These types of groups work well because most people aren’t comfortable sharing their detailed personal finances with neighbors or friends. Why not go to a digital community and throw out the idea: “Who are you using to help you buy a second home or lakefront property?” It’s an opportunity to chat with like-minded individuals and it’s even better, in some cases, than talking to your friends because of the anonymity that most online forums provide. Maybe your individual goal is to send your kid to the best college or to buy lakefront property. They can ask: “Who has the best customer service for lending?” Or: “Which advisors, regardless of geography, are providing the best investment performance?” Groups like WallStreetBets can influence where people seek personal finance advice. The reason retail traders had such power-in-numbers is because of the availability of digital tools and environments where they can go to align their strategies, don’t you think? Jim Kearney

The whole r/WallStreetBets and GameStop scenario would have been impossible without the organizing power and scale of online communities. As our Trends Reports puts it: 'This new era of digital community is a humbling reminder that the internet is still young, and we’re still just beginning to understand how it will evolve and the ways it will shape society.' Margo Dunlap Both Dunlap and Kearney produced some useful insights, but there is much more to learn about today’s online communities. To help interpret this event, we convened Margo Dunlap, our NXT Trend Research Group Lead, and Jim Kearney, Managing Principal in the Financial Services Consulting practice at EPAM, to talk it out.

The recent GameStop saga proved our prescience. “Increasingly, digital communities are wielding the power of the collective to influence politics, the market, and culture,” it says in our NXT 2021 Trends Report, noting that digital communities were certain to be cast in a leading role in the drama of this year.

Blood bowl 2 gamestop