Young men are making risky bets on crypto and politics—and raking it in right now
Byron Hayes has lost so much money on meme stocks, crypto and betting that he goes by the name Financial Failure on online forums. He might need to rebrand.
His six-figure cryptocurrency portfolio jumped more than 30% since Election Day. The gold he owns has increased 28% this year. The investment accounts where he trades stocks and bet on the presidential election were up around 6% in November alone.
Young men hold a disproportionate share of the kinds of risky and volatile investments that financial professionals tend to warn against. Right now, they are hitting pay dirt.
A hypothetical portfolio holding equal amounts of bitcoin, gold, the meme stock GameStop and the sports-betting stock DraftKings returned 62% in the first 11 months of this year. That is more than triple the returns of a traditional portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, according to an analysis by the financial firm Leuthold Group.
Some of these investors say they are laying a foundation, however risky, to attain traditional goals, such as saving for retirement or a home, survey data from financial education company Noyack shows. Speculative investing doubles as a form of entertainment, thanks to smartphone trading and online forums of bootstrap investors. Users flaunt big wins, teasing financial prosperity that otherwise seems unreachable, especially for the growing number of young men who believe they face economic barriers.
“I feel like I’ve finally made the right decision in life," says Hayes, 34, who works as a software developer for a cybersecurity company.
Men’s gender attitudes are a predictor of whether they own cryptocurrency and meme stocks, Fairleigh Dickinson University professor Dan Cassino found. Young men who said they value
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