Comment by mancerayder
2 months ago
People want a chance to get rich. They also want excitement.
Doesn't that say more about our jobs that are a) dead-end for most b) financially limiting, with a salary that goes up slowly, if at all, unless you find a new job
People want the chance to win, and some meaning, and some daily purpose.
No one cares anymore about the stats of "stock pickers" "day traders" and other arguments for DCAing into index funds and not touching it until you're 65. A 60/40 portfolio. Don't time the market. Efficient market hypothesis. We live in a new world now, and people are willing to gamble. Sentiment is obvious for the average person to get a sense, and they trade on sentiment.
Maybe give people new meaning somehow, or a chance to make unscheduled money other than the slow-as-molasses salary increases.
You describe the psychological motivations for gambling.
The psychological motivation for taking risk.
I don't necessarily call all risky stock activity gambling. At the risk of splitting hairs, it's a little different to buy Tesla stock because of, for the sake of argument, let's say a really bad reason (CEO smart, car go fast), i.e. uninformed, than it is to bet on a number on a roulette wheel.
I think we paint it as gambling because gambling has an aura of naughty judgment about it, as in, "Oh, you're just gambling because you made an uninformed stock purchase." I'd prefer the term speculating or risky stock picking. Gambling, which is banned in many places and is against the law in religious texts, has a taboo because it's addictive. I daresay only a minority of stock trading bros are addicted in that way.