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More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

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Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#221

Post by rchaud »

lifestyleguru wrote: post #114
epolanski wrote: post #9

I remember a controversial scamming figure in Italy that made millions by selling lucky numbers for lotteries or exploiting people's stupidity to part them with their life savings. Her motto was "idiots _have_ to be scammed". While this figure was morally and ethically deplorable, it always made me think how her motto essentially implied that there was an element of pure natural selection happening and she saw hersel…

> Her motto was "idiots _have_ to be scammed". So all Americans in context of health insurance? All Italians in context of their byzantine bureaucracy and taxation system? All Europeans in context of social and retirement systems? All developed world in context of housing market? It turned into dog eat dog "eat the sucker" attitude. On top of the hierarchy we got really nasty predators, they look at YOU and see an id…

Most of the social protections and regulations underpinning life in the 'developed world' came about due to the horrors of the Great Depression and World War II. States knew that without a social safety net, availability of jobs and housing, national unity would be impossible to have, especially with an expansionist Soviet Union next door.

All of these lessons are being rapidly forgotten. Casino capitalism wrecked people's retirements in 2008. Almost 2 decades on, housing costs are out of control for millions of working people, because private equity can buy homes with cash at 0%, while families have to show all sorts of creditworthiness for the privilege of paying 6%.

On top of that, businesses that are already profitable (Google/FB, oil and gas, banks) are now charging even more because they can get away with it.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#222

Post by exe34 »

gcanyon wrote: post #139
BobbyTables2 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too don’t understand why technical analysis isn’t classified as a genre of fiction…

Ugh. I vividly remember when my stepfather tried to get me involved. He was retired, and had a nice nest egg built up from a small business. He was a smart man. But he was paying thousands of dollars per year for a monthly newsletter that contained . And he patiently showed me how he started with a row in the table that met then followed to the column that met and that was the choice he made in the market. And I'm th…

sounds like he had a hobby.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#223

Post by Bud »

in-pursuit wrote: post #129
spoonfeeder006 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats the difference between "idiots have to be scammed" vs "people who can't fend off a knife fighter while en route to the grocery store have to be stabbed"? Some people are gullible, or trusting. This doesn't mean they don't have other gifts, or most of all good intentions. Applying an evolutionary pressure against people who can't fend off knife attackers is ultimately useless for human wellbeing The real issue i…

There’s obviously a huge difference between a scam and a violent attack. The person being scammed doesn’t ever lose their agency and willingly participates. That’s very different from a knife attack, where the victim would leave at every moment if possible.

[dead]

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#224

Post by iknowSFR »

siltcakes wrote: post #208
jondwillis wrote: post #205

At this point I’m just watching a slightly younger cohort of men repeat all of my worst digital addiction mistakes like getting inserted into the online video game -> toxic online behavior pipeline (or worse, fascism), ideologies (Musk), crypto and options gambling (thanks Reddit a la 2013 for all of the crypto communities and WSB) too much computer (ouch, my neck, arms and back.) I’m not doing particularly well, esp…

Are they also drinking tons of soda? I can’t believe how much I used to drink. I don’t touch any drink with sugar (other than lactose/latte) nowadays. It’s so disgusting, don’t know how I ever did it in the first place.

Broad brushstrokes incoming and pure speculation but I wrote it out anyway…

Today’s youth are more proactive with their identities these days than we were. We were and remain reactive with our identities. That preference influences what triggers the dopamine hits needed for life.

The drugs of a reactive identity culture are sugar, alcohol, narcotics, work, anything that’s a trope in movies made by boomers. These drugs have consequences that shape the user’s identity. For example: weight gain or burnout.

But the drugs of a proactive identity culture are those that drive the person’s perception of their identity. The live ahead of the consequences. Things like digital social networks, status symbols like shoes, colleges, or jobs, and anything that drives success in those status symbols. Example: Adderall helps the user study, which helps the user get better grades, which opens the door to a better college, which allows the user to flaunt that college association as part of their identity. That doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences to those drugs but those consequences aren’t tropes of modern life just yet because we’re still normalizing their outcomes.

All of this to say: sodas aren’t their thing because soda is “unhealthy” and that drags on their identity.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#225

Post by rchaud »

CliveBloomers wrote: post #7

The regular 9-to-5 is seen as a last resort now—it’s almost like you’ve failed if you don’t have a side hustle. That’s the vibe. With AI and machine learning platforms making waves, especially for traders, the game has completely changed. The barrier to entry? Practically gone. These platforms have made it so easy to get started that anyone with a bit of curiosity can jump in. It’s not the exclusive playground of the…

> Trading isn’t just something “some people” do—it’s turning into a thriving industry where regular folks are learning the ropes and doing well for themselves.

Said every forex / options / crypto course seller ever.

Anybody remember the "Day Trade your way out of Debt" late night infomercials in the '90s?

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#226

Post by gadflyinyoureye »

another_poster wrote: post #211

Most people have a gambler’s mindset about the stock market: > […G]ambling in financial markets often goes undetected […] because individuals confuse their actions [i.e., speculating] with investing. The typical person speculates on the market — buying low during their working years, and hopefully selling high during their retired years.

That’s because that’s all we can do. Buffet is an actual investor. His stock position allows him to remake a company if necessary. My stock position might buy some chickie bugs at Wendy’s. I have no direct control over any company I “own” and my voting position and the position of all retail investors is functionally nil.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#227

Post by ndriscoll »

smolder wrote: post #45

This title is stupid. Comparisons to crack cocaine should have stopped in the 90's or early 00's at the latest. They're never made by people who have the slightest idea about what idea crack was, and whoever wrote that is extremely out of touch. About crack: The public discourse was racist, the CIA had a lot to do with creating the problem, and in general it's no worse than the cocaine my fellow white people seem to…

It is worse than powder cocaine though, just as meth is worse than an extended release Adderall despite both being amphetamine variants. I believe meth (a "white people drug") carries harsher penalties than other forms of amphetamine?

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#228

Post by Pooge »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #210

> They expect the problem to worsen. The stock market has climbed 23% this year... The problem will resolve itself if (when?) the market crashes. I remember the run up to the dot-com bust. I was too much of a bumpkin at the time to even know how I would trade stocks — but I listened to an acquaintance go on and on about how much he was making on the market. At the time I guessed that he was much smarter than me — tha…

I have to disagree with you. Comparing long-term, passive investors to short-term speculators seems unfair and simplistic to me.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#229

Post by intended »

jondwillis wrote: post #205

At this point I’m just watching a slightly younger cohort of men repeat all of my worst digital addiction mistakes like getting inserted into the online video game -> toxic online behavior pipeline (or worse, fascism), ideologies (Musk), crypto and options gambling (thanks Reddit a la 2013 for all of the crypto communities and WSB) too much computer (ouch, my neck, arms and back.) I’m not doing particularly well, esp…

Wsb was 2013??

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#230

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

rchaud wrote: post #207
hindsightbias wrote: post #140

What’s old is new again. If you worked in a tech office in the late 90’s, every other guy had Ameritrade or similar up in a window. It was the gaming/porn you could get away with at work. Dot com roasted them all.

Wasn't it still $10/trade back then? That adds user friction, which discourages the gambling aspect much more than "free" trades provided by Robinhood (free as in they'll sell your order flow data to third parties).

Robinhood is an ironic name for the app that enables retail investors get cleaned out by the rich at scale.
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