Hello friends,
My name is Sam and I've been a finance geek for as long as I can remember. When I was 10 years old, my dad made me a custodial eTrade account and suggested a few REALLY bad stocks, that, in retrospect, we're totally part of the .com bubble. I went on to study finance in college and spent countless hours studying financial bubbles, investment strategy, pricing models, etc. I then got a job at Morgan Stanley working in equity operations before I quit to become a full time entrepreneur.
Honestly, I'm really no expert, I've never claimed to be. The world of finance is always growing and changing and is really dynamic and challenging. There is SOOOO much I don't know and I don't understand. I've made some terrible investment decisions in my life and even to this day. This is why it is so fucking frustrating living in this day and age. I've spent my entire life reading the Wall Street Journal, following the markets, picking stocks, PREACHING the efficient market hypothesis, albeit, usually, to deaf ears. If fully believe that for the most part, markets are efficient, and there is no real way for any person to use charts or magic or whatever to make consistent predictions. My strategy is to slowly buy fractional shares of SPY and not really touch my portfolio. SURE, sometimes there are speculative bets I come across that seem fun, And I buy and sell, but I know and understand its for fun. and if they tank , they tank, and if they go "to the moon" I'm very humble and never really brag about it or talk about it or anything because I understand that that puts other people in an uncomfortable position and could lead someone to make poor choices based on my statistical anomaly.
Anyway... sorry for the long background. What I want to get across is, it's so hard to be a finance geek in the day and age because so many people are just regurgitating bad information they see on TikTok or twitter or wherever... and that bad part is... for now, they think they're right.. the prices have gone up, and these people are totally falling for both the confirmation and availability bias... do me a favor, go on twitter or google or even right here on reddit right now. type in bitcoin. What pops up? It's almost always a slew of 10Xers people bragging about their gains, not so humble teenage prodigy touting the newest coin or meme. Telling people to hold for dear life. You can rarely find anything on the contrary. I've been searching for bitcoin skeptics for months on every and any platform and have found a handful. I literally just found this group after months of searching "bitcoin skeptic" on reddit. These technoplatform algorithms are showing what is the most engaging and popular news ( what else is new) and are definitely not allowing users to see the whole picture. To see that there is a world of very valid skeptics out there. Skeptics who hold advanced degrees, financial licenses, and even Nobel prizes .
Search bitcoin on YouTube. There are Thousands of videos with Millions of views that for the most part are all bullish. Professor Carol Alexander's videos about crypto skepticism, have 500 views. not with a k, just 500, presumably, just from her students that needed to view them. I'm assuming the reason for this disconnect is the fact that, Actually understanding bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and it's risks is inherently boring. Carols videos, while super informative, are confusing and hard to sit through. It's so much easier for someone to watch a 1 minute video of some guy yelling with laser beams coming out of his eyes and telling you to buy and hold and blah blah fucking blah.
We're officially in the age where information is dead. Those with actual knowledge to share are pushed to the wayside in lieu of someone who is better looking, fast talking, and confident. It's sad but its the reality were living in. and until anything changes, I think people are going to keep falling prey to this very bad availability bias and will keep believing what the algorithms feed them. Any attempt to reason with these people, or explain to them legitimate, scientific, economic principals is futile. It is with a heavy heart that I have completely given up on even talking about finance at family event or when out with friends. When the conversation comes up, I just stay silent. I'm sorry, but I cant be a part of this stupid little game anymore.
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