THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK is the wild, true story ofthe 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 intersecting 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 bythe 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 placeto share shoot-the-moon investment tips, laugh about big losses, and diamond hand emojis. Until some members noticed an opportunity - and rode a rocket shipto tens of millions of dollars in earnings overnight.
With insider sources and testimonies frominside WallStreetBets, GameStop, thearchitects of Robinhood, Melvin Capital, andmore,New York Timesbestselling author Ben Mezrich brings to life one of the most striking, can't-make-this-up moments in financial history.
