A bunch of people who didn't attend Columbia, Harvard, and Yale Business Schools are using a fucking phone app to do what only they used to be able to do - manipulate the market. And its pissing them off. For decades, these arrogant little shits were told they were the Masters of the Universe.
Now they're finding out firsthand that it just ain't so, and their egos can't handle it.
You tell me.
People having access to exotic investments they didn't understand (and hence couldn't correctly price) was exactly how we got 2008.
Wall Street benefits from volatility and all of this trading, they aren't losing any edge.
Really great contribution there, appreciate you sharing your thoughts and furthering the conversation.
What LogicSlave said is dead on accurate. Lowering the barrier to market entry has empowered millions of people to make their money work for them. Is some of it unhealthy? Absolutely. But not all gamblers are addicts, and its not all counter-productive either. The downside is that many are jumping in without fully understanding the risks, but in my opinion, the best way to learn the game is to play. Investopedia fantasy portfolios are a risk free way to try it out, but those have been around for decades and few people use it as an opportunity to learn the market.
Markets and the choices you make them in can be incredibly complex. Most people don't have the time and drive to deal with that, no matter how much you "democratize" the technology.
Fully agreed here. My point wasn't to say that people are taking on Wall St. and getting rich quick by developing a deep understanding the mechanizations of the market. But you don't have to understand a gamma squeeze to make money. In the past, brokers were a luxury only the wealthy could afford, and I think it's a great thing that that is no longer the case.