the_antisocial_network

THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK by Ben Mezrich

2021. Harper Collins. Paperback. 288 pages.

Ben Mezrich competes with Michael Lewis in the field of adventurous
financial stories, many of which get made into movies. Mezrich wrote
the books behind 21 and The Social Network but hasn't quite nailed
coming up with an excellent movie-friendly titles for his books
(the book of 21 is "Bringing down the house" and the book of The Social
Network, about the early days of Facebook, is "The Accidental Billionaires").

The Antisocial Network again fails to grab as a movie title; and has been
filmed as Dumb Money. I'm seeing it tonight, the very day that I've finished
the book. From the trailer, it looks like an entertaining finance
story starring mostly working-class frat boys. As is my habit, I'll
add an extra paragraph or two about what the film was like and include
it in this review.

The Antisocial Network covers a highly entertaining Covid-era-lockdown
story of litte-man investors getting lucky against hedge funds and the
big-end-of-town, in a stock called GME, GameStop, a chain of video
game selling shops in shopping malls that looked destined to die as
the internet and Covid-19 shutdowns threatened the future of "Bricks
and Mortar" gaming stores. The small investors band together on the
Reddit forums, in a sub-reddit called "WallStreetBets" (WSB), and
collectively win billions from a hedge fund that had gambled big that
the company would go bust and they could make millions on options that
GameStop would do just that.

Each chapter in the Antisocial Network (I think of this book title as
ASN.1) focusses on one of the personalities in the mix of GameStop. A
mental-health care nurse doesn't add much to the story but shows the
human side of the small investors using RobinHood; a commission-free
trading app that makes its money by selling the trading data to the
big HFTs such as Susquehanna and Citadel.

The final chapters of the book covering congressional hearings into
the affair are the best, as the principal characters no longer have a
chapter to themselves but come together in an enquiry and
investigation into just what went on in the whole affair.

                                             2nd November 2023

MOVIE: DUMB MONEY

This movie was a highly entertaining version of the book.
There's a few changes (the main Youtuber now has a stoner brother and
a dead sister from Covid) and some good additions, such as a GameStop
employee just scraping by in life working at the store. Just like the book,
the congressional hearings at the end are the main interest for me,
the movie uses actual footage of the real people. Twitter and Elon
Musk aren't mentioned at all, perhaps for legal reasons, and the
ending credits have a later update than the book on the fate of some
of the characters.

The YouTuber disappeared completely, nobody knowing whether he finally
sold GameStop or what his final position is. The Hedge Fund manager
went broke, even with Citadel's intervention. Everyone else is
carrying along by the look of things.

                      Movie watched:         2nd November 2023

My book reviews are at https://github.com/stucooper/booksiveread