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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

#601

Post by mcdeltat »

bongodongobob wrote: post #24

If you have the math chops, you should really try to get into it just so you can realize you are not going to make a money making algorithm. I got knee deep into it out of boredom during Covid and was able to have the "aha" moment where you realize the best you can do is buy index funds or just long hold companies you believe in that are in your area of expertise.

Extremely solid advice. As someone who has worked at a trading company that makes the big bucks, I can say you (as a single investor) will never consistently beat the market on any remotely interesting instrument. The sheer resources the institutional traders put in is mind boggling. You must understand that you truly are gambling in the face of such a sophisticated opponent. The quicker you understand, the better (hopefully without losing your life savings first). And don't even think about derivatives, you will get eaten up and spat out like you can't imagine.

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

#602

Post by janalsncm »

There’s something to be said about our economy that doesn’t seem to value hard work and long term planning anymore for the prospects of a middle class life. It’s not enough to study hard, work hard, climb the ranks of a company, etc. Those days are over. For most people, buying a house and raising a family (normal, healthy aspirations) are out of reach.

We live in a ruthlessly “meritocratic” society. Not that we have a meritocracy but we very much value the idea of merit earning wealth. But the corollary to saying that people with merit will do well is that people who aren’t doing well must not have merit. In other words they are useless.

For a person (especially young men) without the luck or credentials to be considered to have “merit” their only chance to make it is to bet it all on black. I would suggest that’s not a very healthy or sustainable way forward.

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

#604

Post by veunes »

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…

Illusion of genius

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

#605

Post by veunes »

mordymoop wrote: post #297
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…

The problem is that I have been seeing some version of the “crash imminent, sell everything” thesis for my entire life. Almost nobody who “saw the crash coming” in the case of the dotcom bubble, or covid, or the subprime crisis made any money, because almost nobody gets the timing or magnitude of the crash right. You can find YouTube channels that have been warning people that a crash is imminent for the last two yea…

Your point is that patience and discipline, not panic or overconfidence, are the real superpowers in investing

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

#607

Post by veunes »

habosa wrote: post #247

Many criticize the retail investor for treating the stock market like gambling, but I think it really does resemble gambling more than investing these days. How many times have we seen a companies value jump or fall by billions based on a tweet? How many meme stocks have we seen? How many pump and dump SPACs have there been? How many companies have never (and likely will never) made a dime in profit but see their mar…

The best we can do is navigate this landscape with open eyes

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

#608

Post by veunes »

navs wrote: post #343

I lost my life savings chasing the dopamine hit and can relate to this. I'm in my mid 30s and suffering from career burnout. I know I can't afford a home when I can barely work full-time so I figured I'd trade. I was up, and up and up! Then I was down, then up, then down. One morning I woke up and I was so down, I sold out of fear. Now I'm left with so little I might as well be starting from scratch. This feels like…

It’s easy to convince ourselves we’re “investing” and not gambling

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

#609

Post by RHSman2 »

Tade0 wrote: post #527
netsharc wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably the benefit of you not being 24/7 glued to the broadcast system called social media. I imagine in the 70s you spent your time mostly with friends in real life, and geopolitics was just 10 easily missable minutes on TV every evening. Sure maybe there's a minority of kids with social media/smartphone bans nowadays, but they're probably as plentiful as 13 year olds interested in geopolitics in the 1970s.…

You don't need social media to be aware of what's going on in the world. At 13 (early 2000ish) I was reading the newspapers my parents brought home and debated a friend of mine who in turn read his parents' newspapers - mutually exclusive sets from opposite ends of the political spectrum. I need ask: when is the best moment to, as a parent, introduce a young person to the news cycle? You'll inevitably have to since t…

The difference between me as a 13 yr old (1990) and my 13 yr old son now is we have a different dimension which is way more important. Critical thinking about sources of knowledge.

As a parent now, we ‘know’ more than ours did. Helping with guidance is our role!

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

#610

Post by namaria »

mordymoop wrote: post #297
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…

The problem is that I have been seeing some version of the “crash imminent, sell everything” thesis for my entire life. Almost nobody who “saw the crash coming” in the case of the dotcom bubble, or covid, or the subprime crisis made any money, because almost nobody gets the timing or magnitude of the crash right. You can find YouTube channels that have been warning people that a crash is imminent for the last two yea…

The market is people making bets on bubbles and crashes. That's how we get prices.

At any point or during any stretch of time, one of these sides will be correct.

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