It kind of is real money. A lot of these stocks are tied to peoples retirements. People do invest in these things because they are told to and its a good idea, which it is. I think trump started giving kids stocks as a way to prop up the ai economy even more.

Like I get what you mean but it still is real money some where lol. You can be right on some fundamental but also come off as ignorant. To do what you suggest with shorts would mean I would have to get a lot more involved, and my incentives start getting mixed up. Instead of feeling joy when I see stocks to down I start to worry because now I have to use my brain and try to figure out if I bail now accept my loss, or try to use some "insider knowledge" I've gleamed from polymarket or whatever and start gambling my money against people who are rigging the money at a scale that I can't even imagine. I would have to spend all day reading articles and listening to news and buying 10k courses from the PBD podcast, when private equity runs the stock market with ai and makes grand sweeping decisions that wipe you out in a instant.

Over time my opinions are going to become warped because I don't see the world as how it should be, and how it needs to be for me to keep making money as a leech. Suddenly I start viewing Palestinians as terrorist because I'm invested in a company that's making automated turrets to clear way for the trump hotel in Gaza. The alternative is I get a real job and become a normal human being not tied into a death cult.

Maybe i was going to short openai a year ago, and then all sudden they so something I would of never even imagined like buying out all the worlds stock of ram, and their stock goes up 500%. That's gambling and they're just using your own greed against you.