The Market and the Masses: From Chaotic Corners to Social Media (Re)tail Events

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Abstract

In this essay, I examine and discuss the relationship between the market and the masses in light of recent retail-driven surges in the stock prices of firms like GameStop and AMC. Using two historical snapshots, I draw out similarities and differences between the way the collective power and rationality (or lack thereof) of the masses was portrayed in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century market literature and in recent debates about retail investor inclusion and social media or social trading platform-driven market volatility. The main difference between the historical discourse and the present situation is that the new digital market-expanding technologies enable effective retail investor mobilization and thus, increase the retail swarms’ market-moving powers, which were previously less agile and forceful. However, this eased and widened market access also transforms digital life into alternative data that is subjected to age-old strategies of market exploitation.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftFinance and Society
Vol/bind8
Udgave nummer1
Sider (fra-til)67-77
Antal sider11
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

Emneord

  • Financial markets
  • Retail investing
  • Masses
  • GameStop

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