For someone that only dabbles in investing, what are the reasons people choose ultra-high-risk investments like crypto?
I was pretty heavily involved in the personal finance community on Twitter and there's two camps.
1) VTSAX and chill (basically dump money into an ETF and forget about it) 2) Moar passive income by side hustles and crypto
The latter became more and more common and ultimately drowned out the former. I believe it's because the market was doing so well that folks' risk meter just wasn't registering.
Probably the same reason why people choose to get into MLMs.
That's because they were probably still in school back in 2008. I remember the days of late October 2008 like it was yesterday, and back then I was a no-name computer programmer working for an independent mortgage broker, not a big finance schmuck from Wall Street.
"Gamified" trading apps like Robin Hood have made it all too easy to feel much lower risk that it is in reality though.
For the rest, crypto can be part of a diversified investment strategy. Not all crypto is outright scams... but you do need to be able to handle the volatility.
I bought some (emphasis on the some, sadly) Bitcoin when it was $80. I’ll never get a return like that in my life. Other people are chasing that dragon. Unfortunately it leads them to burgeoning “shitcoins.”
It’s all fine if you view it like the lottery and put “fun money” into it. It’s not fine if it’s your primary investment vehicle. For what it’s worth I still think Bitcoin and Ethereum will be fine and bounce back up, eventually.
Benjamin Graham & David L. Dodd, Security Analysis, 1934
Hash rate is still climbing, the price will follow.
Everything else is noise.