Social Media and Market Dynamics Lab (SMMD)
At the Ed Snider Center
Social media has become a powerful force in shaping capital markets, influencing investor sentiment, trading behaviors, and market trends in ways previously unimaginable. Events like the GameStop short squeeze, the rise of meme stocks, and the impact of cryptocurrency movements fueled by platforms like Reddit, X, and TikTok underscore the profound and disruptive role of social media in capital markets. These phenomena, amplified by viral narratives—both authentic and maliciously generated—present unique opportunities and challenges for investors, regulators, and policymakers in a new age defined by information disorder.
The SMMD Lab, in collaboration with the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), will research these phenomena and their influence on financial markets, from their role in market volatility to their ability to drive collective action. NCRI is a globally recognized nonprofit specializing in detecting and analyzing emerging cyber-social threats. The Lab is aligned with the Ed Snider Center’s mission to create world-class interdisciplinary research for an understanding of institutions promoting enterprise. SMMD Lab research will reach far beyond academic walls and make scholarly research relevant for business practitioners and the public while providing experiential learning internships to students at UMD.
Questions about the SMMD Lab Student Internship experience? Email Ed Snider Center student programs coordinator Raquel Ford, rlford@umd.edu, and reference SMMD Lab Internship in the subject line of your email.
SMMD Lab Spotlight, Fall 2026
Disruptions in Capital Markets
Led this semester by Adam Wasserman, Disruptions in Capital Markets explores how market manipulation operates in today's markets and the outsized role social media plays in amplifying it. The lab walks students through the entire process by which a private company becomes public through reverse mergers, direct listings, and traditional IPOs. Students will gain a level of detail most professionals only pick up after years of hands-on experience in investment banking.
By understanding each step of that process, interns learn to recognize where markets are structurally vulnerable to manipulation and how social media can accelerate it. The lab closes with an introduction to tape reading, the discipline of interpreting live trading activity, giving students a practical lens for observing how these dynamics play out in real time.
The cohort is open to current UMD undergraduate and graduate students from any level. Students must show a keen interest in research and academic exploration and have a minimum 3.0 GPA.
Affiliated Researchers and Lab Instructors
Joel Finkelstein
Affiliated Researcher
Dr. Joel Finkelstein is the co-founder and director of the Network Contagion Research Institute, where he leads efforts to expose and forecast the growing tide of hate and extremism on social media using advanced machine learning. A Princeton graduate with award-winning research on addiction, social behavior, and online threats, he also trains the next generation of experts in critical intelligence and social-cyber threat identification. His work has been featured on 60 Minutes, NPR, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
Adam Wasserman
Affiliated Researcher
Internship Experience Co-Lead
Adam Wasserman is a Founding Member of Group 10 Holdings LLC and has worked in the financial markets since the late 1990s. He advises public companies on going public transactions including reverse mergers, direct listings, and traditional IPOs on Nasdaq and NYSE. He provides strategic and structuring guidance throughout the process. He is the inventor of Chatterflow, a financial technology product used by financial institutions and retail traders. Academically, Wasserman holds a Bachelor's degree in Pure Mathematics and a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics. He previously served as an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at Berkeley College and the Interboro Institute in New York City.