Trading AI stocks is starting to look indistinguishable from online gambling. Like sports betting and prediction markets, it has the necessary ingredients:
- Intermittent Reinforcement: The unpredictable dopamine hit of daily price swings.
- Social Reinforcement: High-pressure FOMO when “everyone is doing something.”
- Gamification: Onboarding high schoolers to apps with $14 sign-up bonuses.
[…] Na and her co-workers joke they should sell their underwear to buy more shares. “Even friends who have never touched stocks are getting into it,” Na said. “Everyone’s doing something.”
Accelerating demand for AI-related goods has spurred investors—in Taipei, taxi drivers trade stocks mid-ride—and boosted salaries.
More than 180,000 trading accounts for children 18 or younger were created in the first three months of the year at Toss Securities, a South Korean brokerage. The accounts require parent approval to open and allow children to trade on their own. A recent promotion offered to deposit $14 into new accounts opened by high-school students.
Let’s see how this one will end.
Source: WSJ (gift link)