The Revolution That Wasn’t: GameStop, Reddit, and the Fleecing of Small Investors

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. (Jan.)