The Trolls of Wall Street
How the Outcasts and Insurgents Are Hacking the Markets
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- €15.99
Publisher Description
The dramatic story of an improbable gang of self-proclaimed “degenerates” who made WallStreetBets into a cultural movement that moved from the fringes of the internet to the center of Wall Street, upending the global financial markets and changing how an entire generation thinks about money, investing, and themselves.
Jaime Rogozinski and Jordan Zazzara were not what anyone would mistake for traditional financial power players. But they turned WallStreetBets, a subreddit focused on risky financial trading, into one of the most disruptive forces to bubble up from the fringes of the internet. This crude and unassuming message board harnessed the power of memes and trolling to create a new kind of online community. The group intertwined with the distrust and turmoil of our times and spoke to a generation of young men who were struggling to find their place in the world.
Deeply reported and fast moving, The Trolls of Wall Street is the suspenseful story of the people who made and lost millions, battling with each other—and with Wall Street—for power and status. It is a sobering account of how millions of young Americans became obsessed with money and the markets, casting a long and lasting influence over finance, politics, and popular culture.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This incisive report from New York Times journalist Popper (Digital Gold) delves into the personalities behind the Reddit community WallStreetBets, which upended the financial world by kick-starting the 2021 GameStop stock market rally. Popper's account centers on finely observed profiles of Jaime Rogozinski, who founded the subreddit in 2012, and Jordan Zazzara, who joined as a moderator in 2016. Rogozinski is described as a finance professional from an affluent background who alienated himself from friends to hide his alcoholism and spent most nights posting on Reddit. By contrast, Zazzara came from more humble means, having dropped out of community college and struggling to hold down a steady job, but felt similarly isolated and primarily interacted with people online. Popper covers the financial mechanics of the GameStop rally and Zazzara's successful effort to oust Rogozinski from WallStreetBets amid escalating discontent regarding his use of the community for self-promotion, but the author's main focus is on the subreddit's odious culture. While other journalists have portrayed WallStreetBets as the David to Wall Street's Goliath, Popper depicts the subreddit as a refuge for young men starved of connection whose disaffection deteriorated during the Trump presidency into a wellspring of racism and misogyny. Vividly reported and remarkably evenhanded, this stands out as one of the more critical assessments of the GameStop rally.
