sudden way that people manage to gain or lose heaps of cash. I’ve also seen it referenced in terms of a cosmic force adjusting things back to balance, i.e. “this dude is about to get smoked by a random bolt of lightning to bring balance back to the universe.”

In the cardinal fire sign of Aries, Uranus conjunct the MC shows that WSB is best known for being disruptive, rebellious and insubordinate. Check, check and check.

Pluto is in Capricorn in the seventh house of partnerships. Pluto often signifies obsession, destruction and transformation; Capricorn is a cardinal earth sign associated with systems of governance and order (like the stock market); the seventh house is partnerships of a one-on-one nature, not the casual relationships indicated by the eleventh house.

While this could potentially indicate the real-world one-on-one partners of WSB members, I tend to see the seventh house in this chart as indicating WSB’s partnership with Wall Street itself. Pluto’s position here indicates that this partnership is obsessive, destructive and transformative for both parties. The current events with GameStop certainly fall within this interpretation – there could be some major real-world changes to stock trading as a result of WSB’s actions in recent days.

Saturn is a very important planet in this chart as it is the dispositor of the Sun and Mercury in Aquarius as well as Pluto in Capricorn; Saturn is thus the “boss” of the chart’s seventh house of partnerships and eighth house of other people’s money. Saturn is in the anaretic (last) degree of Libra down in the fourth house; the anaretic degree is often a place of difficulty or tension. Saturn is the great limiter and imposer of restrictions; Libra is all about balance between different parties, and the fourth house denotes the home and private life. Saturn is exalted in Libra, so it is very strong here and its actions of imposing restrictions to maintain balance via the signs/houses that Saturn rules (seventh/Capricorn and eight/Aquarius) is very prominent.

Also note that Uranus is opposite Saturn (by whole sign, not degree) – that speaks to the aforementioned “bolts of lightning” that seem to hit WSB whenever they put things too far out of the natural order. I’ve seen many posts on WSB speaking about this; there seems to be an implicit understanding that while WSB users might be able to achieve some insane gains short-term, the universe always seems to step in and put things back in balance (Libra) sooner or later.

Saturn is also disposited by exalted Venus in Pisces, but by sign it’s averse/inconjunct Venus, which means they can’t see each other and therefore can’t actually work together in any meaningful way. Maybe that speaks to the Saturnian structure of the financial system that they are working in and which they are limited by, and which is so often the source of their fortune/misfortune.

Given that this is also the chart for the WSB subreddit itself, Saturn could also indicate the rules governing this particular online space. And Saturn’s averse position to its ruler (Venus) could mean that it often flouts these rules.

So, overall r/WallStreetBets has a pretty insane natal chart! Exalted Moon in the eleventh, exalted Venus conjunct the Midheaven, and exalted Saturn trine Sun/Mercury and opposite Uranus. No wonder this place has risen to such prominence – the current pile-up in Aquarius is pinging its Saturn/Mercury in a big way. The upcoming Saturn-Uranus square (which goes exact on February 17) will activate its eleventh house and eighth house intensely, as it occurs at 7 degrees of each sign. Therefore, there is a great limitation (Saturn) wedged between WSB’s messages (Mercury) and its central focus (Sun) on the stock market (eighth house), which will create a tense, conflicted relationship (square aspect) with WSB’s community (eleventh house) growth (Jupiter). 

Looking at that Saturn-Uranus square in Aquarius-Taurus reminds me of one of the main signatures of Saturn in Aquarius of which I’ve observed plenty of examples already: censorship. WSB was already temporarily banned from its Discord. Its days on Reddit might be numbered. However, it does have all that exalted planetary energy going for it – not to mention the very public schadenfreude of Wall Street big wigs eat some huge losses – so it might come back even stronger. Nonetheless, expect some big lightning bolts to start raining down from the heavens.