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If you come out on top with your hedging, will you donate the profits to relief / training / prevention / education causes? Otherwise, you're literally profitin

If you come out on top with your hedging, will you donate the profits to relief / training / prevention / education causes? Otherwise, you're literally profiting from the misfortune of others.

downerending 7y ago
If things are mispriced, the trade is going to happen. There is absolutely no way it could not. If it makes you feel better, many of the wealthiest traders do in fact donate a lot of money to such causes.
- Intermernet 7y ago
  "If things are mispriced, the trade is going to happen. There is absolutely no way it could not." That's fatalistic. The only way the trade happens is if someone places the trade. If you see the trade as immoral, don't place the trade. If someone else profits from it, so be it, but at least you didn't. Please extrapolate the consequences of your trades. If it feels even slightly dodgy, it probably is, and no matter how you justify it, it was a bad thing to do.
  - downerending 7y ago
    As far as that goes, I don't see trades as immoral, as long as traders are following our laws and the rules of the market. I'd go so far as to say it's virtuous. Trades communicate price information, and that's good for everyone. If you're concerned about the immorality of economic choices, then you should consider the idea that you yourself are already acting in grossly immoral ways with your money. Read this to see why: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/05/magazine/the-singer-solution-to-world-poverty.html https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/05/magazine/the-singer-solut...
kenneth 7y ago
Efficient markets are good for society, they give us accurate prices for things, and inform us of the impact of events. They're not perfect, but they're better than everything else. Sometimes they are wrong, the price is wrong. If my intuition is correct, my trades help push the price towards the correct direction and make the markets more efficient. If I'm wrong, I lose money. Hopefully I will profit from spotting an inefficiency in the market that many other did not. Not everything must be altruistic. The misfortune (some inevitable, some preventable due to bad leadership) will happen anyways. I don't see anything wrong with profiting off of it.
- Intermernet 7y ago
  "Efficient markets are good for society, they give us accurate prices for things, and inform us of the impact of events." Efficient evolution is also good for society. This doesn't mean that we actively kill off the branches of humanity that seem less than ideal. Every trade you make has effects in the lives of actual people. Don't look at "markets" as the flow of currency. They are often the livelihood of actual people, and when you start hedging on literal life and death, you don't have much wiggle-room to moralize. "Not everything must be altruistic". No, but if it can be, it should be. "The misfortune (some inevitable, some preventable due to bad leadership) will happen anyways". Yes, this is why I asked if the profits would go to alleviating this in future incidents. You can't stop the current misfortune, but you may be able to stop the future misfortune. Anyway, good health to you and yours.

If you come out on top with your hedging, will you donate the profits to relief / training / prevention / education causes? Otherwise, you're literally profiting from the misfortune of others.

downerending 7y ago

If things are mispriced, the trade is going to happen. There is absolutely no way it could not. If it makes you feel better, many of the wealthiest traders do in fact donate a lot of money to such causes.

Intermernet 7y ago
"If things are mispriced, the trade is going to happen. There is absolutely no way it could not." That's fatalistic. The only way the trade happens is if someone places the trade. If you see the trade as immoral, don't place the trade. If someone else profits from it, so be it, but at least you didn't. Please extrapolate the consequences of your trades. If it feels even slightly dodgy, it probably is, and no matter how you justify it, it was a bad thing to do.
- downerending 7y ago
  As far as that goes, I don't see trades as immoral, as long as traders are following our laws and the rules of the market. I'd go so far as to say it's virtuous. Trades communicate price information, and that's good for everyone. If you're concerned about the immorality of economic choices, then you should consider the idea that you yourself are already acting in grossly immoral ways with your money. Read this to see why: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/05/magazine/the-singer-solution-to-world-poverty.html https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/05/magazine/the-singer-solut...

kenneth 7y ago

Efficient markets are good for society, they give us accurate prices for things, and inform us of the impact of events. They're not perfect, but they're better than everything else. Sometimes they are wrong, the price is wrong. If my intuition is correct, my trades help push the price towards the correct direction and make the markets more efficient. If I'm wrong, I lose money. Hopefully I will profit from spotting an inefficiency in the market that many other did not. Not everything must be altruistic. The misfortune (some inevitable, some preventable due to bad leadership) will happen anyways. I don't see anything wrong with profiting off of it.

Intermernet 7y ago
"Efficient markets are good for society, they give us accurate prices for things, and inform us of the impact of events." Efficient evolution is also good for society. This doesn't mean that we actively kill off the branches of humanity that seem less than ideal. Every trade you make has effects in the lives of actual people. Don't look at "markets" as the flow of currency. They are often the livelihood of actual people, and when you start hedging on literal life and death, you don't have much wiggle-room to moralize. "Not everything must be altruistic". No, but if it can be, it should be. "The misfortune (some inevitable, some preventable due to bad leadership) will happen anyways". Yes, this is why I asked if the profits would go to alleviating this in future incidents. You can't stop the current misfortune, but you may be able to stop the future misfortune. Anyway, good health to you and yours.