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The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees
Named a Best Book of the Year by New York Post!
From one of our most innovative and celebrated authors, the definitive take on the wildest story of the year— the David-vs.-Goliath GameStop short squeeze, a tale of fortunes won and lost overnight that may end up changing Wall Street forever.
Bestselling author Ben Mezrich offers a gripping, beat-by-beat account of how a loosely affiliate group of private investors and internet trolls on a subreddit called WallStreetBets took down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, firing the first shot in a revolution that threatens to upend the establishment.
It’s the story of financial titans like Gabe Plotkin of hedge fund Melvin Capital, one of the most respected and staid funds on the Street, billionaires like Elon Musk, Steve Cohen, Mark Cuban, Robinhood co-CEOs Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, and Ken Griffin of Citadel Securities. Over the course of four incredible days, each in their own way must reckon with a formidable force they barely understand, let alone saw everyday men and women on WallStreetBets like nurse Kim Campbell, college student Jeremy Poe, and the enigmatic Keith “RoaringKitty” Gill, whose unfiltered livestream videos captivated a new generation of stock market enthusiasts.
The unlikely focus of the GameStop, a flailing brick-and-mortar dinosaur catering to teenagers and outsiders that had somehow held on as the world rapidly moved online. At first, WallStreetBets was a joke—a meme-filled, freewheeling place to share shoot-the-moon investment tips, laugh about big losses, and post diamond hand emojis. Until some members noticed an opportunity in GameStop—and rode a rocket ship to tens of millions of dollars in earnings overnight.
In thrilling, pulse-pounding prose, THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK offers a fascinating, never-before-seen glimpse at the outsize personalities, dizzying swings, corporate drama, and underestimated American heroes and heroines who captivated the nation during one of the most volatile weeks in financial history. It’s the amazing story of what just happened—and where we go from here.
From one of our most innovative and celebrated authors, the definitive take on the wildest story of the year— the David-vs.-Goliath GameStop short squeeze, a tale of fortunes won and lost overnight that may end up changing Wall Street forever.
Bestselling author Ben Mezrich offers a gripping, beat-by-beat account of how a loosely affiliate group of private investors and internet trolls on a subreddit called WallStreetBets took down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, firing the first shot in a revolution that threatens to upend the establishment.
It’s the story of financial titans like Gabe Plotkin of hedge fund Melvin Capital, one of the most respected and staid funds on the Street, billionaires like Elon Musk, Steve Cohen, Mark Cuban, Robinhood co-CEOs Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, and Ken Griffin of Citadel Securities. Over the course of four incredible days, each in their own way must reckon with a formidable force they barely understand, let alone saw everyday men and women on WallStreetBets like nurse Kim Campbell, college student Jeremy Poe, and the enigmatic Keith “RoaringKitty” Gill, whose unfiltered livestream videos captivated a new generation of stock market enthusiasts.
The unlikely focus of the GameStop, a flailing brick-and-mortar dinosaur catering to teenagers and outsiders that had somehow held on as the world rapidly moved online. At first, WallStreetBets was a joke—a meme-filled, freewheeling place to share shoot-the-moon investment tips, laugh about big losses, and post diamond hand emojis. Until some members noticed an opportunity in GameStop—and rode a rocket ship to tens of millions of dollars in earnings overnight.
In thrilling, pulse-pounding prose, THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK offers a fascinating, never-before-seen glimpse at the outsize personalities, dizzying swings, corporate drama, and underestimated American heroes and heroines who captivated the nation during one of the most volatile weeks in financial history. It’s the amazing story of what just happened—and where we go from here.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 2021
About the author
Ben Mezrich
44 books1,365 followersBen Mezrich has created his own highly addictive genre of nonfiction, chronicling the amazing stories of young geniuses making tons of money on the edge of impossibility, ethics, and morality.
With his newest non-fiction book, Once Upon a Time in Russia, Mezrich tells his most incredible story yet: A true drama of obscene wealth, crime, rivalry, and betrayal from deep inside the world of billionaire Russian Oligarchs.
Mezrich has authored sixteen books, with a combined printing of over four million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and sold over 2 million copies in fifteen languages. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – debuted at #4 on the New York Times list and spent 18 weeks in hardcover and paperback, as well as hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network –written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher – and was #1 at the box office for two weeks, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 including best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin shared a prestigious Scripter Award for best adapted screenplay as well.
With his newest non-fiction book, Once Upon a Time in Russia, Mezrich tells his most incredible story yet: A true drama of obscene wealth, crime, rivalry, and betrayal from deep inside the world of billionaire Russian Oligarchs.
Mezrich has authored sixteen books, with a combined printing of over four million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and sold over 2 million copies in fifteen languages. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – debuted at #4 on the New York Times list and spent 18 weeks in hardcover and paperback, as well as hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network –written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher – and was #1 at the box office for two weeks, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 including best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin shared a prestigious Scripter Award for best adapted screenplay as well.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 238 reviews
September 23, 2022
This author is really frustrating. He keeps writing about super interesting topics that are relevant to the things that I’m personally interested in. But he does so in a superficial and over flowery way that makes his writing incredibly annoying to read. I don’t think I’ve ever finished one of his books and said, “oh yeah I feel good about that one.“ This book follows that negative trend
There’s nothing in here that you couldn’t read in the half dozen feature length pieces about GameStop. And a lot of it is a simply regurgitating the popular narrative of “small retail traders take on the big hedge funds“ which, digging into the actual volume of trades in the block sizes such as someone like Lilly Francus has done, isn’t actually true.
So you’re then left with the writing, which isn’t very good. This author is of the school, “why use one word with many word do trick as well?” I believe at one point he called a laptop a “portal into another world” like is this 2005 still? We can just call a laptop a laptop.
Edit: if you’ve had the misfortune of reading my review on top of reading this book,you or a loved one may be entitled to financial compensation and you’re still looking for good information, I would recommend “The Revolution That Wasn’t” by Spencer Jakob. He’s a financial journalist who doesn’t get caught up in the hype. When does a really good job of explaining the whole ecosystem around the rise of Robin Hood, Wall Street, bets, all of it.
There’s nothing in here that you couldn’t read in the half dozen feature length pieces about GameStop. And a lot of it is a simply regurgitating the popular narrative of “small retail traders take on the big hedge funds“ which, digging into the actual volume of trades in the block sizes such as someone like Lilly Francus has done, isn’t actually true.
So you’re then left with the writing, which isn’t very good. This author is of the school, “why use one word with many word do trick as well?” I believe at one point he called a laptop a “portal into another world” like is this 2005 still? We can just call a laptop a laptop.
Edit: if you’ve had the misfortune of reading my review on top of reading this book,
January 15, 2022
I felt like this book could have been cut in half, 70 pages of introducing characters and irrelevant tangents got very frustrating. Some sections (latter half) were great and very engaging. Was expecting more in such an interesting subject.
October 2, 2023
Plenty of other readers are disappointed in this book. Many of them share the same problems: flowery language, tangents, fluff, a frustrating lack of detail. But most readers agree that Mexrich does offer a better understanding of the GameStop short squeeze than what is available through casual news coverage.
In order to understand the roller coaster ride of the event, readers must have a basic understanding of a squeeze. A squeeze occurs when one financial institution borrows stock from another institution with the intention of selling it. The borrower must return the stock to the lender in a short amount of time, like 3, 6, or 12 months. The borrower assumes that the value of the borrowed stock will decrease, allowing them to buy back and return the original borrowed stock at a cheaper price. They profit the difference between the time the stock was borrowed and then returned. A short squeeze occurs when someone realizes a squeeze is happening and drives up the value of the stock, making it a punishment to buy back the stock at a much higher price.
Mezrich does not introduce this concept early on, in fact the first part of the book is devoted to introducing readers to a wide range of characters in short, dull, mostly pointless chapters. It was easy to lose each character's story arc because most of them seemed to be irrelevant. And most of them were irrelevant. Some of them could have been entirely fictional. He briefly introduces the reader to something called "clearing" at about 50 pages in. "The plumbing behind the app" does little to explain what it is. About 50 pages later he brings it up again....and fumbles again. By the time it emerges in the later chapters as the lynchpin of a scandal, the concept remains ambiguous.
And so, reader, you are left with an incomplete accounting of what happened. Is clearing that important? Is it a convenient explanation or red herring? It is hard to say. Mezrich appears to hedge his bets against casting any blame. Clearing - whatever it is - is the official cause of the scandal. Yes, it is real; but Mezrich clearly sympathizes with the amateur investors and points out coincidences, too many coincidences.
What was the scandal? In sum, a single Reddit user on a message forum made an impassioned declaration about GameStop. He may not even have been aware of the short position(s) against it. Well, thousands of average Americans / retail traders set up accounts on a new financial services company called RobinHood, and bought GameStop stock. This shot up the price. More and more people spread the word creating a pyramid scheme in the stock. The stock became grossly over-inflated after 6 months; and RobinHood made the decision to stop clients from buying GameStop and 10 other stocks facing volatility. As a result, the stock came crashing back down. Many of the retail investors watched helplessly as their fortunes plummeted. Robinhood effectively cancelled the short squeeze and allowed the hedge fund(s) to recover.
Naturally, it was all legal. The forums coincidentally shut down at the exact same time that Robinhood froze buying stock. And RobinHood made its decision after being forced to deposit almost $4 billion in an obscure government agency to cover stock volatility. Yes, Mezrich glosses over these aspects. Readers have to sift through a lot of fluff to get to the bones.
Apparently, RobinHood cannot buy and sell trades. They need at least one other middleman to buy and sell. This goes back to Mezrich's frustratingly vague explanations about plumbing in the financial services sector. There may have been other middlemen involved. But RobinHood's primary middleman was a big company called Citadel. Exactly what Citadel does it rather vague in this book. But at the height of the short squeeze Citadel bailed out one of the hedge funds - and within 1-2 days of that bailout, RobinHood froze purchasing, allowing the troubled hedge fund to recover. It appears very conspiratorial. More so, considering that almost on the same day that the bailout and freeze occurred, a government watchdog required RobinHood to deposit almost $4 billion to cover trading when the previous sum was a more manageable (!) $700 million. And that number magically dropped to $1 billion after RobinHood decided to freeze buying.
But the $4 billion was based on a computer algorithm....so.....???? Mezrich barely covers the National Securities Clearing Company (NSCC). Again, clearing, what is it? He barely tells readers that they came into law in 2005 - yeah, riding high on the Clinton .com boom, the Bush II admin decided to put in place a new government regulatory body. The purpose of the agency is to ensure market stability in case of volatile securities trading. It is all done by computers. Yeah, sure, there has to be a human element if the numbers go down if certain stocks are taken out of the algorithm....but it is all computers....no conspiracy.
I admit that I skimmed large parts of the book. There is so much fluff. And it is hard to tell what is accurate and what is not. One person in the book eats Martian eggplants, another sits on a throne made from the bones of his enemies. Huh? The writing style drove me a bit batty. I was also disappointed in the lack of detail. The chronological order was solid. But readers are left with the impression that a conspiracy was whitewashed.
He does parrot the official line that a single impassioned plea for a brick and mortar dinosaur started a massive short squeeze that threatened any major financial services firm doing anything sneaky and suspect like shorting other companies. He does offer a simple explanation (twice) for rationalizing shorts - reevaluating companies and demonstrating market inefficiencies. These explanations ring hollow probably because Mezrich sympathizes with the underdog in this story.
Overall, the book is informative. Readers will walk away with a better understanding of the event. They will not fully understand everything that happened; but they will have a better understanding. That is necessary in case they join the next amateur investment bandwagon. Above the GameStop scandal, Mezrich shows how cynical and angry Americans feel about predatory practices in the financial services sector. He is eagerly looking forward to the next phase of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. When he writes about it, I hope he does so with less flair and more substance.
In order to understand the roller coaster ride of the event, readers must have a basic understanding of a squeeze. A squeeze occurs when one financial institution borrows stock from another institution with the intention of selling it. The borrower must return the stock to the lender in a short amount of time, like 3, 6, or 12 months. The borrower assumes that the value of the borrowed stock will decrease, allowing them to buy back and return the original borrowed stock at a cheaper price. They profit the difference between the time the stock was borrowed and then returned. A short squeeze occurs when someone realizes a squeeze is happening and drives up the value of the stock, making it a punishment to buy back the stock at a much higher price.
Mezrich does not introduce this concept early on, in fact the first part of the book is devoted to introducing readers to a wide range of characters in short, dull, mostly pointless chapters. It was easy to lose each character's story arc because most of them seemed to be irrelevant. And most of them were irrelevant. Some of them could have been entirely fictional. He briefly introduces the reader to something called "clearing" at about 50 pages in. "The plumbing behind the app" does little to explain what it is. About 50 pages later he brings it up again....and fumbles again. By the time it emerges in the later chapters as the lynchpin of a scandal, the concept remains ambiguous.
And so, reader, you are left with an incomplete accounting of what happened. Is clearing that important? Is it a convenient explanation or red herring? It is hard to say. Mezrich appears to hedge his bets against casting any blame. Clearing - whatever it is - is the official cause of the scandal. Yes, it is real; but Mezrich clearly sympathizes with the amateur investors and points out coincidences, too many coincidences.
What was the scandal? In sum, a single Reddit user on a message forum made an impassioned declaration about GameStop. He may not even have been aware of the short position(s) against it. Well, thousands of average Americans / retail traders set up accounts on a new financial services company called RobinHood, and bought GameStop stock. This shot up the price. More and more people spread the word creating a pyramid scheme in the stock. The stock became grossly over-inflated after 6 months; and RobinHood made the decision to stop clients from buying GameStop and 10 other stocks facing volatility. As a result, the stock came crashing back down. Many of the retail investors watched helplessly as their fortunes plummeted. Robinhood effectively cancelled the short squeeze and allowed the hedge fund(s) to recover.
Naturally, it was all legal. The forums coincidentally shut down at the exact same time that Robinhood froze buying stock. And RobinHood made its decision after being forced to deposit almost $4 billion in an obscure government agency to cover stock volatility. Yes, Mezrich glosses over these aspects. Readers have to sift through a lot of fluff to get to the bones.
Apparently, RobinHood cannot buy and sell trades. They need at least one other middleman to buy and sell. This goes back to Mezrich's frustratingly vague explanations about plumbing in the financial services sector. There may have been other middlemen involved. But RobinHood's primary middleman was a big company called Citadel. Exactly what Citadel does it rather vague in this book. But at the height of the short squeeze Citadel bailed out one of the hedge funds - and within 1-2 days of that bailout, RobinHood froze purchasing, allowing the troubled hedge fund to recover. It appears very conspiratorial. More so, considering that almost on the same day that the bailout and freeze occurred, a government watchdog required RobinHood to deposit almost $4 billion to cover trading when the previous sum was a more manageable (!) $700 million. And that number magically dropped to $1 billion after RobinHood decided to freeze buying.
But the $4 billion was based on a computer algorithm....so.....???? Mezrich barely covers the National Securities Clearing Company (NSCC). Again, clearing, what is it? He barely tells readers that they came into law in 2005 - yeah, riding high on the Clinton .com boom, the Bush II admin decided to put in place a new government regulatory body. The purpose of the agency is to ensure market stability in case of volatile securities trading. It is all done by computers. Yeah, sure, there has to be a human element if the numbers go down if certain stocks are taken out of the algorithm....but it is all computers....no conspiracy.
I admit that I skimmed large parts of the book. There is so much fluff. And it is hard to tell what is accurate and what is not. One person in the book eats Martian eggplants, another sits on a throne made from the bones of his enemies. Huh? The writing style drove me a bit batty. I was also disappointed in the lack of detail. The chronological order was solid. But readers are left with the impression that a conspiracy was whitewashed.
He does parrot the official line that a single impassioned plea for a brick and mortar dinosaur started a massive short squeeze that threatened any major financial services firm doing anything sneaky and suspect like shorting other companies. He does offer a simple explanation (twice) for rationalizing shorts - reevaluating companies and demonstrating market inefficiencies. These explanations ring hollow probably because Mezrich sympathizes with the underdog in this story.
Overall, the book is informative. Readers will walk away with a better understanding of the event. They will not fully understand everything that happened; but they will have a better understanding. That is necessary in case they join the next amateur investment bandwagon. Above the GameStop scandal, Mezrich shows how cynical and angry Americans feel about predatory practices in the financial services sector. He is eagerly looking forward to the next phase of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. When he writes about it, I hope he does so with less flair and more substance.
September 16, 2021
While I enjoyed the book, I don't feel like I read about anything I hadn't known from a reading of the news and a semi-casual following along of WSB. Picking a couple of average people to spotlight does kind of give an everyperson view point but it never really draws anyone out in detail, just vague archetypes.
I have to assume this was done at speed to get a quick release while the buzz is still going (and the share price still high, over 200 bucks!) and so i think if you approach it as that, then you might enjoy it a lot more. If you don't know anything about GME and Apes and Stonks, then I imagine this is a fast-paced fascinating read
I have to assume this was done at speed to get a quick release while the buzz is still going (and the share price still high, over 200 bucks!) and so i think if you approach it as that, then you might enjoy it a lot more. If you don't know anything about GME and Apes and Stonks, then I imagine this is a fast-paced fascinating read
April 30, 2022
"The Reddit crowd took that to mean that the only way to win was to try to tear that system down. What they didn't realise was that there was a simpler path to victory.
You didn't tear the system down - you became the system. And once you were the system, the rules were there to protect you."
Gamestomp's short squeeze in Jan 2021 shook the hedge funds system (once again) where a group of people on social media took on the investment houses. The frenzy in those few weeks died down eventually and people went back to other things and the book picks a few people and their life who were part of the "revolution".
Ben Mezrich is probably the only writer who could have taken this position without a newsreaders approach of reporting what happened. What made the people be part of this, their inspirations and fears, their reactions when shit hit the roof.
Unfortunate but true, the people chosen are such ordinary people that the magnitude of what was happening was more exciting than their responses. The hedge fund, the trading platform (Robinhood) and the big bad guys were too gray - feeding into the greed stereotype. It's a way of wealth creation and so the entire position of reddit investors seemed a bit - uninformed.
Maybe a reflection of the people who elected Trump to make America great again - the entire spectacle was for the people on the sideline. The players - not so much.
Did not work for me.
You didn't tear the system down - you became the system. And once you were the system, the rules were there to protect you."
Gamestomp's short squeeze in Jan 2021 shook the hedge funds system (once again) where a group of people on social media took on the investment houses. The frenzy in those few weeks died down eventually and people went back to other things and the book picks a few people and their life who were part of the "revolution".
Ben Mezrich is probably the only writer who could have taken this position without a newsreaders approach of reporting what happened. What made the people be part of this, their inspirations and fears, their reactions when shit hit the roof.
Unfortunate but true, the people chosen are such ordinary people that the magnitude of what was happening was more exciting than their responses. The hedge fund, the trading platform (Robinhood) and the big bad guys were too gray - feeding into the greed stereotype. It's a way of wealth creation and so the entire position of reddit investors seemed a bit - uninformed.
Maybe a reflection of the people who elected Trump to make America great again - the entire spectacle was for the people on the sideline. The players - not so much.
Did not work for me.
October 15, 2021
Seems odd that this is the same guy that wrote other works such as Bringing Down The House. Interesting story but poorly written.
June 20, 2022
Playing the stock market can be addictive there are thousands of people out there trying to make a fortune by thinking that they have that edge of hugely expensive computer systems and superfast fibre optic networks that the main players and hedge funds have. Most they can’t win against the might of the financial industry.
But every now and again there is a story of the little guy fighting back and managing to get one over the professionals; this is the story of those people that took down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street. The stock that caused this was the retail shop called GameStop. They had not migrated online and still had a plethora of shops. Because of the transfer of the gaming industry to almost exclusively online, their financial position looked precarious. Big hedge funds were circling, they were looking at shorting the stock with the intention of making a lot of money as the share price fell.
Against them were a motley crew of amateur day traders, video game nuts, and internet trolls who were getting their financial information from a page on Reddit called WallStreetBets. On this page, people were not afraid to say exactly what they thought of companies and their share prices. A few of the members noticed that GameStop looked in better financial shape than the heavyweights of Wall street thought.
Mezrich has fleshed out the story of the stock stratospheric rise and we see that story from some of the major characters involved and the agony and delight as they won and lost fortunes every time the share price changed. I can recall this being aware of this at the time from some of the stuff I was reading from some of the people that I follow on Twitter at the beginning of 2021, however, I didn’t know much detail as I wasn’t following it in any depth so this was a learning curve for me. I thought that the narrative in this book was a bit disjointed because he switches to a different person in each chapter and it always takes a moment to work out where the story is going next. It did show what the little guy can do, however, even though they won some victories in this stock shorting game, the system always wins in these financial battles. Wel will have to see if anything changes.
But every now and again there is a story of the little guy fighting back and managing to get one over the professionals; this is the story of those people that took down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street. The stock that caused this was the retail shop called GameStop. They had not migrated online and still had a plethora of shops. Because of the transfer of the gaming industry to almost exclusively online, their financial position looked precarious. Big hedge funds were circling, they were looking at shorting the stock with the intention of making a lot of money as the share price fell.
Against them were a motley crew of amateur day traders, video game nuts, and internet trolls who were getting their financial information from a page on Reddit called WallStreetBets. On this page, people were not afraid to say exactly what they thought of companies and their share prices. A few of the members noticed that GameStop looked in better financial shape than the heavyweights of Wall street thought.
Mezrich has fleshed out the story of the stock stratospheric rise and we see that story from some of the major characters involved and the agony and delight as they won and lost fortunes every time the share price changed. I can recall this being aware of this at the time from some of the stuff I was reading from some of the people that I follow on Twitter at the beginning of 2021, however, I didn’t know much detail as I wasn’t following it in any depth so this was a learning curve for me. I thought that the narrative in this book was a bit disjointed because he switches to a different person in each chapter and it always takes a moment to work out where the story is going next. It did show what the little guy can do, however, even though they won some victories in this stock shorting game, the system always wins in these financial battles. Wel will have to see if anything changes.
December 26, 2021
I’m a massive fan of Ben Mezrich's books and have read almost all of his nonfiction accounts. The Antisocial Network takes on the case of the relatively recent story of WallStreetBets and how they affected the earnings of a hedge fund. Although I’m not all that knowledgeable about finance, the book was as exciting as most Mezrich novels. If you liked his previous books, you’ll love this one too.
March 16, 2024
i already knew i don’t like thinking about redditors and finance bros any more than my life already mandates me to do, so this one is kinda on me
October 6, 2021
Despite his somewhat breathless style, Mezrich tells a compelling story about the financial industry's coming to grips with its first encounter with organized small-investor stock purchasing. Long used to having the stock market run by, and for the interest of, large institutions, the binding together of millions of small investors through Internet social media groups created a force able to sway stock prices, causing massive losses to the big players. An interesting book.
August 22, 2022
Interesting book on the Investment chaos event last January where common people on Reddit’s Wall Street Bets page schemed to short squeeze the big investment firms for huge profits and huge losses for the big boys.
I like seeing regular people outsmarting the huge investment firms on GameStop stock. Key point from the book, “the Wall Street firms don’t have to cheat, the system is made for their advantage.” It was great to see their advantage turned on its head.
I didn’t remember all the details and/or that Elon Musk tweeted about it and ramped up the fury. Or that the trading company, Robin Hood, most folks were using stopped all buys and kind of screwed the investors. And protected the big boys. The reason was explained (risk/deposit required.
I liked this book. Cheering for the little guys.
I like seeing regular people outsmarting the huge investment firms on GameStop stock. Key point from the book, “the Wall Street firms don’t have to cheat, the system is made for their advantage.” It was great to see their advantage turned on its head.
I didn’t remember all the details and/or that Elon Musk tweeted about it and ramped up the fury. Or that the trading company, Robin Hood, most folks were using stopped all buys and kind of screwed the investors. And protected the big boys. The reason was explained (risk/deposit required.
I liked this book. Cheering for the little guys.
September 12, 2021
One of the most amusing news stories to come out of the pandemic was when members of reddit made Wall Street piss its pants by beating them at their own game. Fans of the tv show Leverage will be familiar with Hardison's motto, "Age of the Geek, baby." In this book, Mezrich documents exactly how geeks have decided to strike back.
Considering how recent this spectacular event was, I was shocked to hear a book was coming out about it already, but I figured if anyone could write a story about genius underdogs successfully giving the finger to the system with a successful caper, it would be Ben Mezrich. However, I suspect the rush to get this book published negatively impacted the quality of Mezrich's usually solid writing. The language was overly flowery, and unsuccessfully tried to follow too many perspectives. One of Mezrich's most popular books, alluded to in the title of this book, The Social Network, worked so well because it took a history making empire and boiled it down to the story of just one man, Mark Zuckerberg. This story was too disjointed trying to follow a mix of reddit influencers, Wall Street avatars, and what appeared to be a random sampling of the subreddit group who were just along for the ride. It also seemed like Mezrich either didn't have the time to get first person accounts from the other side of the aisle, Wall Street, or he just didn't care to. If the story had been told from just one perspective, that would have been fine, but since he took more of a survey approach, that lack of contribution makes his writing more biased.
The title of this book also irritates me. It's a great play on words vs Facebook, but reddit is still a social network, and none of what happened would have been possible without it. Often the folks on reddit were depicted as losers working out of their basements, making them easy to pick on and suggesting their social skills are not as up to snuff as say, a Facebook user's might be, but that's just demeaning and small minded; something a jock would say about the nerd he'd one day be serving fries to.
Overall a very entertaining read, but a missed opportunity for something great.
Considering how recent this spectacular event was, I was shocked to hear a book was coming out about it already, but I figured if anyone could write a story about genius underdogs successfully giving the finger to the system with a successful caper, it would be Ben Mezrich. However, I suspect the rush to get this book published negatively impacted the quality of Mezrich's usually solid writing. The language was overly flowery, and unsuccessfully tried to follow too many perspectives. One of Mezrich's most popular books, alluded to in the title of this book, The Social Network, worked so well because it took a history making empire and boiled it down to the story of just one man, Mark Zuckerberg. This story was too disjointed trying to follow a mix of reddit influencers, Wall Street avatars, and what appeared to be a random sampling of the subreddit group who were just along for the ride. It also seemed like Mezrich either didn't have the time to get first person accounts from the other side of the aisle, Wall Street, or he just didn't care to. If the story had been told from just one perspective, that would have been fine, but since he took more of a survey approach, that lack of contribution makes his writing more biased.
The title of this book also irritates me. It's a great play on words vs Facebook, but reddit is still a social network, and none of what happened would have been possible without it. Often the folks on reddit were depicted as losers working out of their basements, making them easy to pick on and suggesting their social skills are not as up to snuff as say, a Facebook user's might be, but that's just demeaning and small minded; something a jock would say about the nerd he'd one day be serving fries to.
Overall a very entertaining read, but a missed opportunity for something great.
December 14, 2021
I've read a few other Ben Mezrich novels, and this is the first one that I found disappointing.
Most likely, the main problem is that the book was rushed, being published less than 6 months after the events it covers. Almost everything in the book has already been reported elsewhere, so this isn't "the story behind the story". I'd be interested in reading a more thoroughly-researched book on the topic.
At times the author alludes to the fact that a deeper narrative exists: that is, contrary to the book's title, most of the trading volume of GameStop in that time frame occurred outside Robinhood, most likely by professional traders, not retail investors. What role did the (non-shorting) professionals play in the story? Aside from one short example at the end of the book, that aspect is ignored.
The other problem is more typical of the author's work: he describes the events from the point-of-view of the participants, not objectively. While that didn't bother me in his other books, where these people are experts in their field, in this case the participants are mostly inexperienced retail traders whose only source of financial training is a Reddit forum. Too much of the book details their "thinking", which was tedious.
I was bemused by the chapter that covered the congressional hearings into the matter. The author is absolutely correct when he points out the futility of these hearings when they are held by politicians with shallow knowledge of the field. The meme stock frenzy may peter out over time, but sadly this sort of political dysfunction will persist.
Most likely, the main problem is that the book was rushed, being published less than 6 months after the events it covers. Almost everything in the book has already been reported elsewhere, so this isn't "the story behind the story". I'd be interested in reading a more thoroughly-researched book on the topic.
At times the author alludes to the fact that a deeper narrative exists: that is, contrary to the book's title, most of the trading volume of GameStop in that time frame occurred outside Robinhood, most likely by professional traders, not retail investors. What role did the (non-shorting) professionals play in the story? Aside from one short example at the end of the book, that aspect is ignored.
The other problem is more typical of the author's work: he describes the events from the point-of-view of the participants, not objectively. While that didn't bother me in his other books, where these people are experts in their field, in this case the participants are mostly inexperienced retail traders whose only source of financial training is a Reddit forum. Too much of the book details their "thinking", which was tedious.
I was bemused by the chapter that covered the congressional hearings into the matter. The author is absolutely correct when he points out the futility of these hearings when they are held by politicians with shallow knowledge of the field. The meme stock frenzy may peter out over time, but sadly this sort of political dysfunction will persist.
September 29, 2021
This book is about the sudden four-day meteoric rise in the stock price of GameStop, a brick-and-mortar store mostly found in malls that caters to loyal gamers. The story behind the stock rise is a David-and-Goliath tale involving short-selling by a huge hedge fund vs. Reddit users hanging out on their couches. But those people organized a stock purchase that would shake up Wall Street and how the stock market works.
The author writes nonfiction like a thriller, and this book is no exception. It’s an edge-of-your-seat ride told in real-time. And a lot happened in just the four days last January - the time when the story takes place. I liked his writing because it was very cinematic, and I felt immersed in the story while reading. I loved the style; it was like virtual reality, just not on a screen.
To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at: https://zibbyowens.com/transcript/ben...
The author writes nonfiction like a thriller, and this book is no exception. It’s an edge-of-your-seat ride told in real-time. And a lot happened in just the four days last January - the time when the story takes place. I liked his writing because it was very cinematic, and I felt immersed in the story while reading. I loved the style; it was like virtual reality, just not on a screen.
To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at: https://zibbyowens.com/transcript/ben...
January 10, 2022
As I write this, the events in this book are less than a year old. If you followed the events in real time, this book might not be for you but if you were vaguely aware of the story and now want to know more, this is a compelling read. There are several different points of view so you can get a good overall picture without getting dragged along by one narrator. To some degree it is a “David and Goliath” story but it is more than that. It shines light on the particular circumstances that “brought Wall Street to its knees”. (I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying Wall Street got right back up and barely skipped a beat.)
July 1, 2023
A truly interesting work of non-fiction made "dramatic" - a specialty of author Ben Mezrich. I wanted to learn a bit more about the antics of Robinhood, Gamestop stock and the investment community prior to the arrival of the "movie about the book"
It did not disappoint. The author executes detailed research, going to great efforts to ensure accuracy while providing a riveting read at the same time. The result is a tense David vs Goliath interplay. While one might question if the "stakes were truly as high" as portrayed in the book, it was good writing, interesting takes on the players and a good ole fashioned "come uppance" tale.
Little over sensationalized at times and granted, a bit one note through a lot of the work, it was an entertaining and educational read.
It did not disappoint. The author executes detailed research, going to great efforts to ensure accuracy while providing a riveting read at the same time. The result is a tense David vs Goliath interplay. While one might question if the "stakes were truly as high" as portrayed in the book, it was good writing, interesting takes on the players and a good ole fashioned "come uppance" tale.
Little over sensationalized at times and granted, a bit one note through a lot of the work, it was an entertaining and educational read.
November 30, 2021
I try not to give out a ton of 5s anymore (every book CANT be a 5, right?) But this was unavoidable. This is the third Mezrich I've read and its great. I am amazed that he took something that happened THIS YEAR and turned it into something so fantastic and complete. It's a current events novel. It's a human study. It's interesting even if you aren't into stocks and stuff. It's really, really good and I can't recommend it more.
For comparison with his other works I've read: It's not quite The Accidental Billionaires but I liked it a little more than Bitcoin Billionaires.
For comparison with his other works I've read: It's not quite The Accidental Billionaires but I liked it a little more than Bitcoin Billionaires.
September 4, 2023
I absolutely loved Ben Mezrich's books when I was in middle school for being approachable and interesting non fiction. I didn't exactly have high expectations for The Dumb Money because even on its surface it didn't sound like a book that was going to have much to offer. But somehow I still felt disappointed.
This was character driven in a way that wants you to be invested (so to speak) but ends up feeling quite shallow. The tone is quite odd, while it's usually skewing towards the underdog side of the David and Goliath story also occassionally very defensive of those on the other side or upholding the system in some way.
Mostly, this could have been an article.
This was character driven in a way that wants you to be invested (so to speak) but ends up feeling quite shallow. The tone is quite odd, while it's usually skewing towards the underdog side of the David and Goliath story also occassionally very defensive of those on the other side or upholding the system in some way.
Mostly, this could have been an article.
August 7, 2023
3.5⭐️
This one is all about the GameStop short. Fascinating. I love the drama of it all.
My only complaint with this book, and perhaps his in general, is that it follows too many characters. I don’t overly care about the back story of half a dozen people. I just want the dirt and drama around GameStop. So I feel like a harder edit could make these books an easy 5 for me.
This one is all about the GameStop short. Fascinating. I love the drama of it all.
My only complaint with this book, and perhaps his in general, is that it follows too many characters. I don’t overly care about the back story of half a dozen people. I just want the dirt and drama around GameStop. So I feel like a harder edit could make these books an easy 5 for me.
January 15, 2022
Wonderful book, as someone who put some money into GME and made a little cash (not a lot), great to read about the behind the scenes a bit more and the author is always a fun read.
September 27, 2023
An interesting but very shallow read with convoluted and often useless descriptive narrative and context setting pseudo-fiction.
October 7, 2023
3.25. It was a fun and quick read. Just not as much substance or intrigue as many of the author's other books.
July 23, 2023
Easy to read, fast paced, good story. I am biased though as i thought the GME debacle was fascinating to begin with.
November 6, 2021
A good story that deserved better writing.
November 25, 2021
I was curious about the whole GME meme stock revolution that started. Found this to be a great book, and it gave me enough insights into the ideas behind it. GO APES!
November 23, 2021
It's an easy look through the whole Gamestop stock rise and fall and rise again. Plus, it's always hilarious to see how hilarious the author's photo at the back of the book will get with Mezrich. Truly the dessert at the end of a satisfying meal.
November 17, 2021
I bought it at 25 Rupees. My father told me to sell it at 200 Rupees at a hefty 70 lakh rupees profit. I won't sell it.
My kids were excited that I held 1000 shares. I bought it at 170 Rupees! Now it's price has crossed 2100 rupees.
I am pregnant and I bought it at 300 Rupees..My husband didn't know that I spent my money to buy those shares..
I was the one who started it. I bought it at 5 Rupees and it's current value is 240 Crores. I won't sell it.
I have lost 42000 Crores in that share and my company is going down. I bet against that share. I Shorted it.
A bunch of reddit users fought against a hedge fund that was valued at 140,000,000 crores?
The true story of Reddit users vs Melvin Hedge fund..
The Antisocial Network..
My kids were excited that I held 1000 shares. I bought it at 170 Rupees! Now it's price has crossed 2100 rupees.
I am pregnant and I bought it at 300 Rupees..My husband didn't know that I spent my money to buy those shares..
I was the one who started it. I bought it at 5 Rupees and it's current value is 240 Crores. I won't sell it.
I have lost 42000 Crores in that share and my company is going down. I bet against that share. I Shorted it.
A bunch of reddit users fought against a hedge fund that was valued at 140,000,000 crores?
The true story of Reddit users vs Melvin Hedge fund..
The Antisocial Network..
January 4, 2024
The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich was adpated for the big screen as Dumb Money, with Pete Davidson, Nick Offerman, Seth Rogen and others excellent thespians, except for Paul Dano, who nearly ruins it all for yours truly
9 out of 10
Dumb Money is what Wall Street calls the savings of hoi polloi who venture into the roller coaster of investing in stocks, and albeit the narrative is meant to show how foolish the financiers could be, I beg to differ.
Clearly, for GameStop the experts have been absolutely foolish, and the crowd of smaller investors have turned the company into a success (it would be intersting to know its value today) but that was the exception, or at least this is what it seems to me, let us not compare this to the doctor and the patient, but it might come close
Having said that, let us rush in with a spoiler, warning, disclaimer, to make you GameStop or Stop this Game, reading what comes next will not benefit you in any way, it is subjective, wihout focus, and thus you need not try to stick it to the end, and then, God Forbid, report me for,,,whatever, spam, harm done, etc.
The Orange Jesus who seems ready to take America and the free world down next year was arguing in his fraud case, one of four, in New York, that ‚he has had discaimers in his contarcts, and you need your due dilligence, do not believe what he says’ wrods to that effcet, proving again what a ruffian he is...
What we have here is not a contract, just some lousy ideas that came to my mind, in association with Dumb Money, and i protest again regarding the exclusion of one my notes – Cleo from 5 to 7 http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/c... - while the Number One Across my nation only has ‚spam’, reviews that are actually just a quote, some lines he had copied from somewhere
And that is all, hence we could talk of Dumb Reviews, just as the subjst here is Dumb Money, how could Goodreads strike out one of my hard worked (if admitedly irrelavant, self absorbed, it was about thoughts prompted by Cleo, just like you can have an urinal, a calf cut in half, placed in formaldehyde by Damien Hirst and then call it art, random lines could well be assembled and called this is my silly view of the work, as long as it is not a stolen line from elsewher) note, while allowing five thousand stolen ones from this Number One, who calls himslef Socrates, no less, as if he is the sage one...
I have passed the halfway point in the Pulitzer Prize Winner for Literature in 2023, Trust by Hernan Diaz – a note will clearly be posted soon, Insha’Allah, and then exorcised by Goodreads, eventually, only i have this obscure blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/ where my Dumb Posts are availbale, even if deleted on the site that belongs to Amazon – and it talks about financiers and their ways, which are complicated
Let me stay with the road taken in the middle of the sentnce above, at least for some time, and say that i shot myself in the foot, having had about half a million views on one blog, when Google asked me for the email, i have given one that i use most of the time now, forgeting the one utilized for the original blog (i was thinking to insert the link to the old one, only what would be the point, it looks defunct now)
Therefore, i ahve started again, from scratch, and all my intense, hard labour could go to waste, we will see about that...gwetting back to the Dumb Money and the connection with Hernan Diaz, the Pulitzer Prize Winner says in his novel that the ‚businessman is like the Renaissance man’, and one character develops the idea
In order to invest, the creme de la creme have to know, well, everything, aside from the figures connected with money (which in the same stricking book we find is ‚potentailly all things’) this true Renaissance man has to master knowldge of a variety of aspects, cultural, historical, social to understand the background, and see where the stock is going, aware of the Butterfly Effect and so much more
Ergo, I am not impressed by the developments in this story, yes, we can all see that this is what happened in real life and in this situation, the exprts have been beaten by the ‚crowd’ – and you have that notion ‚wisdom of the crowds’, which is another falacy, look at what the crowds have voted for in America, in 2016, and they look poised to do again in 2024, with Orange Jesus [this is what republican leaders call the absolute moron aka OJ] and then they do so in other places, Argetnina, Brasil, etc-
Neverthless, i think Richard Dawkins might have said that ‚you do not land a pilot by plebiscite, or asking the crowds’, and this is another domain where the professionals know better, however much they now look at the trends, to see what the hoi polloi think – we are told a number of things with the credits
What happend to this and the other character, that Wall Street is following to see about this Dumb Money, but just like doctors make mistakes, you have good ones and the lousy physicians, finacial experts can make mistakes, they are mostly vainglorious – ‚power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’
If i were to invest, having enough resources to that, i would look for an expert, not the one played by Paul Dano -what a poor choice, this actor is casuing me pain, his presence in major roles incomprehensible, just like the marriage or partnership with Ms Zoe Kazan, the latter being such a formidable thespian
Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
9 out of 10
Dumb Money is what Wall Street calls the savings of hoi polloi who venture into the roller coaster of investing in stocks, and albeit the narrative is meant to show how foolish the financiers could be, I beg to differ.
Clearly, for GameStop the experts have been absolutely foolish, and the crowd of smaller investors have turned the company into a success (it would be intersting to know its value today) but that was the exception, or at least this is what it seems to me, let us not compare this to the doctor and the patient, but it might come close
Having said that, let us rush in with a spoiler, warning, disclaimer, to make you GameStop or Stop this Game, reading what comes next will not benefit you in any way, it is subjective, wihout focus, and thus you need not try to stick it to the end, and then, God Forbid, report me for,,,whatever, spam, harm done, etc.
The Orange Jesus who seems ready to take America and the free world down next year was arguing in his fraud case, one of four, in New York, that ‚he has had discaimers in his contarcts, and you need your due dilligence, do not believe what he says’ wrods to that effcet, proving again what a ruffian he is...
What we have here is not a contract, just some lousy ideas that came to my mind, in association with Dumb Money, and i protest again regarding the exclusion of one my notes – Cleo from 5 to 7 http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/c... - while the Number One Across my nation only has ‚spam’, reviews that are actually just a quote, some lines he had copied from somewhere
And that is all, hence we could talk of Dumb Reviews, just as the subjst here is Dumb Money, how could Goodreads strike out one of my hard worked (if admitedly irrelavant, self absorbed, it was about thoughts prompted by Cleo, just like you can have an urinal, a calf cut in half, placed in formaldehyde by Damien Hirst and then call it art, random lines could well be assembled and called this is my silly view of the work, as long as it is not a stolen line from elsewher) note, while allowing five thousand stolen ones from this Number One, who calls himslef Socrates, no less, as if he is the sage one...
I have passed the halfway point in the Pulitzer Prize Winner for Literature in 2023, Trust by Hernan Diaz – a note will clearly be posted soon, Insha’Allah, and then exorcised by Goodreads, eventually, only i have this obscure blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/ where my Dumb Posts are availbale, even if deleted on the site that belongs to Amazon – and it talks about financiers and their ways, which are complicated
Let me stay with the road taken in the middle of the sentnce above, at least for some time, and say that i shot myself in the foot, having had about half a million views on one blog, when Google asked me for the email, i have given one that i use most of the time now, forgeting the one utilized for the original blog (i was thinking to insert the link to the old one, only what would be the point, it looks defunct now)
Therefore, i ahve started again, from scratch, and all my intense, hard labour could go to waste, we will see about that...gwetting back to the Dumb Money and the connection with Hernan Diaz, the Pulitzer Prize Winner says in his novel that the ‚businessman is like the Renaissance man’, and one character develops the idea
In order to invest, the creme de la creme have to know, well, everything, aside from the figures connected with money (which in the same stricking book we find is ‚potentailly all things’) this true Renaissance man has to master knowldge of a variety of aspects, cultural, historical, social to understand the background, and see where the stock is going, aware of the Butterfly Effect and so much more
Ergo, I am not impressed by the developments in this story, yes, we can all see that this is what happened in real life and in this situation, the exprts have been beaten by the ‚crowd’ – and you have that notion ‚wisdom of the crowds’, which is another falacy, look at what the crowds have voted for in America, in 2016, and they look poised to do again in 2024, with Orange Jesus [this is what republican leaders call the absolute moron aka OJ] and then they do so in other places, Argetnina, Brasil, etc-
Neverthless, i think Richard Dawkins might have said that ‚you do not land a pilot by plebiscite, or asking the crowds’, and this is another domain where the professionals know better, however much they now look at the trends, to see what the hoi polloi think – we are told a number of things with the credits
What happend to this and the other character, that Wall Street is following to see about this Dumb Money, but just like doctors make mistakes, you have good ones and the lousy physicians, finacial experts can make mistakes, they are mostly vainglorious – ‚power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’
If i were to invest, having enough resources to that, i would look for an expert, not the one played by Paul Dano -what a poor choice, this actor is casuing me pain, his presence in major roles incomprehensible, just like the marriage or partnership with Ms Zoe Kazan, the latter being such a formidable thespian
Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
September 11, 2021
The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich is a very highly recommended account of the GameStop short squeeze when a group of amateur investors, gamers, and Internet trolls took on one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street. This comprehensive nonfiction book reads like a thriller and is the compelling true story of what happened.
Most people heard about the members of a Reddit group called WallStreetBets, who dubbed themselves "apes," when they started investing in Game Stop stocks in early 2021 and sent the price per share rising sky high which resulted in a short squeeze costing Wall Street hedge funds billions of dollars. Perhaps you also heard "The Tendieman" sea chanty. The Antisocial Network is truly a real life accounting of a David-vs.-Goliath movement. Mezrich starts the narrative back at the beginning, following the story of average people who were members of WallStreetBets, like nurse Kim Campbell, hair salon employee Sara Morales, college student Jeremy Poe, and Keith Gill who livestreamed on a you tube channel called "RoaringKitty." He tells the story of the co-CEOs Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt who started Robinhood, the investing app that was being used by the "apes" because it allowed ordinary people to trade on the stock market without brokerage fees. And he covers Gabe Plotkin of the hedge fund Melvin Capital and Ken Griffin of Citadel Securities, along with others.
Mezrich's does an excellent job presenting what happened. The events leading up to the news breaking story of the Game Stop short squeeze is clearly presented in an understandable manner that is accessible for interested readers. Even though you know what happens, it really is a page-turner. I could follow the technical information about trading and investing, although I was also following the story when it was happening. I thoroughly enjoyed The Antisocial Network from start to finish.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Grand Central Publishing.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/0...
Most people heard about the members of a Reddit group called WallStreetBets, who dubbed themselves "apes," when they started investing in Game Stop stocks in early 2021 and sent the price per share rising sky high which resulted in a short squeeze costing Wall Street hedge funds billions of dollars. Perhaps you also heard "The Tendieman" sea chanty. The Antisocial Network is truly a real life accounting of a David-vs.-Goliath movement. Mezrich starts the narrative back at the beginning, following the story of average people who were members of WallStreetBets, like nurse Kim Campbell, hair salon employee Sara Morales, college student Jeremy Poe, and Keith Gill who livestreamed on a you tube channel called "RoaringKitty." He tells the story of the co-CEOs Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt who started Robinhood, the investing app that was being used by the "apes" because it allowed ordinary people to trade on the stock market without brokerage fees. And he covers Gabe Plotkin of the hedge fund Melvin Capital and Ken Griffin of Citadel Securities, along with others.
Mezrich's does an excellent job presenting what happened. The events leading up to the news breaking story of the Game Stop short squeeze is clearly presented in an understandable manner that is accessible for interested readers. Even though you know what happens, it really is a page-turner. I could follow the technical information about trading and investing, although I was also following the story when it was happening. I thoroughly enjoyed The Antisocial Network from start to finish.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Grand Central Publishing.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/0...
September 18, 2021
The Antisocial Network is a book charting the tale of the GameStop share rise earlier this year thanks to the memes on a subreddit trying to take down financial elites. Mezrich focuses on individuals involved—from a guy whose internet fame rocketed by being involved in the subreddit and livestreams to regular people buying shares and the people who made the app, Robinhood, that made it possible—to follow the drama of what happened.
I've read Mezrich's earlier book The Accidental Billionaires (because of the film The Social Network) and I remembered the Twitter jokes about the GameStop thing, so I thought I'd give this one a go, but as I don't have any interest in stocks (or 'stonks', as per the memes) I found this one a lot less interesting and found it dragged quite a bit. It is written in Mezrich's distinctive style, dramatising the events and people in ways that may not be fully accurate but bring tension and a sense of connection to them, and I could see how it could also be adapted into a film, as with other of Mezrich's books.
Perhaps having more of a knowledge of Wall Street trading or the significance of trying to subvert it would make this book more enjoyable, as I found that I didn't really finish the book with much more understanding of the events. However, as a dramatised account of the events The Antisocial Network is decent, even if the title does feel a bit shoehorned in, and it's a useful introduction for people who saw the GameStop thing pass by and wonder what happened.
I've read Mezrich's earlier book The Accidental Billionaires (because of the film The Social Network) and I remembered the Twitter jokes about the GameStop thing, so I thought I'd give this one a go, but as I don't have any interest in stocks (or 'stonks', as per the memes) I found this one a lot less interesting and found it dragged quite a bit. It is written in Mezrich's distinctive style, dramatising the events and people in ways that may not be fully accurate but bring tension and a sense of connection to them, and I could see how it could also be adapted into a film, as with other of Mezrich's books.
Perhaps having more of a knowledge of Wall Street trading or the significance of trying to subvert it would make this book more enjoyable, as I found that I didn't really finish the book with much more understanding of the events. However, as a dramatised account of the events The Antisocial Network is decent, even if the title does feel a bit shoehorned in, and it's a useful introduction for people who saw the GameStop thing pass by and wonder what happened.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 238 reviews