Go, Economy!

[arjue]

The stock market is fairy dust and you should all feel bad for talking about it.

...He says over the internet with the computer he has.

[dave is ok]

People love to villainise the stock market because of its volatility, but if you take liquidity in as a factor, its really not much worse than the property market.

lawl

[Fe 26]

And then I buy their gear for hilarious prices.

Arbitrage

if I wanted to pretend to be dave

[Fe 26]

No, I don't think people villainize it because of volatility. They villainize it because they perceive it as rigged, and it's not like there is a shortage of evidence there.

people villainize it because its the rich trading super expensive Pokemon cards that some how have the power to ruin people.

If they could completely keep their dick handling to themselves I don't think anyone would care.

[dave is ok]

PBS aired this the other night. Haven't watched it yet but heard it was good:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/untouchables/

[Diff-chan]

people villainize it because its the rich trading super expensive Pokemon cards that some how have the power to ruin people.

If they could completely keep their dick handling to themselves I don't think anyone would care.

For decades, the stock market was a rich man's game. If rich people want to screw each other over, let them at it.

The problem now is people are forced to put significant amounts of money into it, and take on all the risk, if they want to retire with some dignity. So it's easy to get upset about being forced to enter a game you know you can't win.

[GohanX]

People should pay attention and move large 401k's to safer options whenever they have a good amount in there. It didn't affect me since I started my job in 2009, but the crash decimated my co-workers' 401ks, to the point where I actually have more in mine than some of them do after being employed for over 10 years.

I will say that the 401k has been really good to me this year for the most part.

[Diff-chan]

The problem isn't for people who have been employed for 10 years, their accounts should have recovered by now provided they didn't freak out.

It's people who have been employed for 30 years and are looking to retire.

[GohanX]

Yeah, my co-workers are in their 50's. There are other variables, of course, such as the portfolios being too risky for their age, not contributing enough for the company to do a full match, etc.

I hate the stock market, the only reason I'm in is because my company matches if I contribute 6% of my pay, and if we don't have a huge collapse (and I move the money to something safer) I won't lose more than the company contributed.

[Diff-chan]

Yeah, my co-workers are in their 50's. There are other variables, of course, such as the portfolios being too risky for their age, not contributing enough for the company to do a full match, etc.

Or companies not actually letting people diversify properly. At my fiancee's old company, her entire match was company stock. This is like, 9 years after Enron. Great for the bosses, not so great for the little guy.