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- Volv Concierge Issue #39
Hey fam,
Priyanka here, and I'm back with insight into the power of "finfluencers" in light of the GameStop sitch. But before we jump into that and share trends, some things that you should know in this major election week: Americans are backing Trump despite his conviction. PM Modi missed out on a landslide victory, wiping away $386 billion from the Indian market. And, Mexico elected its first woman president!
🤯 ROARING KITTY IS THE NEW WSJ
Roaring Kitty has been stirring up news and net worths since 2021, and he's single-handedly responsible for "meme stocks." In essence, meme stocks are shares based on popularity rather than solid fundamental evidence. To be fair, this is not a new concept. You definitely have a friend who buys stocks based on what people are saying with ZERO research. It's a different league of FOMO when it comes to missing a money-making opportunity. Peg that with the fact that social media is not only handing out megaphones to those with stock recommendations but also allowing us to quantify that hype around followers, likes, and comments, and we have a powerful mix.
It's been proven that mutual funds mentioned under WSJ's 'Category King' always got 30% more capital inflows than the rest. Did every investor do their research? No. They trusted the source.
What people aren't realizing is that to a layman Gen Z, always looking to make a quick buck, a 'finfluencer' with a large following is exactly what the 'Wall Street Journal' is to a Finance-savvy boomer. Let's compare:
| Finfluencer on social | WSJ |
Accessibility | Gen Z is already on social = easy | you intentionally have to go to www.wsj.com = effort |
Price | free recommendations | pay over $100/year |
Format | enjoyable / entertaining | intense reading with professional terminology |
Trust | you can see their face, get a sense of who they are, see that millions of people follow them, making them easily trustable | you don't know whether it's guided by commissions |
Confirmation | you instantly know how many others believe them via comments and likes | zero indication of how others perceive the recommendations |
When it comes to the stock market, no one knows what's going to happen tomorrow. You have definitely heard/seen the disclaimer, "past performance is not an indicator of future performance"… So, when someone with 17 million eyeballs is making a recommendation and backing it up with a $116 million bet, you best believe people will ride the wave (even if it's for a day) and have more conviction in him than the WSJ.
Obviously, regulators aren't going to allow "pump and dump" organized activity through social media. But, you will see a window-dressed version of it since finance companies are pressuring their C-suite to become the new Roaring Kitties. Whether you join in or watch from the sidelines—the only real question is—who is the greater fool?
🔥 More trends to watch out for
AI is taking over Hollywood, we all saw that coming… but there's already a streaming service for AI-generated shows. That was quick.
Get used to "swicy" food. Every brand is jumping on this new bandwagon.
You're probably already "orbiting" your crush... but now it is legitimized as a dating trend.
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This newsletter was edited by Ishita Sen.