I used to think that the market “drove engagement” - keeping people with money interested in the dealings of the companies they invested their money in.
No, casinos state the odds on every game and tell you if you play long enough, you will lose everything.
The stock market actually calls itself a free market, which is hilarious.
Well, of course, it’s different than a Casino. It’s bigger. It’s a longer running game. But it still pushes those “get rich quick” addiction buttons. You’re right, there are addiction awareness resources built up around traditional gambling channels, disclosure that “the house always wins.” In a sense, the stock markets are a long enough, slow enough running game that many players do actually die before the longer running Ponzi schemes collapse - so maybe the lack of addiction support groups is a little big justified there.
There’s also an unclear distinction drawn between “day traders” and “long term investors” which is so fuzzy as to be meaningless anywhere near the boundary, if there even is a boundary. How can you tell if your mutual fund is day trading?
Way, way back in the day, when the primary model of stocks and the stock market was…
I buy 1 share of Company X stock, for Y dollars, and once a year, it pays me Z dollars as a dividend…
Yes, with that paradigm, it made a lot more sense to say that this ‘drove engagement’… because a stock operated more like a miniature bond in/for a company.
But, now the whole model is ‘stock price must go up forever’, nest eggs are capital gains realized upon retirement, that you take loans out against to avoid paying cap gains tax…
…not dividends gradually paid into a growing retirement savings account, managed by a regional or local bank / credit union.
Which entirely blows up that way of thinking.
Yeah, it used to be the case that what we now call a ‘passive income stream’… yeah, you used to be able to do that by just buying some decent dividend paying stocks.
And you were thus incentivized to be present for shareholder votes and such, to manage the governance of your investment, your income stream.
that is exactly how the US markets are setup, you can compare the US markets to EU or practically any other besides Japan and they’re drastically less exciting.
the US’s is designed around “maximizing lquidity” via a mix of over and under regulation all meant to increase volatility.
I used to think that the market “drove engagement” - keeping people with money interested in the dealings of the companies they invested their money in.
Lately, I feel like it’s just a giant Casino.
No, casinos state the odds on every game and tell you if you play long enough, you will lose everything. The stock market actually calls itself a free market, which is hilarious.
Well, of course, it’s different than a Casino. It’s bigger. It’s a longer running game. But it still pushes those “get rich quick” addiction buttons. You’re right, there are addiction awareness resources built up around traditional gambling channels, disclosure that “the house always wins.” In a sense, the stock markets are a long enough, slow enough running game that many players do actually die before the longer running Ponzi schemes collapse - so maybe the lack of addiction support groups is a little big justified there.
There’s also an unclear distinction drawn between “day traders” and “long term investors” which is so fuzzy as to be meaningless anywhere near the boundary, if there even is a boundary. How can you tell if your mutual fund is day trading?
Way, way back in the day, when the primary model of stocks and the stock market was…
I buy 1 share of Company X stock, for Y dollars, and once a year, it pays me Z dollars as a dividend…
Yes, with that paradigm, it made a lot more sense to say that this ‘drove engagement’… because a stock operated more like a miniature bond in/for a company.
But, now the whole model is ‘stock price must go up forever’, nest eggs are capital gains realized upon retirement, that you take loans out against to avoid paying cap gains tax…
…not dividends gradually paid into a growing retirement savings account, managed by a regional or local bank / credit union.
Which entirely blows up that way of thinking.
Yeah, it used to be the case that what we now call a ‘passive income stream’… yeah, you used to be able to do that by just buying some decent dividend paying stocks.
And you were thus incentivized to be present for shareholder votes and such, to manage the governance of your investment, your income stream.
that is exactly how the US markets are setup, you can compare the US markets to EU or practically any other besides Japan and they’re drastically less exciting.
the US’s is designed around “maximizing lquidity” via a mix of over and under regulation all meant to increase volatility.