Ben Mezrich, Dumb Money (Harper Collins Publishers, 2023)

Excerpt

It is not uncommon that history is made on stock markets. There are many tales of extraordinary gains and losses which gave birth to their very own heroes. The novel Dumb Money by Ben Mezrich tells one of these tales where retail traders organized themselves in a thread on Reddit to strike against Wall Street by bidding up the price of the GameStop stock, a security that was heavily short-sold by hedge funds. The short squeeze made the stock go to the moon, resulting in fortunes for the retail traders and extraordinary losses for the hedge funds. Mezrich offers beat-by-beat accounts of the event and presents the views of different individuals who were affected by the action. He provides insights into the side of the retail traders, hedge fund managers, brokers, and the initiator of the movement on Reddit. …