Matt Kohrs built a following as a stock trading streamer on YouTube, known for loud, unfiltered live reactions while watching volatile meme stocks and options trades move in real time. Short clips from those streams began circulating as standalone reaction sounds, separated from the original trade or chart that caused them. This WTF shout became useful on its own because it needs no context, instantly signalling disbelief at a loss, a spike or bad news. It remains popular in trading memes and general reaction edits for that exaggerated panic.