Changing technological conditions are shifting conditions of possibility for retail investors in relation to financial markets as platforms and mobile apps enable individuals to invest in stocks, cryptocurrency, real estate, and other assets and financial narratives, advice, and personal finance and investment content circulate via social media. This research examines how financial subjectivities develop through investment platforms and the construction of online financial communities. We ask how retail investors navigate digital platforms to make sense of investment, define financial goals, and construct financial common sense. Using an innovative mix of computational and qualitative analysis, we extracted data from the subreddit for Fundrise (essentially a private REIT targeting retail investors), grouped conversations into topics with a structural topic model, and then analyzed the data qualitatively. This presentation advances the concept of platform financial subjectivity and argues the interaction of Fundrise and Reddit co-creates financial subjectivity: this "digital-financial terrain" (Chua, 2024) is where individuals allocate capital and enact their investment decisions (Fundrise) and engage in sharing information and debating and questioning investment decisions (Reddit).
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