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halfmanhalfbook's review against another edition
3.0
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.
tamarasbooknook's review against another edition
3.0
A David and Goliath story of social media, a pandemic and nostalgia for a gaming company, combined with resentment towards large financial organisations, coming together to create a perfect storm.
The story is told through the eyes of a few individuals who experience the roller-coaster ride, and the effects on large investment funds.
The story is told through the eyes of a few individuals who experience the roller-coaster ride, and the effects on large investment funds.
allaboutfrodo's review against another edition
I checked this book out because I'm going to see the film Dumb Money. I ended up skimming because it is so boring. OMG fall asleep boring. I didn't find the Gamestop thing interesting when it was happening and I didn't find it interesting in this book. Should I be interested in how the stock market works? Sure. And maybe I should be interested in the underdogs chronicled in this book. But I wasn't. I literally could not make myself understand and get into this book.
I hope I like the movie better.
I must quote this.
"Keith Gill, thirty-four, with high cheekbones, piercing brown-hazel eyes, and a magnificent mane of shoulder-length hair that perhaps tended toward mullet when you saw it from the side, stood in the frozen grass of his postcard-sized lawn, straining his arms to lift his two-year-old daughter onto the top of the plastic slide that squatted in the shadow of his three-bedroom home." (p. 19)
Am I reading a book by a frustrated, wanna be novelist?
No rating because I only skimmed it.
I hope I like the movie better.
I must quote this.
"Keith Gill, thirty-four, with high cheekbones, piercing brown-hazel eyes, and a magnificent mane of shoulder-length hair that perhaps tended toward mullet when you saw it from the side, stood in the frozen grass of his postcard-sized lawn, straining his arms to lift his two-year-old daughter onto the top of the plastic slide that squatted in the shadow of his three-bedroom home." (p. 19)
Am I reading a book by a frustrated, wanna be novelist?
No rating because I only skimmed it.
soris's review against another edition
1.0
On the one hand it is interesting to get a behind the scenes look at some of the people involved in the GameStop stock thing. There's real value to giving a human face and a voice to people from both sides of the issue. So the basic idea of the book is good, but it engages with the ideas on a surface level and doesn't really interrogate the sentiments and views presented by the characters. I understand that this is by design, but it also creates a very biased and possibly not accurate picture of the events.
There's also a baffling and lengthy sequence that is literally just Elon Musk fan fiction. It's bizarre.
There's also a baffling and lengthy sequence that is literally just Elon Musk fan fiction. It's bizarre.
phonotactless's review against another edition
this whole book could have been an email
megankass's review against another edition
3.0
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.
jaymytro's review against another edition
2.0
For a short book with big font it was a slog to get through. So many characters to keep track of, most of whom add little to the narrative. A weird chapter about Elon Musk. It had some good information about how the WallStreetBoards and its users helped inspire each other, but ultimately I didn't come away learning much else.