4 ms·

It is greed for sure. But it is also the lack of legit opportunities to invest, unless one is an accredited investor. I found a handful of places I wanted to in

by akudha 4y ago

It is greed for sure. But it is also the lack of legit opportunities to invest, unless one is an accredited investor. I found a handful of places I wanted to invest, but I can't, because I am not an accredited investor. I am left with stock market and crypto. It is super funny (sad?) that I can go to Vegas and blow up my life savings in a matter of hours. There are no rules to save me from that. But there are rules conveniently banning non-accredited investors from so many legit investment opportunities. What % of the population are accredited investors? I bet it is not even 10% At this point, there doesn't seem to be any difference between Vegas and Crypto...

throw_pm23 4y ago
This is a good insight -- not just for non-accredited, but for everyone. The persistent low-interest era meant lack of investment opportunities for a decade which explains much of the crypto boom and many other phenomena.
- epolanski 4y ago
  > The persistent low-interest era meant lack of investment opportunities Is that true? Just putting your money on an index fund like S&P would've yielded you an average 14.5% per year in the last decade or an almost 400 % return in a decade. Stock market more than doubled in the last 5 years and it highly outperformed crypto markets. There has been no shortage of investment opportunities, but you people sound simply...looking for highly volatile quick gains.
  - throw_pm23 4y ago
    Paradoxically, the booming of S&P was due to the same: a lot of money lying around, lacking a sound growth opportunity, flowing into stocks and real estate.
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kamarg 4y ago
Per https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accreditedinvestor.asp#toc-requirements-for-accredited-investors https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accreditedinvestor.asp#... the requirements to be an accredited investor are well within reach of quite a few software developers. Apparently I qualify despite being in the Midwest where salaries are lower than the coast and I'm not a particularly great developer. Based on these requirements I would guess that 10% of the population could certainly qualify given that a quick Google search says that almost 9% of the population are millionaires.
wbl 4y ago
There are literally thousands of public US companies to pick from across many industries and sizes.
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> left with stock market and crypto I used to advocate for loosening accredited investor standards, and was involved in a 2014 effort that did so. Then I see this. Where public equities are put on the same pedestal as crypto (and implicitly, private equity), while the universe of commodities, fixed income, credit, real estate and their myriads of derivatives are ignored. Like, I dabble in angel investments. But they’re as risky as crypto, and require thousands of dollars of legal diligence per investment, even to do irresponsibly. We have a gambling problem in our markets that’s been sold to everyday Americans under the guise of democratising finance. We don’t need to block people from being irresponsible. But there should be a low cap, in line with a responsible fraction of one’s wealth that could be burned in a casino, and strict exemptions guarded with exams, not a wealth test. Particularly for the socially useless forms, such as slot machines and crypto futures.
jrumbut 4y ago
> At this point, there doesn't seem to be any difference between Vegas and Crypto... I'm not sure this is fair to Vegas. Sure the odds are against you but if you somehow win they'll cash your chips out. I'm also not sure about the lack of investment opportunities. Returns in the public market and real estate have both been quite decent. In my adult life I've bought index funds and a small, crappy house and they're both worth more than what I bought them for. I appreciate the desire to get involved with early stage companies but I'm not sure how many really want to put in the effort to bring in someone who doesn't have enough money to be an accredited investor. That accreditation bar isn't very high, anyone under it doesn't have much capital by definition.
stanleydrew 4y ago
> But it is also the lack of legit opportunities to invest I think you mean lack of legit opportunities to get rich quick, which is not a new phenomenon. Getting rich quick requires a lot of luck.
xapata 4y ago
Generally, for people who are not accredited investors, the best investment is human capital -- your own education -- so that you can increase your lifetime wage income.
jacquesm 4y ago
In Vegas at least you're supposed to be having a good time blowing through your cash.

by akudha 4y ago

throw_pm23 4y ago

This is a good insight -- not just for non-accredited, but for everyone. The persistent low-interest era meant lack of investment opportunities for a decade which explains much of the crypto boom and many other phenomena.

epolanski 4y ago
> The persistent low-interest era meant lack of investment opportunities Is that true? Just putting your money on an index fund like S&P would've yielded you an average 14.5% per year in the last decade or an almost 400 % return in a decade. Stock market more than doubled in the last 5 years and it highly outperformed crypto markets. There has been no shortage of investment opportunities, but you people sound simply...looking for highly volatile quick gains.
- throw_pm23 4y ago
  Paradoxically, the booming of S&P was due to the same: a lot of money lying around, lacking a sound growth opportunity, flowing into stocks and real estate.

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kamarg 4y ago

Per https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accreditedinvestor.asp#toc-requirements-for-accredited-investors https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accreditedinvestor.asp#... the requirements to be an accredited investor are well within reach of quite a few software developers. Apparently I qualify despite being in the Midwest where salaries are lower than the coast and I'm not a particularly great developer. Based on these requirements I would guess that 10% of the population could certainly qualify given that a quick Google search says that almost 9% of the population are millionaires.

wbl 4y ago

There are literally thousands of public US companies to pick from across many industries and sizes.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> left with stock market and crypto I used to advocate for loosening accredited investor standards, and was involved in a 2014 effort that did so. Then I see this. Where public equities are put on the same pedestal as crypto (and implicitly, private equity), while the universe of commodities, fixed income, credit, real estate and their myriads of derivatives are ignored. Like, I dabble in angel investments. But they’re as risky as crypto, and require thousands of dollars of legal diligence per investment, even to do irresponsibly. We have a gambling problem in our markets that’s been sold to everyday Americans under the guise of democratising finance. We don’t need to block people from being irresponsible. But there should be a low cap, in line with a responsible fraction of one’s wealth that could be burned in a casino, and strict exemptions guarded with exams, not a wealth test. Particularly for the socially useless forms, such as slot machines and crypto futures.

jrumbut 4y ago

> At this point, there doesn't seem to be any difference between Vegas and Crypto... I'm not sure this is fair to Vegas. Sure the odds are against you but if you somehow win they'll cash your chips out. I'm also not sure about the lack of investment opportunities. Returns in the public market and real estate have both been quite decent. In my adult life I've bought index funds and a small, crappy house and they're both worth more than what I bought them for. I appreciate the desire to get involved with early stage companies but I'm not sure how many really want to put in the effort to bring in someone who doesn't have enough money to be an accredited investor. That accreditation bar isn't very high, anyone under it doesn't have much capital by definition.

stanleydrew 4y ago

> But it is also the lack of legit opportunities to invest I think you mean lack of legit opportunities to get rich quick, which is not a new phenomenon. Getting rich quick requires a lot of luck.

xapata 4y ago

Generally, for people who are not accredited investors, the best investment is human capital -- your own education -- so that you can increase your lifetime wage income.

jacquesm 4y ago

In Vegas at least you're supposed to be having a good time blowing through your cash.