Investment options or cryptocurrency, tie-wearing uncles are leading the advice-doling department (of tricks)

Lately, I’ve been watching some Instagram reels for investment advice. It involves ‘finfluencers’ – people under-30 who have a social media following, explaining different investment options. One reel, for example, has two women dancing to a Justin Bieber trend, telling me how I can buy US stocks sitting in India. Another one, has a young man in comedic situations with himself (in disguise), chatting about rent vs EMI. There’s another finfluencer – a tough word to say out loud while, say, eating popcorn – who gets her dog to bark every time she mentions a stock that’s rallying too much. Another one plays sad Mohammed Rafi songs every time a stock does not move.

You can laugh at me and say this is absolute nonsense, and one should listen to more ‘grown-up’ advice. Yet, if you think about it, what is ‘grown-up’ advice as we start Covid-’22? Some gent called Vishal or Mohit (or insert your choice of name here) from X Bank coming over to your house wearing a tie, giving you various pdfs of fund houses with various graphs on it, and saying, ‘Sir, this is the fund for you. Trust me. I will be there to handhold you through this.’?

And then three weeks later, finding out on Facebook that Vishal has left X Bank to run an Airbnb in Nainital with his fiancee. Vishal posts a photo titled ‘#blessed’ with pine trees behind him, leaving you with ₹X lakh invested in a fund called ‘dynamic growth New India aggressive balanced forever advantage fund’ or some such, whose value has halved even before Vishal has welcomed his first guest in Nainital.

Or is real wisdom from tie-wearing uncles and strangely hair-sprayed aunties on business news channels sitting between various tickers and graphics – kept on mute – that only play in doctors’ waiting rooms, office building and hotel lobbies?

In short, no one knows anything. The future of the markets will be what they will be, and business news anchors with their suits and Bloomingdalebergs, know as much as ‘finfluencers’ who tell you…