Yes, I should have said "at current prices gold is more or less useless"..... Gold has industrial uses but its currently priced out of the market with minor exceptions.
"I am a caring soul" I was born without most emotions. But if you buy a pet rock, beanie babies, beer cans or any other fade in USA that have nearly zero worth, make the money early then sell/hedge later. When it comes to trading, I have no caring soul.
The markets can be brutal. Especially if you are leveraged. And if you have a family to support the guilt and shame levels go through the roof, any blowup gets amplified 10x in your head.
Caring souls and money are like water and oil, they don't mix. I read the Reddit desperate moaning. I can't feel bad for those privileged ignorants who have hundreds of thousands to start with and compromise their and their family future by gambling it all in in a stable virtual coin owned by strangers somewhere... But even if wasn't a stable shitcoin and it was bonds or apple stocks. Stuff like "I lost 500k, all I had, they will take my house away!" Empathy comes easier when the feeling is toward someone vulnerable. Not toward someone stupid.
They are no longer part of the 'privileged' class, that is history, that status has been lost, probably forever. They are now part of the vulnerable class. In a lot of pain and at higher risk of suicide. Personally, as long as they did not cheat or screw anyone over in gaining and then losing that wealth then i can feel sympathy for them.
And which trader doesn't dream that when they start out? It is what motivates us to get into the trading business in the first place. We are all too greedy to just settle for the 10% returns that buy and hold investing in the S&P gives us, we want many multiples of that. I started out in 1999 during the dot com bubble because I thought every tech stock was going to the moon..
Makes sense. And I believe that it is very very painful to go from privileged to poor and homeless. Although, if these people have families, and are risking their home because of a crypto bet... Well, they did screw someone over and over big time! Putting all their net-worth into a bet is very weird. It would make sense if they have no responsibilities, and have very little, the nothing to lose scenario.