A lot of Redditors hate the Reddit IPO | Reddit warned us that its users were a risk factor, and boy do they sound excited about shorting its stock.::Reddit seems like a likely candidate for a meme stock. But the actual reaction suggests that r/WallStreetBets isn’t going to send the stock to the moon.
stock is just a publicly listed company, they sell ownership (shares) of the company to the public. As part owner you can sometimes vote for what they will do (the company tends to hold over 50% so they decide everything still). Some companies will give their shareholders dividends which is money based on how much they make
You can also sell your ownership stake to others which is where you will make or lose most of your money
Shorting is betting a stock will go down, you borrow a stock and sell it before you actually own it. Then when the stock goes down in value you get to keep the difference