> Trading for most people used to be deliberately obtuse.

When Robinhood initiates options trading by asking you, "Do you think the stock is going to go up?" on a phone interface, they've decided that trading is now just for morons.

Why wouldn't trading be for morons? Should we also limit loans to people who have a specific minimum IQ or do we live in a free society?

Maybe not based on that metric, but is it really unreasonable to limit loans to people who have demonstrated that they have the ability to understand the terms that they're agreeing to?

Idk if we should, but we do. Generally getting a loan includes this thing called the credit approval process. If one is unable to responsibility manage their personal finances they have a good chance of being limited in their access to loans.

Maybe they'll introduce binary options soon.

Imagine on iOS you randomly gets a pop up "do you think gold spot is gonna be above 1250 in 2 hours?" -> long tap the notification directly place an order

Hahaha, I love this comment because when I'm trying to buy options it always makes me chuckle how they allow these type of people to trade naked options

You can't buy a naked call/put.

Naked, covered, and cash secured are terms used to describe how you are covering your downside when you are selling options.

When you buy an option, your downside is always the cash you spent on the option, so you don't have different types of purchases. When you buy you are just buying an option.

As for Robinhood, they don't allow for selling of naked options, only covered and cash secured.

Interesting, thanks!

People just like to have options, I guess.

The average person is more likely to lose money day trading than gain (especially considering the time sink). It's basically boring slow gambling wrapped in the guise of The American Dream.

The average person shouldn't day trade. I buy stocks and basically hold them for years. I've picked some losers and I've picked some winners... but overall my return over the last ~5 years is 19%.

Buying stock with dividends helps even more, now you get money back to invest into more stock :-D

If you just bought s&p or brk (arguably conservative choices) you'd have earned 60%.

Such is the name of the game :-) I have invested relatively little, I just enjoy playing and seeing if I can "win".

Everything else is in index funds.

And by not day trading you're not gambling? Let's just call it betting. What stance are you promoting that is "not betting"?

Stocks are traded everywhere in the world. What’s this have to do with The American Dream!?

The American Dream is to accumulate wealth, and often involves looking for a way to get rich quick, some people think they can do it by day trading. There's a certain American stereotype of playing stocks to become wealthy.

There are cultures where they don't dream about accumulating wealth?

Less than the extent that Americans do? absolutely. In many ways they're obsessed with it. Look how much the gambling industry makes there.

Macau's gambling revenue dwarfs Las Vegas's. None of the top 10 biggest money making casinos are in the United States.