Crypto Volatility vs. Instant Gratification

Throughout the history of the US market, there has always been a certain, accepted risk when it came to any individual willing to take the chance with their own money. A small amount of knowledge into any sort of security investment or trading platform will lend you the idea that any market movement comes with a calculated risk.

Traditional markets have seen many changes throughout the years of global expansion, and there are several winds that blow the markets in different directions. Political and commercial changes have always made large impacts on the way trading platforms react; along with global changes. Presidents, CEOs, and even war play large roles in market sway, but the most interesting change occurs abou5 every twenty to thirty years whrn the next generation of players enters the professional circuit.

Taking into consideration all of the factors and events that shape the mindset and approach of an investor is difficult to surmise, therefore I am going to analyze one very specific topic about abiut the next generation investor. I feel that Millenials have been given a fairly bad reputation over the last ten years or so. The idea of participation awards, gaining respect and position without hard work, or being flat out ungrateful and lazy: these are just a few of the labels that now haunt anyone born into the Millenials category. While I agree that my generation has issues unique to us, I believe that most of the issues that we have, have been an issue far more that just our generation.

The problem that stands in the forefront to me about my generation is that of instant gratification. We have become impatient with results and have lost what it is to grind for what we want or where we would like to be. Several factors contribute to this mindset of "wanting to have it all now"; education, exposure, and even genetics, but I believe the single, most important factor contributing to this toxic mindset is technology.

Telecommunications saw several revolutions in the past half century. The most impactful of these innovations was without a doubt the cellular telephone. Although it can be argued that without the inventing of the internet there would be no need for smart phones, I just believe that the availability to have instant communication with anyone and anywhere is causing some serious problems. Other than the moral consequences of what social media is having on society, I want to focus on how the instant gratification impulses is having on today's generation.

Now traditionally, the idea of investing was to work a nine to five job, save a certain percentage towards your retirement, and then if had any left over capital, you could invest some of that into short or long-term securities or. Of course, there has always been the idea of getting rich quickly and day trading, but when you add the mindset of instant gratification you now have a generation that, not only, leverages their social status on their returns, but also, their mental and emotional happiness.

The reason I believe this is extremely dangerous for Millenials is that we are taught that no matter how well we do or no matter the amount of effort we place into any endeavour, there is a reward for any position we end up in. While this mind set may do a great wonder during adolescence, when that idea transfers into adulthood it can be devastating.

Not everything we do in life, let alone investment ventures, will result in success. I believe that the thinking that any endeavour you choose will be rewarded with a real life success dampens, heavily, the fear of failure. Going naively and headstrong into the investment world may have certain advantages, but when failure occurs, and it probably will, most will quickly give up and not try again. Reality will set in and the pain of failure will cause extreme emotional and mental anguish, especially since most Millenials will be engrained with an unrealistic timeframe for a proper return in their investment.

In closing, I will, however, say that with some hard work and proper training along with some mental grounding, Millenials with take the investment markets by storm and will become a force to be reckoned with. We will take hold of risky opportunities that older generations may have never or refused to see or consider. We need to grab hold of our potential and get back up when we are knocked down, and look failure in the eye and say that it will not win today or tomorrow. We got this!