| > Feels like the stock market is just a bunch of jargon This is literally every industry. Do you think the average trader can understand the majority of discussions on HN w/o any domain experience? The jargon exists for a reason. > Like we learned nothing from 2008, and just created financial 'products' mechanisms and gambits out of thin air. The financial engineering issues in 2008 were fueled by other issues: simply we had the government suppressing true borrowing costs and fueling a housing bubble under socially progressive cover. These moves almost universally end in disaster historically. The "out of thin air" products I presume you're referring to all had/have legitimate use-cases: the problem is that nobody bothered to do proper risk management because the US Government was fanning the flames in one direction. > Stock shorting has got to be one of the most pants-on-head stupid things I've ever heard. That's probably because you don't understand the positive aspects. Shorting is absolutely critical to well functioning and efficient markets. It's not simply evil hedge funds betting against businesses or whatever trope you might have heard. In fact, if housing was an easily shortable asset class, the above crisis you mention would have been far less severe (or possibly not happened at all) as short selling pressure would have kept prices at more reasonable levels. |