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A follow-up question is if Robinhood (by massively reducing trading costs/friction) is socially positive or not. Their career pitch is that they democratize Am

A follow-up question is if Robinhood (by massively reducing trading costs/friction) is socially positive or not. Their career pitch is that they democratize America's financial system (https://careers.robinhood.com/ https://careers.robinhood.com/), but looking at how the reduced friction just leads to Average Joe losing more money, you could credibly view this as a type of destructive "excessive democracy".

RcouF1uZ4gsC 8y ago
If the Average Joe loses more money, maybe they should rename it SherrifOfNotingham as it would be stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
- jhsdlkasjHADSJ 8y ago
  Individuals are actively choosing to make investments. Although I will say that it seems that their risk assessment department is seriously lacking. (see: u/1r0nyman)
  - arcticbull 8y ago
    I dunno, he doubled his money — I think his assessment of risk was spot on ;)
mandelbrotwurst 8y ago
They are increasing access to markets for the average person. They're also encouraging uninformed investment decision-making by doing things like sending push notifications when big name stocks swing way up or down, earning money by selling users' trading data to the highest bidder (increasing the overall fraction of "national product" that ends up in the pockets of financiers as the purchasers of that data make fast moves on that info) , plus that whole debacle with their "checking & savings" product.
- andrei_says_ 8y ago
  What do you mean by “users’ trading data”? If different from the trades themselves?
  - mandelbrotwurst 8y ago
    I just meant the transaction history.
- jacksproit 8y ago
  Don't forget trading on margin and access to options.
hi5eyes 8y ago
simply reduce it down to is gambling socially positive or not
scarejunba 8y ago
Some day in the future we will look back on present day paternalism as a terrible evil. This attitude of “Those people are too stupid to do what they want. We should stop them.” Is awful. Enough.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 8y ago

If the Average Joe loses more money, maybe they should rename it SherrifOfNotingham as it would be stealing from the poor to give to the rich.

jhsdlkasjHADSJ 8y ago
Individuals are actively choosing to make investments. Although I will say that it seems that their risk assessment department is seriously lacking. (see: u/1r0nyman)
- arcticbull 8y ago
  I dunno, he doubled his money — I think his assessment of risk was spot on ;)

mandelbrotwurst 8y ago

They are increasing access to markets for the average person. They're also encouraging uninformed investment decision-making by doing things like sending push notifications when big name stocks swing way up or down, earning money by selling users' trading data to the highest bidder (increasing the overall fraction of "national product" that ends up in the pockets of financiers as the purchasers of that data make fast moves on that info) , plus that whole debacle with their "checking & savings" product.

andrei_says_ 8y ago
What do you mean by “users’ trading data”? If different from the trades themselves?
- mandelbrotwurst 8y ago
  I just meant the transaction history.
jacksproit 8y ago
Don't forget trading on margin and access to options.

hi5eyes 8y ago

simply reduce it down to is gambling socially positive or not

scarejunba 8y ago

Some day in the future we will look back on present day paternalism as a terrible evil. This attitude of “Those people are too stupid to do what they want. We should stop them.” Is awful. Enough.