The Revolution That Wasn't
GameStop, Reddit, and the Fleecing of Small Investors
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
"The saga of GameStop and other meme stocks is revealed with the skill of a thrilling whodunit. Jakab writes with an anti-Midas touch. If he touched gold, he would bring it to life." --Burton G. Malkiel, author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street
From Wall Street Journal columnist Spencer Jakab, the real story of the GameStop squeeze—and the surprising winners of a rigged game.
During one crazy week in January 2021, a motley crew of retail traders on Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets forum had seemingly done the impossible—they had brought some of the biggest, richest players on Wall Street to their knees. Their weapon was GameStop, a failing retailer whose shares briefly became the most-traded security on the planet and the subject of intense media coverage.
The Revolution That Wasn’t is the riveting story of how the meme stock squeeze unfolded, and of the real architects (and winners) of the GameStop rally. Drawing on his years as a stock analyst at a major bank, Jakab exposes technological and financial innovations such as Robinhood’s habit-forming smartphone app as ploys to get our dollars within the larger story of evolving social and economic pressures. The surprising truth? What appeared to be a watershed moment—a revolution that stripped the ultra-powerful hedge funds of their market influence, placing power back in the hands of everyday investors—only tilted the odds further in the house’s favor.
Online brokerages love to talk about empowerment and “democratizing finance” while profiting from the mistakes and volatility created by novice investors. In this nuanced analysis, Jakab shines a light on the often-misunderstood profit motives and financial mechanisms to show how this so-called revolution is, on balance, a bonanza for Wall Street. But, Jakab argues, there really is a way for ordinary investors to beat the pros: by refusing to play their game.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The narrative that Redditors forced Wall Street to its knees in early 2021 has its appeal, but accuracy isn't among them, contends Wall Street Journal columnist Jakab (Heads I Win, Tails I Win) in this shrewd and energetic account. Month by month, Jakab tells the story of the attempts by users of the /wallstreetbets subreddit to use "brokerage accounts as a tool of class warfare" by short selling stocks. Fueled by fury at the wealthy, Reddit users who saw themselves as "exacting revenge on the architects of a rigged system" began buying up Gamestop stock, often using Robinhood, an app that allowed individual investors to buy in small amounts. Shares rose, then Robinhood "suspended the ability to buy more of the stocks that were on everybody's lips." In the end, Jakab points out, very little actually changed: retail traders may have had their moment, but there was no revolution, and the wealthy still hold all the cards. The colorful cast includes Keith Patrick Gill, who whipped the subreddit into a frenzy with tales of doubling his money on Gamestop in 2019 and ended up a witness at congressional hearings; Gabriel Plotkin, founder of Melvin Capital Management; and Steve Huffman, cofounder of Reddit. Jakab spins an original take, buoyed by zippy prose. It's a certified page-turner.
Customer Reviews
An analytical look into the GameStop squeeze
How did the GameStop short squeeze come about? The popular narrative is that of a ragtag band of amateur investors banding together on Reddit to topple Wall Street hedge funds by piling into stocks that those firms were shorting. But there’s more to the story.
In his second book, The Revolution That Wasn’t, The Wall Street Journal’s Spencer Jakab makes the argument that it was market makers, exchanges, other hedge funds not named Melvin, executives and not retail investors (although a few did do well) that were the true beneficiaries of the meme-stock frenzy of January 2021. In the end Wall Street always wins.
The message that Jakab is trying to get through is a sensible one: despite all the hoopla a lot of retail investors lost money on meme stocks and people should be investing with a long term horizon and not succumb to FOMO. The secret to beating the market? Don’t try because you’re better off investing in index funds.
This book is really about how investors think and how they should think. It’s a good book for any investor looking to grow their net worth. Just don’t expect to get rich quick.