In the last few years, two assets—GameStop shares and Dogecoin on the crypto side—have come to symbolize a reckless new form of investing. Both have had multiple weeks where their price has soared 100% or more based on no fundamental value proposition. Sure, there have been catalysts for various GME and DOGE rallies—typically a pump signal from Roaring Kitty or Elon Musk—but there is also a deeper, and somewhat troubling, explanation for what's going on: a crisis of male identity.
I've weighed similar thoughts over the decade I've covered crypto, but the new book The Trolls of Wall Street makes the case explicitly. The book is primarily about the guys behind r/WallStreetBets, the Reddit forum where a community of primarily young men came together to share research and stock tips and, in time, stoked some of the craziest rallies in history.
