by Ben Mezrich
First published 2023
Keith "RoaringKitty" Gill streams his investment videos to a growing audience of retail traders on WallStreetBets, a Reddit community known for memes and risky bets. When Gill and others spot opportunity in GameStop, the struggling video game retailer becomes the center of an unprecedented market battle. Hedge fund titan Gabe Plotkin of Melvin Capital has bet heavily against GameStop, expecting its stock to fall. But everyday investors like nurse Kim Campbell and college student Jeremy Poe rally behind the stock, driving its price skyward in a matter of days. Billionaires Elon Musk, Steve Cohen, and Mark Cuban watch from the sidelines as Robinhood executives Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt scramble to manage the chaos on their trading platform. Over four intense days, fortunes are made and lost as the retail investors challenge one of Wall Street's most established funds. The story captures how a meme-filled online community transformed into a force that shook the financial establishment.
Genres: business, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, finance
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: david-vs-goliath, underdog
Setting: WallStreetBets, Melvin Capital, Robinhood
Period: 2020s
320 pages · Paperback · Grand Central Publishing