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  • The Revolution That Wasn't

  • How GameStop and Reddit Made Wall Street Even Richer
  • By: Spencer Jakab
  • Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
  • Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (12 ratings)
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The Revolution That Wasn't

By: Spencer Jakab
Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

From Wall Street Journal columnist Spencer Jakab, the real story of the GameStop squeeze - and the surprising winners of a rigged game.

During one crazy week in January 2021, a motley crew of retail traders on Reddit's r/wallstreetbets forum had seemingly done the impossible - they had brought some of the biggest, richest players on Wall Street to their knees. Their weapon was GameStop, a failing retailer whose shares briefly became the most-traded security on the planet and the subject of intense media coverage.

The Revolution That Wasn't is the riveting story of how the meme stock squeeze unfolded and the real architects (and winners) of the GameStop rally. Drawing on his years as a stock analyst at a major bank, Jakab exposes technological and financial innovations like Robinhood as ploys to part investors from their money, within the larger story of evolving social and economic pressures. The surprising truth? What appeared to be a watershed moment - a revolution that stripped the ultra-powerful hedge funds of their market influence, placing power back in the hands of everyday investors only increased the chances of the house winning.

Online brokerages love to talk about empowerment and 'democratising finance' - while Wall Street thrives on chaos. In this nuanced analysis, Jakab shines a light on the often-misunderstood profit motives and financial mechanisms to show how this so-called revolution is, on balance, good for Wall Street. But, Jakab argues, there really is a way for ordinary investors to beat the pros: by refusing to play their game.

©2022 Spencer Jakab (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Jakab adeptly skewers the popular but dangerously wrong narrative of Reddit's David thumping Wall Street's Goliath, and shows how the casino always wins in the end. DeepF---ingRespect for an important book with lessons far more durable than GameStop's stock market levitation." (Robin Wigglesworth, author of Trillions)

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Captures the zeitgeist

An entertaining overview of the GameStop short squeeze triggered by members of the WallStreetBets sub-Reddit. This book is very similar to Michael Lewis' The Big Short & Flash Boys. It highlights the conflict of interests between institutional and individual investors, whilst also providing a social commentary on the zeitgeist in the wake of the Great Recession and Covid-19 pandemic.

The narration is excellent. My only criticisms of the book are:
1.) It does not clearly explain how a short squeeze is triggered. I think this process should have been explained more clearly since it might be confusing for a lay audience.
2.) The author argues that the best way for individual investors to 'beat' Wall Street's big institutions is to invest in low-cost index funds. Whilst this advice is probably prudent for the majority of investors, the author does not discuss any of the potential problems associated with index funds (e.g. impact on price discovery, concentration of money in large companies). Moreover, I suspect that this type of investing is too rigid/boring for the majority of YOLO investors who took part in the GameStop short squeeze.

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