Jesse got into Cardinal Mooney High School, which is where his older brother Alex is already going. One night, Alex sat Jesse down very seriously and went through every single teacher, letting him know who the good ones are and whom to watch out for. We know which classes Jesse will be taking next year. We just don’t know the teachers yet. Fingers crossed we avoid Mrs. Scarey (that is her real name).
Desmond the dog is apparently a bad dog (and soon to be a fat dog). I caught him yesterday standing on the dining room table eating the cat food, which is impressive given that he’s a fairly large dog. When I yelled at him, he didn’t look guilty at all. He just stared at me like, "What? This is delicious. Take it easy. What's the big deal?"
This week, I had to clean out our freezer because it had reached critical mass. I’m talking "use your shoulder to get the door closed"- level full. When I pulled everything out to reorganize, I discovered that we somehow own 7 bags of chicken nuggets. I have no memory of agreeing to this, yet here we are. Apparently, nuggets multiply when no one is paying attention.
If you think buggy artificial intelligence, smartphone 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 quick 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. Once those little dots and dashes could beam financial news across the country in minutes, speculation wasn’t just for elite bankers in New York anymore; it was for anyone with a connection.
By the early 1900s, ticker tape machines spit out near-real-time stock prices, and people crowded around brokerage offices like they were watching a football game. With every flicker of a price change, bets were made. Some won big. Many more lost.
The Radio Boom and Go-Go Stocks (1920s–1960s)
When radio arrived, it wasn’t just for music; it became a financial hype machine. Stock promoters and so-called analysts talked up companies, fueling booms in fast-growing industries like electronics and aviation.
The stock market bubble of the 1920s? This kind of mass speculation helped fuel 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 piled into "Go-Go" stocks: high-growth tech firms hyped through newsletters and radio programs. Many of those stocks eventually became worthless.
It turns out that just because you hear about a stock everywhere doesn’t mean it’s a good 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. Firms like Stratton Oakmont (yes, the one from the movie The Wolf of Wall Street) made fortunes cold-calling regular people and pitching worthless penny stocks.
The fax machine became a favorite tool for scammers, blasting out "hot tips" about unknown companies supposedly on the verge of massive gains. People believed they had inside information and rushed to buy. Most got burned.
CNBC, Online Brokers, and the Dot-Com Day Traders (1990s–2000s)
Then came the 1990s, and everything sped up again. CNBC launched in 1989, bringing live stock prices into people’s living rooms every day. At the same time, E*TRADE and Ameritrade let anyone trade stocks online with a few clicks. Suddenly, everyone was a stock picker.
Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Pets.com became the new gold rush. Analysts hyped them nonstop. Retail investors piled in.
Then came 2000. The bubble popped. And many "can’t-lose" stocks became "can’t-sell" stocks.
House Flipping and Subprime Mortgages (2000s–2008)
Stocks weren’t the only place speculation showed up. The early 2000s brought a new "easy money" craze: real estate.
TV shows, books, and your neighbor all said the same thing—buy a house, flip it, and you’ll be rich. Banks helped by handing out mortgages to almost anyone. You could buy a house with no income, no job, and no assets (the famous "NINJA loans").
The party ended in 2008 when the housing bubble collapsed and dragged the entire economy down with it.
2010s–Present
And now? We’re living through the latest version of the same cycle.
Robinhood and other phone apps have made trading stocks as easy as swiping on a dating app. Free trades. Instant access. What’s not to love?
Same Story, Different Technology
Every time a new communication technology arrives, telegraphs, radio, TV, the internet, and social media. It does the same thing:
1.It makes financial news travel faster
2.It makes investing feel easy and exciting
3.It pulls everyday people in 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 becomes too easy, it often stops being investing and becomes gambling.
So take a breath if you’re feeling FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) when the next hot trend shows up. Look at history. And remember that if something looks like a sure thing, it usually isn’t.
Because the real way to build wealth is investing. It isn’t exciting. It isn’t fast. And it doesn’t involve buying stocks because some guy on YouTube said so.
Be Blessed,
Dave