[hectorr]

A lot of them are, for the reasons you point out. But they really are not that different than other financial instruments in kind, just in maturity.

What does it mean to own a share of Snapchat, Facebook, or Google? You can't influence these companies, they don't pay dividends, so the value of a share is just whatever the mob wants to pay for it. Goes up on good news, down on bad. Bonds are even worse, that's just someone saying sure, I'll pay you back later. These things have law developed around them now, but didn't when they first emerged.

It all depends on your risk profile. If you have high risk tolerance, and think that you can mitigate some risk with being ahead of the market in technical and/or business skills, there is no reason not to get involved in these.