Are You Immoral For Trading Stocks?

Are You Immoral For Trading Stocks?
This is a Guest Post by AK of Fallible
AK has been an analyst at long/short equity investment firms, global macro funds, and corporate economics departments. He co-founded Macro Ops and is the host of Fallible.

Is trading stocks morally okay? That’s the question we’re going to answer today with the help of Axe and Taylor from Billions and even George Soros. If you’re a trader who feels like a specific trade they’re taking may be immoral, and you want a step by step process to figure out what to do in that situation, then make sure you watch the video above all the way through!

In our last Billions video we showed you that scene where Axe and Taylor debate whether they should destroy a town’s economy to get their payout. Axe knows bankrupting the town is the best move for his P&L. It’s the right “trade”. But he also knows he’s about to screw over all those people.

Is he being immoral? Well the Billions writers answered that question with Taylor. If you think about it, Axe and Taylor are pretty much opposites. Axe is an emotional guy who goes off feel a lot. While Taylor is like a robot, with no feelings, that’s overly logical.

In that scene Taylor explains that this move to bankrupt the town is just nature running its course. If the town made bad financial decisions, then they have to pay for it. There’s no real right or wrong issue with Axe being involved. He’s just the enforcement.

It’s just like wildfires in forests. They’re a natural part of the life cycle. The wildfire clears out all the dead underbrush so that new things can grow. It’s actually healthy for the forest. But the wildfire itself is neutral. Obviously there’s no morality behind the destruction it causes in the process, because fire… is just… fire. Axe is the wildfire to that town.
He’s clearing out the failure so that a healthy economy can grow in its place.

Make sure to watch the video above for more, including the Soros example, and a step by step process on how to deal with morality and trading yourself.

And remember, stay Fallible out there!

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