Call of Duty and young traders

There is something Call of Duty teaches young people that serves them very well in trading. That something is tolerance for failure.

It is customary to knock Generation Z, to belittle them, condemn them, pity them. Not entirely without grounds, since the internet generation fits poorly into the systems of expectation set up by the generations that came before the web.

The internet revolves around experience, and this generation is hooked on experience. Social media, the streaming services, Steam and the other digital empires serve Generation Z’s hunger for experience, a hunger that finds nothing to feed on in the labour market.

The ultimate form of fast, instant experience is the video game. In that market Call of Duty is one of the most successful products, bringing billions of dollars to the companies behind it and condemning millions of young people to an activity from which they apparently gain nothing they could use in any other area of life.

Or do they?

It is a real observation that members of Generation Z who regularly play games like Call of Duty, where you can die very quickly, gain an advantage in trading, because they handle losses well emotionally.

A beginner trader loses quickly, and as one loss follows another, they lose their appetite for the whole thing.

The typical trader gives up long before they have learned the craft - primarily not because of the financial loss, but because of the fear of yet another failure.