Description

The definitive account of the story of the year, the can't-make-this-up Gamestop short squeeze--a David vs. Goliath tale of fortunes won and lost overnight that changed Wall Street forever.In The Antisocial Network, bestselling author Ben Mezrich tells the true story of the subreddit WallStreetBets, a loosely affiliated group of private investors and internet trolls who took down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, and in so doing, fired the first shot in a revolution that threatens to upend the financial establishment. Told with deep access, from multiple angles, it examines the culmination of a populist movement that began with the intersection of social media and the growth of simplified, democratizing financial portals--represented by the biggest upstart in the business, RobinHood, and its millions of mostly millennial devotees.The unlikely focus of the battle: GameStop, a flailing brick and mortar dinosaur catering to teenagers and outsiders, that had somehow outlived forbearers like Blockbuster Video and Petsmart as the world rapidly moved online. The story comes to a head in a wild battle between Melvin Capital, a 13-billion-dollar hedge fund, one of the most respected and staid funds on the Street, and a disparate group of amateur day traders, video game nuts, and internet trolls on a subreddit calling itself WallStreetBets. At first, the subreddit was a joke--a meme-filled, freewheeling place to share shoot-the-moon investment tips, laugh about big losses, and diamond hand emojis. Until some members noticed an opportunity--and rode a rocket ship to tens of millions of dollars in earnings overnight.