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alephnerdyesterday at 7:48 PM0 repliesview on HN

To quote golden age Simpsons - "Gambling is the finest thing a person can do IF he's good at it" [0].

In aggregate, most participants lack the background and experience needed to hedge against risk and bet intelligently.

Gamifying a financial instrument (futures) that is supposed to be used as an risk management device and advertising it to the lowest common denominator without providing the right checks and balances will leave a large portion of bettors worse off.

Heck, I'm decently good at blackjack, poker, and backgammon because it's fun to apply probability theory principles, but I would never dare put my personal money on such an investment when I would do significantly better in aggregate with other more diversified personal investments.

[0] - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Viz_cr8PCkk