Reddit users are betting they can take GameStop stock “to the moon.”
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One of the biggest stories of the year is barely a week old, but Hollywood is already calling. Deadline reports that MGM has taken over the rights to a proposal for a book that captures the story of the anti-establishment redditors who conquer Wall Street. With some of the same people behind The Social Network involved, this sounds promising.
The book, entitled The Antisocial Network, comes from Ben Mezrich – the same author who wrote the book from which The Social Network was adapted. Michael DeLuca was a producer of the David Fincher movie and, according to Deadline, this new project will link him back to Mezrich.
Investors on Wall Street have been betting for years that the video game store GameStop would fail. They said the move to buying online games would eventually lead to downfall. The pandemic seemed accelerate those changesalso. Wall Street was so sure GameStop would fail that it was one of them heaviest bets against stocks on the market.
However, in recent months, a group of Reddit users have bought shares, soaring GameStop’s value and undermining Wall Street’s big bets. Initially, these bought forum posts because they thought the company was better off than the Wall Street doubters thought. As GameStop’s value soared, Wall Street’s bad bets started costing investors billions of dollars.
It didn’t stop there. The Reddit users want the price to go up even more as they are in an epic battle against Wall Street. At one point, the Reddit users of the r / WallStreetBets forum sent the stock up by more than 14,300%, although it has gone through wild swings. They have spread their strategy to struggling movie chain AMC, as well as technology company BlackBerry.
You can see this has potential for an engaging movie.
Mezrich’s book, which still has no publisher, is expected to go to publishers for auction in February.
Ian Sherr contributed to this story.