The Trolls of Wall Street - How the Outcasts and Insurgents Are Hacking the Markets

The dramatic story of an improbable gang of self-proclaimed “degenerates” who made WallStreetBets into a cultural movement that moved from the fringes of the internet to the center of Wall Street, upending the global financial markets and changing how an entire generation thinks about money, investing, and themselves. Jaime Rogozinski and Jordan Zazzara were not what anyone would mistake for traditional financial power players. But they turned WallStreetBets, a subreddit focused on risky financial trading, into one of the most disruptive forces to bubble up from the fringes of the internet. This crude and unassuming message board harnessed the power of memes and trolling to create a new kind of online community. The group intertwined with the distrust and turmoil of our times and spoke to a generation of young men who were struggling to find their place in the world. Deeply reported and fast moving, The Trolls of Wall Street is the suspenseful story of the people who made and lost millions, battling with each other—and with Wall Street—for power and status. It is a sobering account of how millions of young Americans became obsessed with money and the markets, casting a long and lasting influence over finance, politics, and popular culture. From renowned financial and technology journalist Nathaniel Popper the dramatic storyof a newgeneration of financial strivers, living online and playing the stock and crypto markets by a new set of rules. Following a cast of young, all male characters, who went from the fringes of the internet to the front pages of newspapers, The Degenerate Generation tells the tale of how social media, crypto and startups like Robinhood and Reddit allowed for the formation of a powerful online movement in which the most unlikely participants took on the old guardand each other. In The Degenerate Generation , journalist Nathaniel Popper charts the evolution from the idealism of Occupy Wall Street in 2011 to the anarchic chaos of the GameStop frenzy in 2021 and the market crash of 2022. Showing how a combination of new technology and broader cultural and economic forces created an online revolution led by bands of predominantly young men, who gathered on Reddit and proudly referred to themselves as degenerates.This unlikely online gang took their frustration at the current economic system and social climate and created a powerful cultural movement that upended global financial markets and set in motion far reaching changes to how money flows through the economyall of this just a decade after a financial crisis that most people assumed would forever kill interest in the stock markets. A character driven, human story of kids who made and lost millions, battled with each and with Wall Street for power, and ultimately upended the economy, The Degenerate Generation is a fast moving, suspenseful, and sobering account of how millions of young Americans became obsessed with money and the markets and how that has affected politics, popular culture, finance and more.