The Antisocial Network: The True Story of a Ragtag of Amateur Investors, Gamers, and Internet Trolls Who Brought Wall Street to Its Knees
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- Create Date：2021-10-26 08:51:56
- Update Date：2025-09-06
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- Author：Ben Mezrich
- ISBN：000849701X
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Summary
THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK is the wild， true story of the subreddit WallStreetBets， a loosely affiliated group of private investors and internet trolls who took down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street， and in so doing， fired the first shot in a revolution that threatens to upend the financial establishment。 Told with deep access， from multiple intersecting angles， it examines the culmination of a populist movement that began with the intersection of social media and the growth of simplified， democratizing financial portals -- represented by the biggest upstart in the business， RobinHood， and its millions of mostly millennial devotees。
The unlikely focus of the battle: GameStop， a flailing brick and mortar dinosaur catering to teenagers and outsiders， that had somehow outlived forbearers like Blockbuster Video and Petsmart as the world rapidly moved online。 The story comes to a head in a wild battle between Melvin Capital， a 13-billion-dollar hedge fund， one of the most respected and staid funds on the Street， and a disparate group of amateur day traders， video game nuts， and internet trolls on a subreddit calling itself WallStreetBets。 At first， the subreddit was a joke -- a meme-filled， freewheeling place to share shoot-the-moon investment tips， laugh about big losses， and diamond hand emojis。 Until some members noticed an opportunity -- and rode a rocket ship to tens of millions of dollars in earnings overnight。
With insider sources and testimonies from inside WallStreetBets， GameStop， the architects of Robinhood， Melvin Capital， and more， New York Times bestselling author Ben Mezrich brings to life one of the most striking， can't-make-this-up moments in financial history。
The unlikely focus of the battle: GameStop， a flailing brick and mortar dinosaur catering to teenagers and outsiders， that had somehow outlived forbearers like Blockbuster Video and Petsmart as the world rapidly moved online。 The story comes to a head in a wild battle between Melvin Capital， a 13-billion-dollar hedge fund， one of the most respected and staid funds on the Street， and a disparate group of amateur day traders， video game nuts， and internet trolls on a subreddit calling itself WallStreetBets。 At first， the subreddit was a joke -- a meme-filled， freewheeling place to share shoot-the-moon investment tips， laugh about big losses， and diamond hand emojis。 Until some members noticed an opportunity -- and rode a rocket ship to tens of millions of dollars in earnings overnight。
With insider sources and testimonies from inside WallStreetBets， GameStop， the architects of Robinhood， Melvin Capital， and more， New York Times bestselling author Ben Mezrich brings to life one of the most striking， can't-make-this-up moments in financial history。
Reviews
Joe Calandrelli
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I thought it would be a little more in depth about what fueled the stock rise and how it finally slowed down。 There were too many simple anecdotal stories in the beginning that it lost my interest for a bit。 The last 50 pages were the best ones。
Lauren
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Unclear narrative。 Interesting story。
Alex Maraczi
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Atrocious writing。 Clearly this book was shovelled out the door as fast as humanly possible。 I’m still giving it 3 stars because it was breezy。
Melinda
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Really interesting。 I have heard snippets about this group of investors and the idea to buy and hold American stocks。 I liked the way this author told this story， part narrative， part fact。
James McGlynn
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Great read about the Gamestop saga including" Elon Musk， Citadel， RobinHood etc。 Whn a stock is 140% short Wallstreetbets will squeeze the shorts。 Great read about the Gamestop saga including" Elon Musk， Citadel， RobinHood etc。 Whn a stock is 140% short Wallstreetbets will squeeze the shorts。 。。。more
Sean Murray
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Book could’ve easily been 12 pages long and been betterThis story spends an overwhelming amount of time on the character development of boring people。 This is the first book by Mezrich that I didn’t like。 I still felt like I was informed about what happened but 90% of the book was fluff
Patrick Pilz
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Ben Mezrich typical style of fictionzing the true events of the Gamestop short-squeeze。 Interesting topic， one of the better Mezrich books reminding one of his beginnings。
Steve Eubanks
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The GameStop short squeeze might seem like an esoteric time-suck to some。 But this is a story of Man Against the Machine。 As much as you think the stock market is free and unfettered; as much as you may want to believe that there is one last uncorrupted institution， it is， in fact， nothing if the sort。 Average people thought they could band together in a market environment and take advantage of the short-sightedness of giant institutional investment firms。 It worked for awhile。 Until it didn’t。 The GameStop short squeeze might seem like an esoteric time-suck to some。 But this is a story of Man Against the Machine。 As much as you think the stock market is free and unfettered; as much as you may want to believe that there is one last uncorrupted institution， it is， in fact， nothing if the sort。 Average people thought they could band together in a market environment and take advantage of the short-sightedness of giant institutional investment firms。 It worked for awhile。 Until it didn’t。 This is a compelling， page-turning account of those people， and what really happens in the retail trading market。 。。。more
Cameron Olsen
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Seems odd that this is the same guy that wrote other works such as Bringing Down The House。 Interesting story but poorly written。
Bryson Grau
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This book does very little to dig into the nitty gritty of what occurred early this year。 Most of it is spent profiling Elon Musk and fringe Wall Street Bets users。 I doubt we will really ever get any good insight into what was happening at the big banks during this time， but Ben certainly has no idea。
Mary Pilkington
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This is a very humanised version of what was probably the biggest financial story of 2021 to date。 The David vs Goliath story of the Gamestock shares。 The author is a great story teller telling us that story from a variety of viewpoints on both sides of the divide， the hedge fund sharks and the wallstreetbets band of comrades。 It certainly leaves the reader with a better understanding of what happened but assumes a knowledge of the financial world and while he does eventually get around to expla This is a very humanised version of what was probably the biggest financial story of 2021 to date。 The David vs Goliath story of the Gamestock shares。 The author is a great story teller telling us that story from a variety of viewpoints on both sides of the divide， the hedge fund sharks and the wallstreetbets band of comrades。 It certainly leaves the reader with a better understanding of what happened but assumes a knowledge of the financial world and while he does eventually get around to explaining things it leaves for a confusing and frustrating read at times。 Issues about clearing were mentioned early in the book and proved significant but it wasn’t until much later did we get any sense of what exactly it meant。 And the use of acronyms without an explanation was very annoying although I was grateful for an immediate explanation of VAR otherwise I’d still be wondering what a football video referee had to do with it all！Overall an enjoyable and informative read but could have done with less convoluted sentences that often required reading and as for the Elon Musk scene…………。。well that was when I lost a bit of faith in the author， just seemed unreal。 Still worth a read though。 Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a copy in exchange for this review 。。。more
Russell
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Despite his somewhat breathless style， Mezrich tells a compelling story about the financial industry's coming to grips with its first encounter with organized small-investor stock purchasing。 Long used to having the stock market run by， and for the interest of， large institutions， the binding together of millions of small investors through Internet social media groups created a force able to sway stock prices， causing massive losses to the big players。 An interesting book。 Despite his somewhat breathless style， Mezrich tells a compelling story about the financial industry's coming to grips with its first encounter with organized small-investor stock purchasing。 Long used to having the stock market run by， and for the interest of， large institutions， the binding together of millions of small investors through Internet social media groups created a force able to sway stock prices， causing massive losses to the big players。 An interesting book。 。。。more
Keith A Creighton
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I enjoyed this book a lot。 I love when a book helps me to understand something that happened in recent history。 This one leaves you to ponder the financial system without being too preachy in its evaluation。 The book flows like prose making it easy to read。
Rick Wilson
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This author is really frustrating。 He keeps writing about super interesting topics that are relevant to the things that I’m personally interested in。 But he does so in a superficial and over flowery way that makes his writing incredibly annoying to read。 I don’t think I’ve ever finished one of his books and said， “oh yeah I feel good about that one。“ This book follows that negative trendThere’s nothing in here that you couldn’t read in the half dozen feature length pieces about GameStop。 And a l This author is really frustrating。 He keeps writing about super interesting topics that are relevant to the things that I’m personally interested in。 But he does so in a superficial and over flowery way that makes his writing incredibly annoying to read。 I don’t think I’ve ever finished one of his books and said， “oh yeah I feel good about that one。“ This book follows that negative trendThere’s nothing in here that you couldn’t read in the half dozen feature length pieces about GameStop。 And a lot of it is a simply regurgitating the popular narrative of “small retail traders take on the big hedge funds“ which， digging into the actual volume of trades in the block sizes such as someone like Lilly Francus has done， isn’t actually true。 So you’re then left with the writing， which isn’t very good。 This author is of the school， “why use one word with many word do trick as well？” I believe at one point he called a laptop a “portal into another world” like is this 2005 still？ We can just call a laptop a laptop。 。。。more
Jlefevre
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This is a very engaging account of the run up of GameStop Stock by small， regular-type investors on the Robin Hood app and how the short selling of stock combined with the runup in price played havoc with the large Wall Streeters。After reading this book， you will ask yourself: Why the heck didn’t I buy GameStop stock at $5 a share and sell at $500？？ The book hops back and forth between regular folks and Wall Street types to tell the story of the investments and chicanery that hit the market over This is a very engaging account of the run up of GameStop Stock by small， regular-type investors on the Robin Hood app and how the short selling of stock combined with the runup in price played havoc with the large Wall Streeters。After reading this book， you will ask yourself: Why the heck didn’t I buy GameStop stock at $5 a share and sell at $500？？ The book hops back and forth between regular folks and Wall Street types to tell the story of the investments and chicanery that hit the market over the GameStop stock。 The book gives the reader the inside scoop on short sales， how Wall Street makes money on the stock market， the democratization of the stock market， how trades occur and the money side of the market。 And the book kept it all interesting。 Nice job to the author。I liked the book。 It’s an easy read （listen） and an interesting subject。 4 out of 5 stars。 。。。more
Wayne Webb
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It had a bit more information than I knew about the debacle already but fails to pick a side and in doing so picks a side -The status quo。 Feels a bit like a defence of the system without directly choosing the the same。 So it felt weak - not that unbiased reporting is bad， or a balanced view is bad。 But this doesn’t feel like that - it feels like unconscious bias， default thinking。
Jesse
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Mezrich hit the ground running with this one and impressively wrote a creative， layered， and readable account of the Gamestop madness that still seems like it just happened last week。 His storytelling nicely sets up the various players， angles， and considerations in processing the amazing "black swan" that is/was Gamestop。 I normally don't get 5 stars to books that don't exactly rock my world， but I just couldn't think of anything particularly wrong with it so。。。there it is！ Mezrich hit the ground running with this one and impressively wrote a creative， layered， and readable account of the Gamestop madness that still seems like it just happened last week。 His storytelling nicely sets up the various players， angles， and considerations in processing the amazing "black swan" that is/was Gamestop。 I normally don't get 5 stars to books that don't exactly rock my world， but I just couldn't think of anything particularly wrong with it so。。。there it is！ 。。。more
Eric
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It was fine and very basic overview。 I look forward to a more indepth treatment of the topic in a year or so
Zibby Owens
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This book is about the sudden four-day meteoric rise in the stock price of GameStop， a brick-and-mortar store mostly found in malls that caters to loyal gamers。 The story behind the stock rise is a David-and-Goliath tale involving short-selling by a huge hedge fund vs。 Reddit users hanging out on their couches。 But those people organized a stock purchase that would shake up Wall Street and how the stock market works。The author writes nonfiction like a thriller， and this book is no exception。 It’ This book is about the sudden four-day meteoric rise in the stock price of GameStop， a brick-and-mortar store mostly found in malls that caters to loyal gamers。 The story behind the stock rise is a David-and-Goliath tale involving short-selling by a huge hedge fund vs。 Reddit users hanging out on their couches。 But those people organized a stock purchase that would shake up Wall Street and how the stock market works。The author writes nonfiction like a thriller， and this book is no exception。 It’s an edge-of-your-seat ride told in real-time。 And a lot happened in just the four days last January - the time when the story takes place。 I liked his writing because it was very cinematic， and I felt immersed in the story while reading。 I loved the style; it was like virtual reality， just not on a screen。 To listen to my interview with the author， go to my podcast at: https://zibbyowens。com/transcript/ben。。。 。。。more
Marilyn Wilson
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One day my husband who is a Redditt fan shared a few details about a story that involved Redditt fans on an investing thread called WallStreetBets and how they challenged the status quo on how the stock market security companies operated。 I was intrigued， but ended up forgetting about it until I stumbled across the Antisocial Network。 I snagged a copy and dove in。The book lays out the ground work on how this crazy stock event happened from the perspective of several Redditt investors， a few secu One day my husband who is a Redditt fan shared a few details about a story that involved Redditt fans on an investing thread called WallStreetBets and how they challenged the status quo on how the stock market security companies operated。 I was intrigued， but ended up forgetting about it until I stumbled across the Antisocial Network。 I snagged a copy and dove in。The book lays out the ground work on how this crazy stock event happened from the perspective of several Redditt investors， a few security company founders and the company who created the app that allowed regular people to participate more fully in the stock market。 As someone with little knowledge of how it all works and little knowledge of Redditt， I was worried I would be lost。 But each step along the way the author did his best to give just enough information so I could follow the story。 It really is a David versus Goliath tale which speaks to all of us who often feel the rich have stacked the cards against us。 And I appreciate that the author doesn't take clear sides of right and wrong as it's not that kind of tale。 I still need to do more reading to fully understand some of the concepts presented， but overall I enjoyed learning something new on a couple subjects I knew little about。 And in the end - right or wrong - I loved how that group of regular people shook things up and challenged the big guys。 。。。more
Jeff
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When the whole GameStop bubble happened I thought to myself what a great subject for Ben Mezrich to tackle。 Maybe he can explain the nuances of what actually went down。So， I wasn't surprised when， now， six months later， he published The Antisocial Network。Ben takes very complicated issues and breaks them down into simple terms。 After reading this， I had much greater sympathy for everybody involved and realized that very few individual investors lost money—only those who， like the big investment When the whole GameStop bubble happened I thought to myself what a great subject for Ben Mezrich to tackle。 Maybe he can explain the nuances of what actually went down。So， I wasn't surprised when， now， six months later， he published The Antisocial Network。Ben takes very complicated issues and breaks them down into simple terms。 After reading this， I had much greater sympathy for everybody involved and realized that very few individual investors lost money—only those who， like the big investment firms， shorted GameStop （—on Robinhood—who shorts stocks on Robinhood？）。 In fact， those individual investors who bought on the rumor and sold on the news， made a lot of money。The story was portrayed by the media as individual investors being victimized by the system and the big bankers。 While this might be true to a certain extant， no business is ever a level playing field。 When you play a pick-up game of basketball with NBA pros， you're very likely to be beat badly。 This is story of that one in a million time the amatuers beat the pros。Great Job， Ben。 。。。more
Maria Flaherty
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The Antisocial Network: The True Story of a Ragtag of Amateur Investors， Gamers， and Internet Trolls Who Brought Wall Street to Its Knees by Ben Mezrich does exactly as the title suggests。 Mezrich outlines the story which made global headlines earlier this year; talking us through the event from the various perspectives of those involved。 His book starts at the end of 2020 and moves into the tale in 2021， as a Reddit group （called wallstreetbets） drove up the stock price of Gamestop， and in effe The Antisocial Network: The True Story of a Ragtag of Amateur Investors， Gamers， and Internet Trolls Who Brought Wall Street to Its Knees by Ben Mezrich does exactly as the title suggests。 Mezrich outlines the story which made global headlines earlier this year; talking us through the event from the various perspectives of those involved。 His book starts at the end of 2020 and moves into the tale in 2021， as a Reddit group （called wallstreetbets） drove up the stock price of Gamestop， and in effect caused massive losses to those on Wall St who had "shorted" the stock。 This is a complex story and so the book is particularly detailed – some details are possibly irrelevant （references to a person’s background） but much of the detail delivers an explanation of the financial system – the stockmarket – works。 Mezrich has inteviewed several of the participants and in the book provides their perspectives， giving a more personal sense to the tale – attempting to ‘humanise’ the story。 With all of these material， the story does see bloated at times and I wonder if Mezrich would provide some explanations in an Appendix rather than his frequent expositions。All in all， an ejoyable stroy but rather than gobble this book up in one go， I'preferred to week it over the period of several weeks - picking it up only when I had the time to truly focus on it。 。。。more
Sheila McCarthy
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An easy， breezy retelling of the events of late 2020/early 2021 involving GameStop， Reddit， Robinhood，etc。 Interesting for those of us who didn't follow the story closely。 Like other Mezrich books， the story is told through several different characters whose innermost thoughts and lives' details he somehow seems to know。 As I think someone once wrote， Mezrich's works are nonfiction-ish。 An easy， breezy retelling of the events of late 2020/early 2021 involving GameStop， Reddit， Robinhood，etc。 Interesting for those of us who didn't follow the story closely。 Like other Mezrich books， the story is told through several different characters whose innermost thoughts and lives' details he somehow seems to know。 As I think someone once wrote， Mezrich's works are nonfiction-ish。 。。。more
Stacey Saladin
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Ben Mezrich always writes a good true story。 This is an account of the Game Stop short squeeze that riled the market in January 2021。 It was interesting to watch it unfold from multiple different players’ perspectives - from the dude in his basement who started things on the Wall Street Bets subreddit to the Melvin Capital CEO who was the unlucky target of the whole thing， to the Robinhood CEO who provided the platform for it， to the clearing house who settles the trades， and to many of the ever Ben Mezrich always writes a good true story。 This is an account of the Game Stop short squeeze that riled the market in January 2021。 It was interesting to watch it unfold from multiple different players’ perspectives - from the dude in his basement who started things on the Wall Street Bets subreddit to the Melvin Capital CEO who was the unlucky target of the whole thing， to the Robinhood CEO who provided the platform for it， to the clearing house who settles the trades， and to many of the everyday people who jumped in to be part of something historically epic， regardless of the potential cost。 Definitely an interesting study in Team David trying to take down Goliath。 Listened to on Audible。 。。。more
Michael Mills
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Does an excellent job of explaining some complicated financial terminology and presenting many different views of what happened during this year’s GameStop short squeeze。 But it also suffers from a lack of conclusion and a whole lot of padding。 Too often the book pursues irrelevant colour and leaves potentially significant threads on the floor。 I don’t care what someone thought of their roommate’s decor or whether they were a track champion at high school。 I do care about what this event means f Does an excellent job of explaining some complicated financial terminology and presenting many different views of what happened during this year’s GameStop short squeeze。 But it also suffers from a lack of conclusion and a whole lot of padding。 Too often the book pursues irrelevant colour and leaves potentially significant threads on the floor。 I don’t care what someone thought of their roommate’s decor or whether they were a track champion at high school。 I do care about what this event means for markets in the age of social media or how it ties into wider popular attacks on traditional power elites （the squeeze happened in the same month as the Capitol riots for Pete’s sake）。 The book gestures to these things but clearly feels itself unable to answer them， in which case you have to ask what the point was to writing the book in the first place。 The Big Short gets mentioned a lot and the title itself refers to The Social Network （based on one of the author’s own books）; too often The Antisocial Network feels like source material in search of a screenwriter to pull it into shape。 。。。more
Christine Malang
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I wish I knew more about stocks when I needed to。 "The only real cure for bleeding was more blood。""You didn't tear the system down - you became the system。 And once you were the system， the rules were there to protect you。" I wish I knew more about stocks when I needed to。 "The only real cure for bleeding was more blood。""You didn't tear the system down - you became the system。 And once you were the system， the rules were there to protect you。" 。。。more
Casan Scott
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Not much more story than what was covered on Twitter， Reddit， or CNBC。 Felt devoid of anything additionally interesting。 It seemed that Mezrich wanted to be first to market， and summarized a few online sources。 Keith Gil is THE story here， but Mezrich manages to miss 90% of what makes him interesting。 Instead， he followed the dumb MSM portrayal of the “guy who wears cat shirts in a basement。” I don’t recommend this book。
Scott Budman
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I'll read Ben Mezrich any day。 The guy cranks out books， and you may know him for two of his huge hits， about MIT card sharks， and the early days of Facebook that was adapted for the movie "The Social Network。"But having read a lot of his books， I know that Mezrich sometimes takes small topics and stretches them out。 Always entertainingly， but you can tell。 That's the case with "The Antisocial Network。"This was， in real life， a barnburner of a story: A huge group on Reddit （and eventually tradin I'll read Ben Mezrich any day。 The guy cranks out books， and you may know him for two of his huge hits， about MIT card sharks， and the early days of Facebook that was adapted for the movie "The Social Network。"But having read a lot of his books， I know that Mezrich sometimes takes small topics and stretches them out。 Always entertainingly， but you can tell。 That's the case with "The Antisocial Network。"This was， in real life， a barnburner of a story: A huge group on Reddit （and eventually trading app Robinhood） coming together to buy shares of struggling video game retailer GameStop， sending the company share value to stratospheric heights， enriching many traders， and bringing entire Wall Street funds to their knees。Mezrich captures the excitement among some of the investors and posters， along with the agony of rich guy defeat。 But in the process， like someone who needed to hit a certain page number， he really stretches out the backstories， in some cases （like a really strange Elon Musk - who deserved more coverage as a major player in the story - fever dream）， it feels made up， and distracting。Anyway， this is worth a quick read; I loved covering the GameStop/Robinhood story as a reporter - Mezrich amps it up entertainingly as a writer。 。。。more
MarmottanReads
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I enjoyed this as an explanation of the GameStop story， told from the perspective of different people involved - the trading platform， the hedge fund and the Reddit investors。 I was a bit perplexed as to how much of what was written was real based on interviews or not - but it was an entertaining read nonetheless。
Adam Bowie
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