“It’s kind of scary, because I am unemployed right now, I don’t want to put too much at risk. And commission-free trading on gamified apps makes investing easy and appealing, even addicting. Some are taking cues from mainstream sources like the Wall Street Journal and CNBC, others are looking at Reddit and Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy for ideas (and entertainment). People are bored at home, sports betting and casinos are largely off the table, and many look at that $1,200 stimulus check they got earlier this year as free money. Online brokerages have reported a record number of new accounts and a big uptick in trading activity.

In recent months, the stock market has seen a boom in retail trading. “I take it in stride, because it’s money I had made, but it wasn’t really there.” The day we spoke, she was basically back where she started.

Then during the day when it was like we had a really big drop, I lost everything I had made.”Ĭhang, 39, lost her job at a nonprofit in the financial downturn, fell down a “rabbit hole of stock videos” on YouTube, and by now has put about $25,000 into the trading app Robinhood. “And then I started getting really cocky, and I didn’t even think I could even lose so much money. So I was then having days where I would make $1,000 a day, and then I made $10,000 in a day,” she said. “With options, you can make money so much faster. Jennifer Chang got into investing in 2019, but it was only during the pandemic that she started dealing in options trading, where the risk is higher, but so is the reward.

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