Young men and Day Trading

[Nonimai]

Yesterday was DS 18th birthday. He received a small inheritance and took control of his government paid Child Trust Fund. I had an awareness that for some time now, my gamer son was gaming less and along with all his friends had set up a trial on a day trading platform. He had been talking more about investments and seemed to be gaining knowledge. I didn’t take it too seriously. In many ways I thought it was a good thing if he moved away from gaming.
This morning DD ( very sensible with money)makes me aware that he put hundreds of pounds into this gaming platform last night and has set up a live trading account - he has clearly been waiting to turn 18. I took him to work and questioned him - he says it’s his money and his business and he is being very cagey about this. DD says he has been watching influencers and I should be very very concerned- this is gambling and these sites are deliberately targeting young men apparently. I now know many of his gaming friends are doing the same thing.
I was of the opinion that, he is old enough to fritter his money and that he will learn not to do it again, but my daughter has worried me? Does anyone have any
knowledge/advice please

He is 18 op, so it is very hard for you to do anything. You could say I didn’t know you were interested in investing and try to talk through the concepts, but that is difficult if you aren’t much into it yourself. Can you expand on what you think he’s doing? You could try saying another crypto exchange collapsed, crypto really is just a scam isn’t it… but there are so many more ways to lose money that warning him off one seems futile I’m sorry. How much was the inheritance? Dd can say ‘I’ll be able to buy a car but you will have lost all yours’

He has about 3k with his savings, child trust fund and inheritance.

Thank you. It’s so difficult. Since I posted DD has said he is following Andrew Tate, who I researched, and is known for promoting misogyny and the high life made on investment returns. I need to do some research myself so I can talk to DS about the ‘get rich quick’ side being unrealistic.

If it were that easy, we'd all do it. Sadly the young struggle to accept that.

I'm so sorry Noni. It must be so difficult to talk to him about this.

I don’t think it’s only young men.

But day trading is a good way to lose money - I lost a few grand that way myself.

I thought I knew what I was doing and had quite a few books about it before I started.

Losing that amount of money quickly did teach me a good lesson though - that day trading is not investing and to stay away from it.

I'd let him get on with it but make it clear you won't be replacing any money he loses.

I didn't do day trading, but did do short term trading (holding for a few days) on volatile stocks. I doubled my money, then dropped to 75% of my original stake, where it's been stuck ever since. I'm fortunate in that I don't need to sell the stock, I can wait and see if it goes up again (if it ever does).

It will be a quick learning curve for him, and it doesn't hurt to know how stocks work.

My FiL ruined his retirement by day trading away what should have kept him and his wife comfortable until death. It's such a scam for the vulnerable.