tobiasdeml

This was a stroke of genius from HBO. We had a long list of potential narrators (who would have been more of a "voice of god", which I really didn't want) and they brought up Kieran; I had watched 3 episodes of Succession by then and it suddenly clicked - if the narrator was a character, then we wouldn't be pretentious and act as if we knew all information about the stock market.

The rest was just the usual industry stuff with agents and the network. He was super nice to work with and we recorded the VO together in a studio for about 6 hours.

The biggest surprise was that naked short selling wasn't a Reddit conspiracy theory. I clearly remember being on a video call with John and Burke, our producing partners and Wall Street insiders, and me saying something to the extent of
"ok, here's all these cooky things people on Reddit are saying", and when I got to naked short selling, John looked straight at the camera, totally nonchalant, and said "Oh no, that's a real thing. I even know these guys down the street who research that stuff. And I had trouble with that at a past company".

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The deeper I went, the crazier these "WTF" moments were, talking off the record to real insiders who I cannot name, revealing how much dirty laundry there was and still is on Wall Street.

We always felt it had an episodic nature to it, and for some people that aren't as familiar with finance - I literally made the series with a very broad audience in mind - they need a breather, a way to either go to the bathroom or sleep over it for a night, and then have enough headspace for the next episode.

More episodes - that all depends on what happens next. I think there are a lot of interesting things happening, like the unprecedented amount of DRSing that's happening in GME (that's a historical first); there's a great movement towards market reform with #WeTheInvestors, and Tobin Mulshine's whistleblowing opens the potential gates for other whistleblowers to come forward.

For example, I already know of the architect of one of the major naked shorting tools that Wall Street used less than 10 years ago.

It's all on the table, but I can't say for sure. What I do know is that the rest of the story is in all of our hands, and the future will not just be written by the Wall Street powers that be. And having 2 episodes certainly gives us the chance to make more. ;-)

Where do we go from here? We demand change through nonviolent social action. You can really look at investor rights as human rights - every human should have the right to a fair market, a fair place where they can grow their savings and reinvest the proceeds of their labor and efforts into companies they believe in, and create the economic future for the next generation.

I strongly believe that what happened in early 2021 triggered a groundswell of activism and spread of financial literacy that Wall Street has not seen before, certainly not at that scale. Also, January 2021 was a show of force - it woke a lot of Wall St firms up to realizing that there's a new power to be dealt with.

Retail investors coordinating with each other for systemic reform is the missing piece of the puzzle that can create the pressure cooker situation to force systemic change. Reform isn't dependent on stock movements, it's about social movements.

I would encourage everyone to check out two excellent initiative on the systemic reform side which we very intentionally feature on www.gamingwallstreet.org because we truly believe in them:

1. #WeTheInvestors is led by Dave Lauer - who is very sophisticated in understanding market structure issues - and is about retail investors joining forces in advocacy, and channeling the righteous anger about systemic inequities, lack of transparency, gaming of the system and exploitation of individual investors into a hardened, collective spear that can demand change.
2. www.bettermarkets.org is led by Dennis Kelleher - who is in "Gaming Wall Street", and Dennis is a force to be dealt with, directly in Washington DC. I think he has incredibly high integrity and his past experience in the U.S. Senate give him a unique understanding of the regulatory process and the unbelievable power of lobbying in DC. I think he creates a balancing force in the political process for market reform and can very much use the support of individual investors across the United States.

Change will take time. It's a marathon, not a sprint - but the arc of the universe doesn't just bend towards justice. It takes tenacity and unity to actively bend it towards justice.

If you're asking if I own GME or AMC - yes, both.