1st Edition

Activist Retail Investors and the Future of Financial Markets Understanding YOLO Capitalism

Edited By Usman W. Chohan, Sven Van Kerckhoven Copyright 2023
256 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

256 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

256 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Contemporary financial markets have been characterized by sociocultural phenomena such as "meme stocks", the Gamestop short squeeze, and "You Only Live Once (YOLO) trading". These are movements led by small-scale retail investors banding together to participate forcefully in financial markets through decentralized but coordinated actions. This book deploys many different subdisciplines to... Read more

1. Introduction 2. Public Value Theory and YOLO Capitalism 3. Happier than Ever: The Role of Public Sentiment in Cryptocurrencies, Meme Stocks and NFTs 4. GameStop, WallStreetBets and Capital as Power 5. Speculative Behavior and Expectations in an Economic Turmoil: A Keynesian View 6. Memes as Cultural Artifacts: YOLO Investors, Degeneracy and the Memeified Economy 7. Narrative Economics and YOLO Investors: r/WallStreetBets and the Gamestop Short Squeeze 8. The Behavioural Biases of Cryptocurrency Retail Investors: Lessons from ICOs 9. FOMO in Digital Assets 10. Is A Trader a Trader, No Matter How Small? 11. Social Movements in Contemporary Political Economy: Lessons for YOLO Retail Investors 12. Retail Investors and Anti-System Politics 13. Counter-Hegemonic Finance: The Gamestop Short Squeeze 14. Conclusion

Biography

Usman W. Chohan is a public value theorist who serves as Director for Economics and National Development at the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS), Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Sven Van Kerckhoven is the Vice-Dean for Education and an Associate Professor Business and Economics at the Brussels School of Governance, Belgium.