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Hindsight's 20/20? Why would we feel sure that people wouldn't keep up with habits they picked up during COVID? That seems like it could have been similarly lik

• thaumasiotes 4y ago
  Well, you'd ask the question "why weren't they doing it before?". If the answer is "they didn't know about it", you might expect them to keep doing it. But not otherwise. Day trading has had a lot of popular awareness for a long time.
  • civilized 4y ago
    Day trading has all the meaning and fulfillment of cigarette smoking and slot machines, but with none of the addictive chemicals or flashing lights. So it's not surprising that people didn't hold onto the habit once there were better alternatives.
  • alecbz 4y ago
    Even if you know something exists, you might just have never tried it for some reason until something causes you to, at which point you might realize you enjoy it. E.g., I got a bike over COVID, found I liked biking a lot, and have been doing it a lot more now.
    • bobthepanda 4y ago
      That's just one data point though, and the issue is whether or not things would stick for the population as a whole. In a related sense, Peleton did really well during the pandemic and now they're doing really poorly.
    • lumost 4y ago
      From a user perspective, day trading is very similar to online poker or other gambling activities. The exception being that everyone wins sometimes, and everyone loses other times. Anecdotally various betting games had a similar growth curve. People rush in when it’s easy, and then rush out once it’s hard.