[recursive4]

I share these curiosities and agree with the sentiment that something that requires skill to de-risk should not simply have its perception of risk lowered but actually educate. This is likely a contrarian view, but there is a benefit in novices losing non-trivial amounts of money so that they learn risk avoidance and develop a respect for expertise & experience. It's no different from how children learn from mistakes and the risk is proportional to the learning experience.

[allenu]

I think it depends ultimately on the target audience of tools like this. If the target audience are people with a steady income flow that can bounce back from losses, then mistakes along the way are useful long-term. On the other hand, if the target audience is made up mostly of people who don't have the luxury of bouncing back, then those mistakes will be devastating.

It's definitely a fine balance for a product like this. You want to make investing feel "easy" but not so easy that it seems like all it takes to make money is to read a few bite-sized tidbits about a company, thereby increasing the risk-taking behavior.