Pop Finance

Brooke Harrington is the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

• Acknowledgments ix SECTION ONE: Investment Clubs and the "Ownership Society" 1 Chapter 1: Stock Market Populism--Investment Clubs and Economic History 11 Chapter 2: Investment Clubs as Markets in Microcosm 37 SECTION TWO: Cash and Social Currency: Performance in Investment Clubs 73 Chapter 3: Group Composition and the Business Case for Diversity 83 Chapter 4: Getting Ahead versus Getting Along--Decision Making in Investment Clubs 113 SECTION THREE: Aftermath and Implications 143 Chapter 5: Reflections on Investing in the 1990s 149 Chapter 6: Implications and Conclusions 175 Notes 199 References 215 Index 231

"Pop Finance has a great deal to offer many audiences, not just those interested in economic sociology, organizations, markets, and behavioral finance but also scholars who study groups, demography and diversity, social capital, decision making, gender, and identity. And researchers can gain some invaluable methodological insights into fieldwork and multimethod studies from Harrington's careful and creative scholarship. Like the stock market itself, Pop Finance has its ups and downs, but the returns from reading it are well worth the investment."--James Baron, Administrative Science Quarterly "Brooke Harrington has penned a lively and timely book looking at the role played by investment clubs in the emergent investor populism... The book contains a wealth of insights and would be a valuable addition to courses in economic and organizational sociology."--Jeffrey J. Sallaz, Contemporary Sociology "Harrington has made a significant contribution to the field of behavioral finance."--R.R. Irons, Choice "First up is Brook Harrington's Pop Finance, which takes a look at the phenomenal rise and membership of investment clubs, particularly in America. Divided into three strands, the investigation runs an eye over investment clubs in the context of the 'ownership society', the performance of such organisations and what it has meant to be involved in particular clubs since the 1990s, with sociological insight, anecdotal evidence and well thought-out analysis."--Paul O'Doherty, The Investor "Pop Finance is a useful study of the social psychology of amateur participation in the stock market, and it contains a good deal of interesting material showing how social identities are the substrate that investment decisions and market action grow out of."--Kieran Healy, American Journal of Sociology