Crypto investing should die.
But I would also want to see derivatives die. Like what it even mean to "invest" in QQQ or VIX? This is just gambling (unless you have market inside knowledge).
But I would also want to see derivatives die. Like what it even mean to "invest" in QQQ or VIX? This is just gambling (unless you have market inside knowledge).
I would argue index investing is far less gambling than stock picking because you're betting on the overall direction of a market segment, in this case tech, as opposed to a specific tech stock. Stock investing, in aggregate, can be viewed as a positive-sum game - the value of your holdings tends to appreciate through the contributions of non-investor participants (company customers buying products -> increase in intrinsic value of the company).
VIX on the other hand is a very exotic product, and it's not an investment - it's a hedge, if you can call it that. VIX is a mean-reverting index that spikes up when volatility goes up and drops back down over time, the notional value of which is based on the premium of calls and puts on the S&P 500 over the coming 30 days. It's the derivative of a derivative - a 2nd derivative, if you will. Note that, importantly, you cannot buy a "VIX," there's no such thing. You can buy cash-settled VIX futures where people speculate on the index value on a certain date, and you can buy cash-settled European-style calls or puts (i.e. they cannot be exercised except at expiration, vs American options which can be exercised any time on or before expiration). You can also buy ETFs like VXX and UVXY that use futures and cash positions to attempt to track the index.
QQQ and VIX are very different things.
[edit] When I say VIX futures aren't an investment, check this out lol. Set the graph in [1] to Max duration. Since 2018 it's lost 96.5% of its value. Heck it's lost just shy of 50% of its value since January 1st. They just continuously reverse-split so the numbers aren't silly.
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VXX?p=VXX&.tsrc=fin-srch
But today we are the point where we’re trading each others insurances betting on whether they will be triggered or not. That is bonkers.
Should you call that insurance as well?
The point is, should call options used for hedging regulated as insurance?
Anyway your argument to regulate hedge trading as insurance is lacking.
Who is “we” ? You don’t have to trade anything you don’t want to.
> That is bonkers.
Why?
There are many arguments that index investing is the best long-term strategy. Is NASDAQ the issue?
Regardless, I'm inclined to agree the main point is probably gambling and insider trading.
My gut instinct is to agree. I also feel the same about the fossil fuel industry for the most part.
I am curious which one of those two death wishes would lead to more negative economic impact in the short term.
Based on my ignorant googling of relative values, I think erasing the fossil fuel industry would be much less devastating to investors in general, correct?
I do think that for both industries a multi-decade phase out would give people plenty of time to change their investment portfolios. This would do less economic damage in the short term. That’s a good thing.
In the case of fossil fuels, we still need to go all-in on alternatives for two functions: air travel and sea travel. We can do that in the time scale of 2 to 3 decades imho.
But look up synthetic derivatives as part of the global economy. It is crazy. Such a huge piece of the economy. So crazy that it makes me have crazy thoughts like maybe let it be, with a Tobin tax of sorts assigned to novel anti-poverty solution attempts.
However, no new wells sounds like a great lever to pull.
Forget CO2 for a moment, just the economic flourishi of all those very smart people released from oil exploration duties would be very interesting.
Yes, fossil fuels created the amazing world that we live in, but they are obsolete on this planet. We have alternatives now.
When I look at what oil companies have engineered, I am truly in awe. Sub-sea well heads are nuts! Rigs are gonzo engineering / operations in the coolest ways! Those people should be working on asteroid mining, or civilization scale geothermal, or 2-story-house-sized PV panel laying robots roaming the deserts. They could pull it off, and it is already 2023 ffs.