Gambling & Meme Stocks

Meme stocks, sports betting, prediction markets… Dave and John Y. Campbell talk about the rise of gambling in finance — why it’s mostly young men, and why it’s getting harder to ignore.

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It’s interesting, by the way, sitting back here and watching a lot of the spending summaries I’ve sent, how much gambling we are seeing now. I mean, the gamification of the markets even. I mean, when you look at the meme, stocks, et cetera, that’s just another form of gambling.

My argument is this is 95% ish. Young male. We’re not seeing the young female market behave this way. For the most part, they’re doing the right thing, or at least trying to do the right thing. Is this testosterone driven? What is it that has pulled these young men into this very aggressive form of betting, in essence on stocks, meme, stocks, and whatever else

Yes. And you know, it’s also sports betting,

uh, particularly in the US and now, um, you know, the prediction markets have been deregulated and a lot of what’s being done on those prediction markets is, is sports betting.

Absolutely of course then, then we’re seeing scandals within sports because you get corruption.

Unsurprisingly. Um, I struggle with this because, you know, I’m, I’m just a person that has, but just the way I’m wired, I’ve never seen why a gambling is appealing. But of course lots of people I know like to fly to Las Vegas for the weekend and I’ve, I’ve never seen the appeal. Um, but I’m, I’m aware I’m, I must be missing something.

I studied your background very extensively. All the things you’ve written at great papers on asset allocation. For example, if you were also buying meme stocks in the background, I would be rattled. Okay, so I, I really would be, I would be rattled. So I’m really glad to hear that you’re not doing that type of thing and that you’re not taking junkets to Vegas every second weekend.

It would be very inconsistent with what I’ve learned about you through my reading, so, no, it’s good to hear.