Comment by JumpCrisscross
1 day ago
> it just drives investors to actual gambling because they cant get the exposure they were already looking for
This argument gets trotted out by Wall Street every decade or so, usually under the guise of "democratising" some piece of finance. It's almost always bunk.
Most investment capital is looking for safe returns. It's not competing with gambling. Even within the high-risk end of finance, the game is in turning that high risk into above-market but predictable returns through portfolio mechanics. (Fuckups aside, you can't generally portfolio mechanic your way out of the negative expectated value of a lottery ticket.)
More simply: the notion that we need to increase risk and profitiabilty for intermediaries in investments to keep people from gamblig is a false economy. Gamblers are seeking a different thrill from what financial markets are designed to provide. To the degree we have a problem, it's in letting our markets look more like casinos.
> exposure they were already looking for
Broadly speaking, if you want exposure to the economy you're investing. If you want exposure to a number that goes up, you're gambling. This is an overly-simplistic delineation. But it works for first-order estimates.
> Gamblers are seeking a different thrill from what financial markets are designed to provide.
I'd almost agree if the volume on $SPY zero day options wasn't so immense.
The same financial products are used in both gambling and smart investing. The canonical example here being options. And the restrictions on what the public can and cannot invest in are complete bullshit. You can't buy shares in a series A startup because that is deemed to be too risky for anyone who is not an "accredited" investor ("accredited" here literally means rich). But anyone who wants to can bet on sports, go to a casino, or buy a 2x levered VIX ETF.
>or buy a 2x levered VIX ETF.
Which isn't even tied to the spot price of VIX on a daily basis.
So buying VIX as a hedge against black swan events (or Donald Trump's stupidity) is a losing trade, which is wild to me.
It's not tied to the spot price of the VIX because there is no spot price. It's a third order calculated quantity based on options pricing. Not that anyone who gambles on that ETF knows that.