We used to have poor souls who couldn’t help behave like idiots. Now…

Once upon a time we had.. no, of course we still have many millions of people worldwide who ruin their own lives by sport betting, or gambling:

Now we have this. What is the difference?

“Wealth Secrets: When AI meets financial markets: neural networks for algorithmic trading”

Again: what is the difference?

• sport betting, gambling, slot machines… is people badly messing up their own lives and those of their immediate relatives, personally
• algorithmic trading is people letting their computers loose, to mess with the lives and money of other people. Many, many, many other people

Indeed, algorithmic traders, are much more like the owners, rather than the victims, of casinos or betting shops. And yes, strictly speaking is their computers, not them, that bet compulsively. But the computers only do what their human controllers deliberately program them to do. And those computers are way more dangerous, but less regulated, than casino owners.

In practice, both “betting addicts” and “algorithmic traders” just can’t stop. Both behaviors are dangerous addictions. Both are just plain stupid, but the second much more than the first.

But why is one addiction so often stigmatized (“described in opprobrious terms”) and the other so glamourized? Betting addicts are too often considered only as witless losers who deserve their ruin. Why are addicts to algorithmic trading are SO cool to get pictures like the one above, instead of pictures like these:

High-frequency trading, high-speed trading, algorithmic trading… Call it as you want, but why is this thing allowed to exist unrestrained? And why is it associated with “intelligence”, of any sort?

Image sources:

• As sports betting expands, gambling addiction services fall behind
• Always a Loser … Gambling
• Gamblers Anonymous
• Gambling addiction a cautionary tale