The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees by Ben Mezrich

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.

Synopsis - 

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 coming: 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 battle: 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.

Review - 

One day my husband who is a Redditt fan shared a few details about a story that involved Redditt fans on an investing thread called WallStreetBets and how they challenged the status quo on how the stock market security companies operated. I was intrigued, but ended up forgetting about it until I stumbled across the Antisocial Network. I snagged a copy and dove in.

The book lays out the ground work on how this crazy stock event happened from the perspective of several Redditt investors, a few security company founders and the company who created the app that allowed regular people to participate more fully in the stock market.  As someone with little knowledge of how it all works and little knowledge of Redditt, I was worried I would be lost. But each step along the way the author did his best to give just enough information so I could follow the story. 

It really is a David versus Goliath tale which speaks to all of us who often feel the rich have stacked the cards against us.  And I appreciate that the author doesn't take clear sides of right and wrong as it's not that kind of tale.  I still need to do more reading to fully understand some of the concepts presented, but overall I enjoyed learning something new on a couple subjects I knew little about. 

And in the end - right or wrong - I loved how that group of regular people shook things up and challenged the big guys.

Buy the Book: Amazon CA ~ Kobo ~ Audible ~ Abebooks ~ Alibris

Meet the Author - 

With a writing career spanning 19 years, Mezrich has authored twenty books, with a combined printing of over 6 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 and was adapted into the #1 Box Office movie 21. 

Ben Mezrich cracked the Hollywood Reporter’s annual hot list: Hollywood’s 25 Most Powerful Authors. This power list of authors touted to be “the industry’s most sought-after word nerds” is based on stats like Mezrich’s multiple movie deals in production such as Woolly, Seven Wonders, Once Upon a Time in Russia, and The 37th Parallel. He co-writes a middle grade fiction series Charlie Numbers with his wife Tonya, their newest book: Charlie Numbers and the Woolly Mammoth will hit shelves November 5th, and is slated to be produced for the big screen by Ellen Pompeo.

Mezrich recently joined the Writers Room for the hit Showtime TV show Billions as Consulting Producer for season 5.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Instagram ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads