In many ways, this goes along with the tech-driven democratisation of entertainment. Rather than profit, it is about making a point. Many have invested only what they are willing to lose, and the subreddit is full of motivational posts to “hold the line” and “stick it to the man”. The GameStop stocks event is not, for most of the individuals involved, about getting rich. GameStop in particular has large sentimental value for the mid-millennial, capital-holding day traders of Reddit creating a negative sentiment which last week was given a rallying cry. Together, a perfect storm has emerged with an anti-corporate focus. This is in the context of a political environment characterised by mistrust and a popular perception of lobbyism being more influential than democratic will. A looming second recession, already being felt by the largely younger users of Reddit, has combined with a pandemic response where health concerns were subjugated and, in many cases, superseded by economic needs. The 2008 crisis is not so long ago as to be forgotten to say Wall Street has a branding problem would be an understatement. Those casual lunch break day traders suddenly had a lot of time at home, and potentially a pressing need for income in a stagnant job market. Meanwhile, the rise of forums on the likes of Reddit allowed for the free sharing of information, amateur and professional alike, helping to democratise financial speculation for the average consumer.Ĭut to 2020, lockdowns, redundancies, and shaky economic prospects. It became entirely possible for the average person working a normal job to day-trade during their lunch break. The in-tandem development of trading platforms functioning both for crypto and stock alike, like Robinhood, Revolut, or Bitpanda, eroded the barrier even further. A key functional barrier between financial derivative instruments and daily life was thus permanently removed. The popular rise of cryptocurrency, despite its faults, has been almost entirely separate from corporate interests ( Facebook’s Libra being a short-lived exception) and as a result was mostly studied, championed, and participated in by individuals. The GameStop Stock Event of 2021 (or as Elon Musk has termed it, GameStonks) has been several evolutionary landmarks in the making. The bigger picture, however, is fascinating: the normalisation of trading, and the ideological implications championed by the redditors. Regulation could be on the way – but for whom, and to what extent, remains broadly uncertain. The ensuing shutdown on trading by commission-free trading app Robinhood (a name which has since aged ironically, if not poorly), subsequent litigation, and careful monitoring by the White House has further heightened matters. Watching a coordinated collection of armchair day-traders accomplish a financial market-moving strategy, which until the arrival of the combination of transaction-free trading apps and online forums was the exclusive territory of the hedge funds, which have since lost billions, was dramatic enough on its own. The GameStop short squeeze at the hands of subreddit r/WallStreetBets has shaken our collective understanding – or lack thereof – of the intricacies and presumed stability of the stock market. While the film is eerily prescient in 2021, in one respect things have changed irrevocably: never again will it be an assumption that only the upper echelons of the financial sector know how the stock market works, and the idea of “leaving them alone” has become outdated naiveté. So explains The Big Short’s Jared Vennet, played by a fourth-wall breaking Ryan Gosling, in the 2015 film about the 2008 financial crisis. Or even better, for you just to leave them the f*** alone.” Wall Street loves to use confusing terms to make you think only they can do what they do. “Mortgage-backed securities, sub-prime loans, tranches… It’s pretty confusing right? Does it make you feel bored, or stupid? Well, it’s supposed to.
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