0:00
young people who felt alienated from the financial crisis there was a small group of them initially who kind of found an
0:07
outlet in the markets you know they they were skeptical of of Wall Street and they were skeptical of the financial
0:12
system but they also I think realized that when you get in there and get your
0:18
hands dirty in the stock markets and in the options markets you know you can
0:24
kind of learn something about the system that you distrust
0:35
welcome back to the bullish Studio podcast I'm your host Brian Hanley joining us today is Nathan popper an
0:41
acclaimed journalist at the information previously at the New York Times an author known for his insightful and
0:48
thought-provoking work on the intersection of finance and Technology Nathan's previous book digital gold was
0:55
a deep dive into the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency earning widespread praise for its in-depth reporting and
1:02
engaging storytelling now he's back with a brand new book titled trolls of Wall Street in
1:08
trolls of Wall Street Nathan explores the fascinating and often turbulent world of online communities and their
1:15
impact on the financial markets we're thrilled to have Nathan with us today to talk about his latest work the stories
1:22
behind it and what he sees as the future of Finance in the digital age please ensure that you're subscribed to our
1:29
Channel and please please let us know what you think about this interview in the comments without further Ado please
1:34
welcome Nathan poer to the show Nathaniel popper thank you very much for taking the time to join us today on the
1:40
bullish Studio podcast uh it's been a it's a pleasure having you here uh to kick off I think it'd be helpful to just
1:46
um explain to our audience a little bit about who you are what you've done and um yeah what your latest uh Endeavor is
1:53
sure well um I been a journalist for 20 years and um much of that I spent at the
2:01
New York Times where I covered Wall Street and technology and that job
2:08
brought me into the orbit of Bitcoin relatively early on 2013 I started
2:13
covering it and as a result of that I wrote a book called digital gold which
2:19
is about the origin story of Bitcoin and crypto and since then i' I've been
2:26
writing for the the New York Times s i I moved out to the Bay Area to cover
2:32
technology a little bit more and that led to this newest book which is called
2:39
the trolls of Wall Street and I uh I got
2:45
going on this around the time of the GameStop the first GameStop surge back
2:50
in 2021 and I have been working on it since then and it it it tells a story that
2:58
tells the GameStop story but it also tells a much broader story of you know
3:04
how essentially we got this new generation of young particularly young
3:09
men who are so obsessed with money and trading and finance and just this whole online World
3:17
online community that is sort of unlike anything that existed before and so the
3:22
trolls of Wall Street my new book tells the story of that how we got from essentially Occupy Wall Street to Wall
3:29
Street totally that's great and I think you know speaking of Occupy Wall Street you know 2008 until you know relatively
3:36
present day obviously there was a bit of a quiet period there but then I'd love to you know hear a little bit about you
3:42
know what what is a troll of Wall Street are they the are they the Occupy Wall Street folks or are they a different
3:47
group of people what have you what have you seen that's a great question and they are to some degree the sort of um
3:57
uh shifting a shifting shifted version of Occupy Wall Street in some sense you
4:04
know Occupy Wall Street was this movement that came about after the 2008 crisis that represented the the extreme
4:14
dissatisfaction distrust with the financial industry and the way it had
4:20
you know created this crisis that had such an impact on so many
4:25
Americans and you know coming out of that crisis there was just it led to this sort of alienation and distrust of
4:34
the traditional sources of authority in America you know the the world of Wall Street and you know Wall Street bets
4:42
began in this moment where young people were were totally had removed themselves
4:48
from the markets you know the there was this there were a lot of Articles back in the years after the financial crisis
4:54
that talked about the the sort of death of retail trading the idea that that was something of the past and what's so
5:01
interesting is the way that people young young people who felt alienated from the financial crisis there was a small group
5:08
of them initially who kind of found an outlet in the markets you know they they
5:14
were skeptical of of Wall Street and they were skeptical of the financial system but they also I think realized
5:20
that when you get in there and get your hands dirty in the stock markets and in
5:26
the options markets you know you can kind of learn something about the system
5:32
that you distrust and there's something better about understanding the the system you distrust than knowing nothing
5:39
about it you know it's kind of like keep your friends close and your enemies closer there was a there was an element
5:45
of that where people wanted to understand this system people had realized how important the markets were
5:52
to the economy and the functioning of our society and you know people wanted to understand that and so you know it
5:58
began with this small small community of guys just I I tell the story of Jamie
6:03
razinski who created Wall Street bets and you know that that was a big part of
6:08
his motivation um and and it sort of Grew From there with all of these layers
6:14
added on to it you know it obviously one of the big layers that got added on was the the um invention of the creation of
6:23
the Robin Hood app which sort of changed the way that people engaged with trading it made it more use user friendly made
6:30
it more approachable and it sort of Grew From there till you know that it started
6:35
in 2012 and it grew till you know covid began in 2020 and suddenly this became
6:42
this like National Pastime and so it was this slow Evolution to where we are
6:48
today where it's just something that millions of people take almost as take for granted as a part of something that
6:55
young people do that's so different than where where we began back in 2012 yeah
7:01
100% And and a stat that we you know mention a lot here at bullish studio is that since 2008 surprisingly based on
7:08
you know studies that are published by finra and others financial literacy in this country has not made a meaningful
7:13
shift up or down I mean if anything it's gone down slightly but then retail Equity ownership like ownership of
7:20
stocks has gone up quite a bit especially in the last couple years so there's this really interesting argument
7:26
while yes there was a lot of degenerates coming in but also that might have been the first stock that somebody bought and
7:31
that introduced them to the markets and whether it was a stock option or a crypto that is what that is their first
7:37
interaction with the financial system and then they start to learn and then they become informed and then they're
7:42
participating in the system that I think institutional Wall Street has been capitalizing on for decades so I think
7:50
great yeah that's a great I I think you lay it out very nicely there and I think that's something that a lot of people
7:55
Miss is the fact that you know it's sort of starts as as entertainment it starts
8:03
as sort of fun and it starts with this degenerate attitude of like I don't care it you know if I lose if I lose
8:10
this $100 you know what what's it to me you know it's it's no worse than like
8:16
gambling on a basketball game or going to the casino but I think what happens
8:22
after that initial interaction is of often a process of Education that is is
8:27
missed by the outside world you know people learn about the system and they
8:33
get smarter and often they do figure out how to become smarter investors
8:38
sometimes that means leaving behind the sort of degenerate plays um but you know
8:44
that that often remains a part of the a part of this world like there are a lot
8:49
of people out there you know Jamie who created Wall Street bets is this interesting example of somebody who got
8:56
started with options got started losing money on options I mean options are
9:02
particularly risky part of the markets um and those losses sort of led him to
9:08
rethink his investing and he you know put a lot of his uh retirement savings
9:15
into uh index funds you know sort of safe um long-term Investments um but at
9:22
the same time he put aside a pool for himself to keep playing in the markets and keep trying to figure out like how
9:29
do you make it work if you're trying to trade you know how who what are the big
9:34
guys doing how can I emulate that how should I not emulate that and that that
9:39
sort of again that process of education is something that I think is easy to miss 100% And I think you you you know
9:45
touched on an interesting point where you know as I'm a 34 year old that you know grew up and I was you know looking
9:51
for a job right you know in the heart of the financial crisis and you know as I've grown up in my career one of the
9:56
things that has constantly kind of like beat down to us is like you know get your 6040 or 8020 portfolio set it
10:03
forget it don't think about investing but one kind of like counter argument that I have uh around that is that I
10:09
think more people generally need to understand the risk tolerance and and be able to like experiment with that a bit
10:15
and I think that you know having some form of money that you can set aside from your larger assets that you own or
10:22
like your net worth is really valuable because you know you should blow up your account you know I think at one point in
10:27
your life early you should have l losses so that you can understand and learn from those and then become a more informed investor overall and
10:34
institutions blow up their funds all the time and you know it's just a learning experience so yeah and that's I mean you
10:41
know part of the idea with um investing in trading has always been that it's when you're young
10:48
that you can handle losses it's you are supposed to take risks when you're young
10:54
because you're more able to weather that you know you what you don't want is
10:59
somebody who knows nothing about the markets um trying some get-rich quick scheme when they're in their 50s and
11:05
this is their retirement funds and you know they're 10 years away from retirement and if they lose it then that
11:11
is a whole lot more uh uh that's a whole lot more dangerous to them and to
11:17
society than some 20-year-old who's just getting into this for the first time and
11:23
is learning how the markets work I mean that's that's that's what being young is supposed to to look like I I I have to
11:31
I'm I'm curious Brian I not to turn the table but I'm curious for you what you
11:37
you know it sounds like you have gone through some something of this process yourself what what was your
11:43
initial I'm always so interested to talk to Young I mean I I'm 45 maybe I'm a
11:49
little bit in this camp and I feel like I've been spending my time in this world but each time I get to talk to somebody
11:54
who has gone through this themselves I'm so interesting to hear you know what was it that initially Drew you in was it
12:00
that yeah what what got you first first involved the the thing that was most
12:07
profound on my like wider investing Journey was that you know when I was in high school my dad gave me access to
12:13
some side IRA account that he had with five or 10 grand in it and he basically like let me go and play with it and that
12:19
was right around the time that Google was about to go public and I basically took five or 10,000 bucks whatever was
12:25
in it and just put it all into Google and proceeded to watch Google triple uh over the next couple of years and that
12:31
ultimately afforded me to buy my dad's used car from him which then gave me like a real tangible asset and from that
12:37
moment on I always had a kink for the markets but I was working full-time jobs and I never really had the time or
12:42
energy to spend investing had my 401ks and whatnot and funny enough like graduating college and you know even
12:49
being a little bit mid of my career I heard about Wall Street bets from a co-worker in probably 2018 2019 and
12:56
really started to see a whole different pocket of a community of people that it's funny because like I'm a big
13:02
proponent of like you know like be careful with how folks kind of categorize retail investors and these
13:08
communities because in those communities the type of like early Wall Street bets the level of sophistication is actually
13:15
like quite high now the level of like speech in that and how they refer to things is totally degenerate but I would
13:22
not be I don't think it's that different than what happens on Wall Street already between firms like they are degenerates
13:30
you know when you look at you know the Arcos fun blowing up like you see these things like these everybody has a little
13:35
bit of degeneracy in them and I don't know I I grew a passion for it and then that ultimately led me to learn and
13:42
taught myself how to trade stock options um which I learned from you know some media folks and obviously went down a
13:48
whole Rabbit Hole there but it really helped me educate myself how did that end up going for you I mean did you to
13:55
like pay the tuition at some point and realize oh yeah 100% yeah yeah I lost like yeah so I was doing like some
14:00
complex strategy around selling option premium and the whole kind of just just from a folks who don't really understand
14:07
what that means is that I'm taking the I'm basically selling Insurance to people and you're picking up nickels in
14:13
front of a steamroller and one day that Steamroller hits you and that hit me so my gains that I had from the year of
14:20
that portfolio were wiped away in basically two days because I did not have and and ultimately though I think
14:26
it was a really profound learning experience for me because what I learned through that is that I am a better
14:33
person when I focus my energy on things that I can be productive for and nobody gets Rich trading like nobody weal
14:39
nobody gets wealthy trading I mean yes in theory you can but like starting with a 10 or $20,000 brokerage account and
14:46
getting wealthy from that is a ve is basically doesn't exist and the time that I felt putting into it I was not
14:53
really getting back now I did learn a lot about how the market works but yeah I I mean yeah
15:00
that's one of the I mean couple of things about what you just said that um really resonate with the story of Wall
15:06
Street bets um I mean one thing about Wall Street bets that the a sort of
15:12
memorable line that I think sums up a lot of what happens there is you know this kid who's who who was going through
15:19
this process himself and said you know a lot of the dumb people on here are really pretty smart like they look dumb
15:26
but like even in even in the dumbest moments of Wall Street bets um even in
15:32
the sort of most degenerate moments there was this strange understanding of the markets that lurked beneath all of
15:40
the you know trolling I mean you know and that and to a degree that's what trolling is like trolling is about doing
15:47
this thing that looks like a joke but actually there's something really serious underneath the joke and you know
15:54
that that is like uh that's that's what Donald Trump has done you know his his
15:59
candidacy began as what everybody assumed everybody thought was a joke and then all of a sudden he's the president
16:06
of the United States and I'm in 2016 you know I tell the story in my book about
16:12
how Wall Street bets became intertwined with the people you know with Trump and
16:18
R back leonald and you know Jamie who had created Wall Street bets identified
16:24
very early on like Trump is everything we are on Wall Street bets he's he is
16:29
this this troll who is both like you
16:35
know sending up the system he's like he's like a satire on the system but he also um has this like you know appeal
16:44
this this broad appeal that is easy to miss if you just focus on um on the sort
16:51
of joke on the surface and that I mean that is what trolling is and that's that's that's what makes this whole
16:57
system and this whole world emerged so confusing and complicated because it's
17:02
like because it's two things at the same time um and and I think so so you know
17:09
you have people being really dumb and really smart at the same time um but you
17:16
also have people um losing when they're able to do that in a way that leads them
17:23
to make smarter decisions and um and and and I think part of that is is being
17:31
honest about the losses right I mean one of the things that was so unique about Wall Street bets in this story because
17:37
it was a place where you could go on and talk about losing money you know the the sort of traditional idea of uh day
17:46
Traders and like the old message boards in the 90s they were all about people bragging about how they' made money you
17:52
know they were bragging and trying to get other people to copy them and that that really is kind of unhealthy because
17:57
you get this you get this um sort of misshapen perspective on how many people
18:05
are winning you think everybody's making money and Wall Street bets was very different Wall Street bets from the beginning was about like we're GNA talk
18:11
about our losses and be honest about it and maybe you know make fun of ourselves talk call ourselves degenerates um but
18:18
when you talk about losses you you you offer an opportunity to learn from them you know you if you're gonna be honest
18:25
about your losses people won't come away thinking like oh this is easy I'm Gonna Get Rich overnight you you you realize
18:32
how hard this actually is and to take a quick turn for a second I know in your original book digital gold you profile
18:39
the wnl Vos twins did you go to college with them or did you were you there at the same time uh I was there at the same
18:45
time I didn't know them in college but that was actually I mean the the way I began uh reporting on crypto was a story
18:54
that I wrote the first story that that sort of outed them as significant holders of Bitcoin I wrote a story back
19:01
in early 2013 where they had not previously publicly identified as crypto owners or
19:08
crypto holders and they came out and said in the story you know we've got we've assembled what we think is
19:13
something like 1% of all the outstanding Bitcoin and we believe in this and they were sort of the first people
19:21
to um the first people who had a reputation from a different world who came out and said I believe in crypto
19:28
before that you know it had just been a bunch of degenerates and you know Silk
19:33
Road users and so that was like the story that got me started talking with them and and in digital gold I told
19:40
their story their their sort of Journey Through crypto yeah that that's been really interesting and also up until
19:46
what was it last week when they announced that both of them individually are going to be giving a million dollars in crypto to the Trump campaign Trump
19:52
just came out announc speaking at Bitcoin Miami what do you take on how Bitcoin has been politic ized around you
19:59
know in the history of your reporting on the matter what do you see going into this election cycle is this all smok and
20:05
mirrors or do you think that there's a meaningful change that's emerging if Trump does get back in office I mean I
20:12
think that crypto has always been um a world has always been attractive to a
20:19
world of people who really did not trust the status quo you know I I think that
20:26
is has there there the sort of polite people who are just investing in it for
20:33
the gains but it's so hard to to get involved in crypto and not sort of buy
20:39
into this narrative that the old world is broken and we have to build a new one
20:44
you know that this like Bitcoin is this sort of fundamental uh challenge to the old
20:51
system and saying like that the basic this basic building block of society your money doesn't work and you need a
20:58
new one um I mean I think that that is um I can
21:03
see the appeal of that I think it's it's it's a dangerous uh philosophy it's just it's like it's this idea that chaos is
21:11
the answer you know chaos is the is the way fix things um and I think that's very much where Trump comes down as well
21:19
is he's like he's like a chaos monkey who sort of just wants to like right you
21:24
know with the old system and break it and um and I think that it's it's not
21:31
surprising that that crypto and Trump have become intertwined I certainly don't think everybody who's into crypto
21:38
is a trump supporter but I think it's easy to see how these how these things come together and it's it's been such a
21:45
big part of the history of this whole world of online money oh yeah especially when you hear a lot of the Bitcoin
21:51
maximalists and the real OG guys that are trying to take a country over themselves have a sovereign area and
21:57
you're like what is going on here this is some radical thinking but yeah it's definitely been interesting to watch um
22:04
you were a co-producer on this is not Financial advice if I'm not mistaken uh yeah I worked with yep I worked with the
22:11
guys who created that cool yeah because we were we were involved a bit in that as well and I think what was exciting
22:16
about that film and I'm curious how you kind of see this you know they the this is not Financial advice obviously
22:21
covered you know unique stories of individual people who have gone through the last couple of years and seeing
22:27
their financial experience and tapping into different communities um how do you feel these online communities are being
22:34
represented do you feel like you know is Wall Street bets a net good uh for society or do you feel like they
22:41
shouldn't exist where where do you kind of stand on these these communities I mean I don't think I can say I think it
22:48
it it it should not exist I mean it's it is it feeds this need that you know it
22:54
feeds this need of people who um who feel I mean I think in many places Left
23:01
Behind of course as I've said you know who feel distrustful of the way things
23:06
work today and um you know Wall Street bets has been a place where people are
23:12
encouraged to be honest about what they're doing and I think there's a real
23:17
virtue in that I mean that was part of the original sort of philosophy of Wall
23:23
Street bets and it's really been maintained over time and it's been it's been interesting to see see how that has
23:30
sort of split off from other segments of the community you know after um the GameStop runup in 2021 a lot of what you
23:39
might call the GameStop maximalist you know you just as you have Bitcoin maximalist there are now GameStop
23:44
maximalists who think that GameStop you know is being manipulated as part of
23:49
this sort of Wall Street conspiracy and those people were eventually were
23:55
actually not eventually pretty quickly um made to feel not welcome on Wall Street bets Wall Street bets basically
24:01
said like listen man people are here to talk honestly about their Investments
24:06
and when they lose money they're encouraged to be honest about that and you know there were these interesting
24:11
crowdsourced research efforts that went into GameStop early on but when it
24:17
turned into this sort of conspiracy theory about uh about Wall Street trying
24:23
to uh you know kill this company and screw over the sort of or Ary people um
24:30
it it it did turn into a conspirac I mean it was that it was a conspiracy theory and um it's been interesting to
24:38
see how you know Ryan Cohen and now royan Kitty have sort of gotten drawn into that but Wall Street bets the
24:45
moderators on Wall Street bets basically said like that's not us that's not for us and so it created the Schism you know
24:52
people went off the super ston is is like the most sort of visible voluble
24:59
representative of that Community where you know the whole this the sort of the
25:04
whole community and culture gets built around these ideas about GameStop and I
25:10
think I mean I think that is dangerous and I think it is interesting to see how Wall Street bets has sort of rejected
25:16
that and said like if you want to talk about that go to some other subreddit um but you know I think Beyond uh whether
25:24
it should should or shouldn't exist I mean to me it's just this this this world that you have to
25:31
understand if you want to understand where we're going you know it's like you can it's there's a tendency in the media
25:37
to say like Trump is like impolite and you know goes against our values so
25:43
we're just not even going to engage with it and I think that only leads these these worlds and the distrust to grow
25:49
larger and you just you need to understand this you need to engage with this um if you want to understand how
25:57
young people how people are thinking about the world today yeah and and it's interesting that you bring up the super
26:03
St kind of like post GameStop maximalist because as we we've followed this area
26:08
closely and we actually had Dave Lower on the podcast previously who you know runs an advocacy firm focused on helping
26:15
you know push back against a lot of the narrative from you know Citadel and others but when you look at some of these issues around like direct
26:21
registration of your shares and failure to deliver you know with naked shorting and stuff it to me that's where this
26:28
entire conversation comes to a head with you know the institutional Wall Street rules that just don't they're not like
26:35
caught up yet and that I think allows some of those conspiracy theories to run wild when people are sitting there
26:41
scratching their head around how can you have more than 100% short interests on a stock and you're like how does this work
26:47
um and then that's kind of where I think you see this like push against Gary guinsler and then it becomes a real
26:53
political issue of like why can that stuff still exist and that's Wall Street
26:58
just playing games I don't know it's it's interesting I mean I I think I think it is the opacity the lack of
27:05
transparency from Wall Street that has created this situation I mean that that
27:10
is what created the distrust to begin with um but you know to some degree I
27:16
think like a lot of this comes down to just like the complexity of the systems
27:22
that we rely on and and the these are these are almost by Nature complex
27:30
opaque systems um I mean you know if you just if you like try to understand how a
27:36
single stock you know you buy a single stock like how that trade actually happens there's five different participants involved and like each of
27:43
them is is paying a different price and it's I mean to some degree that system
27:51
is like just a a a product of how complicated our world is is you know you
27:58
have stocks trading on different continents at different times and and um
28:04
I don't know what to do about that but that we live in a world that's so
28:09
complicated that no one person can understand it and that is where a lot of
28:14
the distrust grows from and um again I mean you know that is where these
28:21
efforts to sort of simplify things say like okay just let's let's go to a blockchainbased system where you are
28:27
direct transacting with you know there's just two people and there's an atomic transaction where both things are
28:33
transferred at the same time I understand the desire to go for that much simpler system but um the world has
28:41
the structure that it has and I don't know that it's as easy as just you know getting rid of it overnight uh so a
28:47
couple last quick questions um while we wrap up here um did you own crypto you know I was not able was not essentially
28:55
not allowed to when I was at at the New York Times I um the the understanding was had always
29:01
been like if you cover a company a stock you can't own that stock in that company
29:06
you know you you will have you will develop an interest in whether that company succeeds and it will color your
29:12
coverage so that decision was made pretty early on at the same time we sort of said I can have enough to sort of
29:19
play with it to understand how it works it's hard to cover if you don't understand how it works if you don't
29:25
understand the basics of like how a transaction happen happens what it looks like on the blockchain when a transaction goes through so I made that
29:31
argument and had little little bits once I left the New York Times I got sort of
29:37
released from those strictures I also wasn't covering uh crypto in the same
29:42
way anymore um and so I felt like okay I can own some I I I have tried to keep it
29:47
to a sort of small part of my portfolio I have not like gone all in but you know
29:54
I do think it feels like a bet on a on a particular version of the future that
30:00
does not uh is is significant enough that it's worth betting on so I and and
30:07
to that note has your reporting on these online communities like changed your investing philosophy or are you very
30:13
much like an index fund throw it in and just let it sit or have you made a noticeable impact or noticeable change
30:20
in your personal strategy um that's an interesting question I mean I think you know uh going in on crypto you know
30:28
investing in crypto has been something of I mean and it's not a big investment but it's a recognition that that this is
30:36
you know not unlikely to be a part of the future and I think sort of thinking
30:42
more speculatively about the future is something that this community does you know it's not just about you know what
30:49
are the what are what's the revenues and free cash flow this quarter it's about
30:54
realizing like the world is changing and that so if you wanna like Investments
31:00
are about what's going to happen in the future they're not about what's necessarily happening right now there
31:06
are some bet on the future being different than the present and I think that that that way of thinking has
31:13
gotten more into my mind as an investor but also into you know the obviously
31:19
like right now the big story is like Ai and and and how AI is going to change
31:24
the economy and that's not a bet on like how these you know chat Bots work right
31:30
now that is a bet on the world changing and I think that is very much built into
31:36
this new world of online money yeah and it's and it was interesting hearing a lot of this like kind of Gossip around
31:42
like AI meeting financial markets and I I was reading a bit about when you know the online brokerages first really
31:49
started to gain some traction and there was this whole thought that with the invention of the internet and everybody having access to markets it would
31:55
actually lead to less volatility because all the information's out there for everybody and in fact it actually led to
32:01
the opposite and I think I'm I'm very curious to see what happens when AI start running index funds and others is
32:07
it going to lead to more volatility more craziness or is this gonna stabilize things and yeah I mean that's sort of
32:14
similar to the argument that you know there was always this idea that as Bitcoin got bigger um it would become
32:22
less volatile and I guess I don't know where the latest research on that has been but certainly as it grew the
32:28
volatility did not go away you know this is still a very volatile asset when you
32:34
are when your investment is is about some bet on the future that is sort of
32:40
by its nature going to be a very volatile proposition so the trolls trolls of Wall Street um when where
32:46
where can we find more information about it where can we get it yeah well you can obviously get it your at your local
32:52
bookstore or Amazon or Barnes & Nobles anywhere else you you buy books on
32:57
online I mean the audio books out with a great narrator and uh you know I've got a a bunch of stuff on my website
33:04
Nathaniel popper.com about my new book my old book the movies that I've done um
33:10
but yeah trolls of Wall Street is is occupy me for the last few years and
33:16
I think it's an important story that easily gets uh sort of overlooked what what do you see in perk late up now you
33:22
mentioned AI what where do you have your eyes on next from an online community or is the GameStop story still not over yet
33:29
well I don't know I think you know I think part of what's interesting about this latest eruption of GameStop is that
33:36
in Broad terms retail Traders have sort of moved away from meme stocks I mean
33:41
there is still a very dedicated crowd that is focused on GameStop and super stons um but that has become a smaller
33:49
part of the overall Universe because of this process of Education that we're talking about you know people have
33:55
shifted from focusing on Meme stocks thinking about um the broader stock
34:00
market obviously AI stocks to me I mean AI feels like the most interesting thing
34:06
going on right now and so that's where I'm spending a lot of my attention now just trying to understand and of course
34:11
that is not necessarily a world of um online communities upstarts that's a world of the Giants you know to to make
34:19
these Frontier models you have to have you know billions of dollars and so it's a real shift away from this you know
34:26
world of startups and I I guess it's going to be interesting to see where that ends up everybody's following
34:32
Nvidia and their impact on the markets or is profound you know readjustments happening to indexes because of that
34:37
it's it's really wild to watch how fast these things happen um yeah but Nathaniel thank you very much for
34:43
joining us on the bullish Studio podcast um please go check out his latest book the trolls of Wall Street check out his
34:50
website shoot him a follow Nathaniel thank you very much for taking the time to join us today thank you so much for
34:55
having me Brian cool thank you