GameStop: How Technology and Social Media Form Modern Market Dynamics

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: How does digitization affect the social and technical components of financial markets? This research shows that automation reconfigures the social nature of financial markets, but it does not eliminate the prevalent political and hierarchical structure that exists. Through analysis of previous technologies and their incorporation into the trading process, this thesis displays how the interaction of social and technical attributes has formed the identity of American financial markets since their inception, and it continues to do so today. It argues that the modern technologies of high-frequency trading algorithms and mobile trading platforms provide an opportunity for equal access, but the way that they are currently being used is reinforcing a social hierarchy in the markets. This argument is formed based on the results of a case study on a market event involving GameStop and Robinhood, as well as a historical analysis of the phases of digitization in American financial markets. This research indicates that technology and electronification of the trading process is not enough to dissolve the inequities present in the markets today. This discovery leads to the conclusion that it is necessary for the government to take regulatory action to improve price transparency and protect the interests of retail investors.

Type of resource	text
Date created	September 2020 - May 2021

Author	Cornacchia, Julia
Advisor	Granovetter, Mark

Subject	GameStop
Subject	Science Technology and Society
Subject	Stanford University
Subject	finance
Subject	financial markets
Subject	markets
Subject	Robinhood
Subject	mobile trading platforms
Subject	high frequency trading
Subject	algorithmic trading
Subject	retail traders
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/sp029wg3049

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

Preferred Citation: Cornacchia, Julia. (2021). GameStop: How Technology and Social Media Form Modern Market Dynamics. Unpublished Honors Thesis. Stanford University, Stanford CA.

Stanford University, Program in Science, Technology and Society, Honors Theses

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