The stock market memes are in full swing after Trump's tariff whiplash

• After a week of painful losses, the huge rally in stocks as Trump paused the trade war seemed like a joke to retail traders online.
• Major indexes had their best day in years on Wednesday, recovering some of the enormous losses since last week.
• Here's what the chatter looked like online as stocks staged a wild rally.

Retail investors online are in shock over the market's abrupt U-turn that catapulted US stocks to their best day in years on Wednesday.

But they're not at a loss for words — or memes.

"The entire stock market is now a meme stock," one Reddit user said, commenting on an r/stocks post regarding Wednesday's surge.

The whiplash has sparked an explosion of stock market memes, and a mix of joy and anger among investors on social media.

But whether traders are celebrating sudden gains or licking their wounds, one common theme is tying everyone together: shock and awe.

Glee and gloom

Indexes were in free fall in the week since the Trump administration unleashed a barrage of tough tariffs. For days, the S&P 500 slipped closer to bear market territory, but an unexpected 90-day policy pause on Wednesday sent indexes storming higher.

The S&P 500 had its best day since 2008 and the Nasdaq Composite saw its biggest single-day gain since 2001. The Dow rose almost 3,000 points.

For many traders, though, this wasn't good news.

Various posts and comments acknowledged ruined put options, a type of trade that bets on the market to fall. If the opposite happens, these trades can trigger big losses.

"Cost me 12k.... puts went from up 10% to down 75% instantly...... damn it," a user said under the same Reddit post.

"Just lost 50% of my portfolio," another Redditor conceded in a response on r/wallstreetbets, a retail trading subreddit that ballooned in popularity during the pandemic.

At the same time, there was no shortage of celebration.

The Wall Street Bets subreddit was full of screenshots showing gains, and congratulatory comments celebrating the mantra to "buy the dip." Amid the market carnage, retail investors have piled into the sell-off at a historic pace, pouring billions into the S&P 500 in the tail-end of last week.

"I literally just invested my Roth contribution yesterday despite my financial advisors advice, holy hell I'm a psychic," another user wrote.

But above all, there's a sense that what just happened was very strange.

Many quickly pointed out that a tweet from Tuesday was justified, despite pre-emptively announcing the 90-day pause. Initially, the White House deemed this to be "fake news." It was originally shared by the Walter Bloomberg X account, and memes have cropped up saying the call has now been vindicated.

Others on Reddit speculated about the timing of President Donald Trump's Truth Social post, which told investors that now was a "great time to buy." As this came the same day the pause was announced, some said they saw it as market manipulation.

One user wrote: "we just witnessed one of the greatest stock market MANIPULATION OF ALL TIME."

Searches for this particular phrase have spiked on Google since 1:20 p.m. Market manipulation became a trending topic on X.

The memes continued to flow.

Retail investors also shared their two cents as to why Trump may have pushed the tariffs back.

"I wonder if this had something to do with those treasury yields going UP UP and UP," an r/stocks user commented, referring to the fact that bond traders have been selling off Treasurys and driving up bond yields since Wednesday morning — the opposite of what the administration wants to see happen.