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

Sociocultural phenomena like meme stocks, the Gamestop short squeeze, and YOLO trading have shaped contemporary financial markets. This book explores the power of retail investors and the online environment that enables them to participate in financial markets, offering multiple perspectives on their genesis, role, motivations, power, and future prospects. It assesses the potential of online communities in enabling global coordination in impacting financial and crypto markets and strikes a balanced assessment of their legal, cultural, behavioral, economic, and political roles in modern finance.

Format: Hardback
Length: 230 pages
Publication date: 17 April 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

In recent years, contemporary financial markets have been marked by a series of sociocultural phenomena that have captured the attention of investors and scholars alike. These phenomena include meme stocks, the Gamestop short squeeze, and You Only Live Once (YOLO) trading. These movements are characterized by small-scale retail investors coming together to participate actively in financial markets through decentralized but coordinated actions.

This book aims to explore the recent power grab of retail investors and the online environment that enables them to join the ranks of major financial players. It offers a comprehensive examination of the genesis, role, motivations, power, and future prospects of retail investors as a force in contemporary financial markets. Drawing upon the insights of authors from various countries, the book frames YOLO capitalism through multiple angles, helping to explain the context and importance of activist retail investors in modern financial markets. It also explores the possibilities of a transformed financial future with much wider small-scale participation.

The book assesses the potential of online and other communities in enabling global coordination in impacting or even driving financial and crypto markets. It also examines the challenges that come with this coordination and weighs the competing narratives, both positive and negative, regarding YOLO capitalism. The book strikes a balanced assessment of their legal, cultural, behavioral, economic, and political roles in modern finance.

This book will appeal to a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary audience of scholars in financial markets, financial regulation, political economy, public administration, macroeconomics, corporate governance, and the philosophy and sociology of finance. It provides a valuable contribution to our understanding of the evolving landscape of contemporary finance and the role of retail investors in shaping it.

Weight: 630g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032397252