#ONE UP ON WALL STREET PAGE COUNT DRIVER#

Steve CohenвЂ™s Point 72 hedge fund lost $500 million on his investment in Melvin Capital in the first half of this year. Melvin Capital, the hedge fund that was blown up shorting GameStop and other stocks that these communities decided to rally around, was just the first and most obvious example of how high the stakes actually are. There have always been investing clubs, but never like this before. There have always been forums for traders to chat, but never like this before. There have always been stock message boards, but never like this before. The pandemic took this decades-long trend of distributed workforces, isolated people and online identity creation and accelerated it into warp speed. WeвЂ™re not saying out loud вЂњI need a group of internet friends with similar interests and obsessions!вЂќ but thatвЂ™s whatвЂ™s actually happening. Most of this is happening subconsciously.

Or, something repulses us from being a part of the group and we are back to looking for a new one. ItвЂ™s only a matter of time before we begin adopting the beliefs and language of the tribe weвЂ™ve become a part of. ThatвЂ™s enough to start reporting for duty each day or night. We may start out agreeing with just one or two things a given community says that itвЂ™s about. When weвЂ™re all craving a community because of the new nature of work, the default place weвЂ™re going to find one is online. A set of outsiders or bad guys that the whole team can agree to hate. A story that keeps the teammates aligned. The email exchanges are as short and sweet as they can be so as not to waste each othersвЂ™ time. Many of the people youвЂ™ve spent the day interacting with arenвЂ™t physically in the same city or state. If your company is running on Slack, itвЂ™s probable that the Calamari app tells you itвЂ™s time to log off. Who yells вЂњQuittinвЂ™ time!вЂќ now? ThereвЂ™s no whistle. The whistle blew and Fred Flintstone slid down the back of a brontosaurus. And then 5 oвЂ™clock rolled around and the day was done. Once upon a time, we all woke up, reported for work and spent the day among anywhere from five to five hundred people down at the job site, at the plant, in the office, at the factory, in a store, wherever.

This proclivity toward tribalism is written into our DNA, from a time before recorded time, when belonging literally meant the difference between life and death.

#ONE UP ON WALL STREET PAGE COUNT DRIVER#

If youвЂ™re observing some sort of bizarre activity in the stock market that leaves you scratching your head вЂ“ like a little-known software company trading up 70% on the day with no recent headlines about it, the answer to the riddle is most likely to be вЂњcommunity.вЂќ Community is going to explain most things that would be otherwise inexplicable.Д¬ommunity is such a powerful driver of activity because of how desperate we are to connect with one another. The real concept worth understanding from this is how important community is. I donвЂ™t know.ДЇorget about the long-term harm for a minute. This comment was in response to our latest YouTube clip from the podcast this weekend, A New Era of Investing and Financial Advice, and I think he makes an important point. Its a vicious cycle and I believe it will cause more harm than good to my generation, with respect to investing, over the long term.вЂќ Any extended drawdown will absolutely kill the sentiment around investing but eventually new people come back in to fill the space because someone on tiktok or reddit will continue to make money. Entire communities disbanded and friend groups dissolved. вЂњUsed to be one of these robinhood/wsb daytraders, during 2018 it completely killed the atmosphere after seeing red for 3 months straight.

One up on wall street page count