The isolation imposed by the spread of the coronavirus has led to an influx of young people not going to college actively due to the ban on gathering larger groups to engage in risky stock transactions.
In their spare time, they are increasingly turning to stock trading through fin-tech startup platforms, but many without experience in the world of finance are at huge risk of losing money and causing consequences on the financial markets.
A 20-year-old stock trader made a loss of over $ 700,000 through the free fin-tech platform Robinhood. Unfortunately, the young Alexander Kearns from the University of Nebraska committed suicide after the debt.
According to Burton G. Malkil, a Princeton economist, chief investment officer at Wealthfront and author of “A Random Walk down Wall Street”, says experienced brokers use many analytical methods to make decisions, unlike inexperienced young stock traders who do so with mobile applications.
"The coronavirus has done devastating damage to the health and vitality of our economy. In terms of financial markets, it has also led to a complete mania. Individuals who are at home, working remotely with flexible schedules, without social activities, and without sports for live viewing and betting, are increasingly turning to daily stock trading on the stock exchange.
Mobile applications such as Robinhood are fun to use, do not charge a fee for transactions in financial markets, and are designed as powerful digital tools for millennials who have inherited debts for their expensive college education.
Millennials find it harder to get the first job, but they themselves are hesitant to devote themselves to the profession, demanding instant gratification of their ideas, that they deserve to become managers and executives immediately.
They want to get rich quick, find a job that will be trendy, and be surrounded by like-minded people like their friends on social media, where everyone looks perfect.
When their plans do not materialize, it is their parents who, instead of directing and confronting them with the harsh economic environment and the need to sacrifice themselves while young for further progress, they feed their ego further, that they must be patient and wait one day to get the golden opportunity, and in the meantime, they will be financially supported at home.
Malkil explains that millennials and members of Generation Z, attracted by fin-tech firms such as Robinhood with low operating costs, have led to extreme volatility in stock market prices.
At the height of the corona crisis, the Robinhood virus received as many as 3 million new users. Most of them are young people, without proper economic education or experience in stock trading. Analysts who come from the traditional financial sector, although it is understandable that they have resistance to fin-tech startups such as Robinhood, should still be considered as experts when they say that these activities can have catastrophic consequences.
The young Kearns' suicide prompted Robinhood's founders to take action to improve the mobile platform and not encourage unnecessary risk that users are exposed to while losing huge sums of money.
Given that the financial market in Macedonia is one of the least developed not only in the region and in general, nor does it have significant fine-tuning innovations aimed at the mass population, risks of this nature are not present, but it would be good to analyze online betting activities and access available to young people who are bored in isolation.