We are building a greenhouse for my mother-in-law, Yaya. She has always been envious of mine, and since she is just as passionate about orchids as I am, she deserves one of her own. We are doing it right with a concrete foundation and everything. I believe it could withstand a hurricane. She is already dreaming about the setup, planning where she will place each type of orchid and where her workbench will go.
My wife is coming back from Chicago today after receiving Botox treatments for her migraines. During our FaceTime call, she pointed her phone out the window, and all I could see was brown. I forgot what it looks like up north in the winter—dreary, drab, cloudy, and lifeless. We Floridians are so lucky! After the call, I ran out to my orchid garden and immersed myself in vibrant color.
My youngest child, Jesse, had to do a book report on a story about a brave boy who climbed a mountain, conveying a lesson about courage. In his conclusion, Jesse wrote, "I didn't really like this book because it was boring. It would have been better if the boy was chased by goblins and monsters."
Dogs are funny.
If you think new smartphone stock trading apps and crypto have created a brand-new world of investing chaos, let me introduce you to a little thing called history.
Every time new technology makes investing easier, a fresh wave of everyday people jump in, convinced they’ve found a way to get rich fast. And every time, the story ends the same way—some get lucky, most don’t.
Let’s take a little time-traveling tour through the history of investment hype, speculation, and "sure-thing" bets that weren’t.
The Telegraph and Ticker Tape (1870s-1920s)
Before the telegraph, stock prices moved at the speed of a horse and buggy. But once those little dots and dashes could beam financial news across the country in minutes, suddenly, speculation wasn’t just for the elite bankers in New York—it was for anyone with a connection.
By the early 1900s, ticker tape machines spat out real-time stock prices, and people crowded around brokerage offices like they were watching a football game. With every flicker of a price change, folks made bets. Some won big. Many more lost.
The Radio Boom and Go-Go Stocks (1920s-1960s)
When radio came along, it wasn’t just for music—it was a financial hype machine. Stock promoters and so-called analysts would talk up companies, fueling booms in fast-growing industries like electronics and aviation.
The 1920s stock market bubble? This kind of mass speculation fueled it. It popped in 1929, and we all know how that turned out.
Fast forward a few decades, and the same thing happened again in the 1960s. Investors poured into "Go-Go" stocks—high-growth tech firms hyped on newsletters and radio programs. Many of those stocks ended up worthless.
It turns out that just because you hear about a stock everywhere doesn’t mean it’s a great investment.
Cold Calls, Faxes, and the Wolf of Wall Street Era (1980s-1990s)
Ah, the ‘80s and ‘90s—the golden age of pushy stockbrokers and junk stocks. Stratton Oakmont (yes, the one from the movie The Wolf of Wall Street) made a fortune cold-calling regular folks and pitching worthless penny stocks.
The fax machine became a tool for stock scammers, sending "hot tips" about unknown companies poised for massive gains. People, believing they had inside info, rushed to buy. Most got burned.
Of course, this era collapsed spectacularly, with scams being exposed and fraudsters carted off to jail. But hey, if you were on the right side of the trade, you did just fine. (Hint: The guys making the calls were on the right side.)
CNBC, Online Brokers, and the Dot-Com Day Traders (1990s-2000s)
Then came the 1990s, and everything changed. CNBC was launched in 1989, bringing stock prices live to TV. People could follow the market in real time for the first time every day—just like the pros.
Meanwhile, E*TRADE and Ameritrade let anyone trade stocks online with just a few clicks. Suddenly, everyone was a stock picker.
Stocks like Enron, Worldcom, and Pets.com became the new gold rush. Analysts on TV hyped them up daily. Retail investors piled in.
Then came 2000. The bubble popped. And many "can’t-lose" stocks turned into "can’t-sell" stocks.
House Flipping and Subprime Mortgages (2000s-2008)
Stocks weren’t the only things people speculated on. The early 2000s saw a new "easy money" craze—real estate.
TV shows, books, and your neighbor said the same thing: Buy a house, flip it, and you’ll be rich! Banks helped by handing out mortgages to just about anyone. You could still buy a house without income, job, or assets (lovingly called "NINJA loans").
The party ended in 2008 when the housing bubble collapsed, taking the entire economy down with it.
2010s-Present
And now? We’re living through the latest version of this cycle.
Robinhood and other phone apps have made stock trading as easy as swiping on a dating app. Free trades. Instant access. No commissions. What’s not to love?
Same Story, Different Technology
Every time a new communication technology arrives—telegraphs, radio, TV, the internet, social media—it does the same thing:
1. It makes financial news travel faster.
2. It makes investing feel easy and exciting.
3. It lures in everyday people with dreams of fast wealth.
4. It ends with most of them losing money.
Does that mean nobody should invest? Of course not. But history shows that when investing gets too easy, it stops being investing and starts being gambling.
So take a deep breath if you’re feeling the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) when a new hot trend appears. Look at history. And remember that if something looks like a sure thing, it usually isn’t.
Because the real way to get rich is investing. It’s not exciting. It’s not fast. And it doesn’t involve buying stocks because some guy on YouTube said so.
Be Blessed,
Dave