Financial instruments through digital platforms increasingly acquire the appearance of a video game. You can move through the Feedpress a button and see fireworks on the screen. The reality is that it is not about Instagram or any other social network, but a financial trade.
Investment platforms gamifiedwith attractive and mechanical interfaces inspired by games, they are revolutionizing access to markets, making experience more attractive and immediate. But after the ease of use, a real risk is hidden: excessive accessibility and playful dynamics encourage impulsive decisions, turning investment into a digital bet. And when the market falls, losses are not virtual, but real.
Investment or game?
In recent years, apps of trading (sale of assets) often sponsored by Influencers Financials have visible investment through platforms inspired by video games. The experience consists of attractive interfaces, continuous notifications and ranking of users.
However, behind this apparent democratization a real risk is hidden: the Gamification Promote impulsive decisions, making the trading It looks more like a bet than to a meditated financial strategy. The Gamification It is now in the entire network, it is applied to negotiation platforms, animations in loyalty programs and even in the world of work. The mechanism is clear: to turn a complex activity into an immediate and fun resource.
According to Marius Zoican research, Finance Professor at the University of Calgary, Italy, these strategies are especially effective with new investors, who often lack advanced financial knowledge. The use of bright colors, symbolic rewards and competitive dynamics encourages hyperactive behaviorinciting users to operate more often, without a clear risk assessment.
Zoican and his team conducted an experiment to analyze how the Gamification in the Traders First. The results confirm fears: platforms gamified stimulate competitive instinct and the search for easy profits, turning the trading in a career for instant benefit. The effect is similar to that of online casinos, where emotional involvement leads to reckless bets and rapid losses.
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A FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE BASE
The businessman and economist with a long career, Warren Buffett, has repeatedly indicated the dangers of unbridled speculation, denouncing the obsession with fashion values and lack of attention to market foundations. The Gamification Accelerate this trend, feeding myopic behaviors and reagents instead of strategic ones.
“Although these platforms make the markets more accessible, they do not provide adequate tools to build a solid base of financial knowledge. The problem is not only ethical, but also practical: without adequate financial education, users run the risk of wasting their savings in a few clicks,” explains Buffet. The Robinhood platform launched a visual effect of confetti every time the person increased their investment, but was withdrawn due to criticisms that considered it a resource to foster the trading impulsive among rookies.
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Could AI be a solution?
Zoican emphasizes how crucial it is to improve financial education before young or inexperienced investors venture into markets. At present, those who do not acquire these skills by academic or professional paths risk learning from their mistakes at a very high cost. An option to save the gap could be the use of artificial intelligence: the systems based on AI could customize learning, adapting to the knowledge and needs of each speculator. Chatbots, Interactive and realistic negotiation simulators or accessible courses, could provide concrete orientations, reducing the risk of impulsive decisions.
While the platforms continue to maximize the commitment through game mechanisms, the line that separates the trading Betting will remain thin. Investing is not a hobby or a challenge against an algorithm; There are no virtual points, but real moneywith consequences that can affect the financial future of those who are guided by emotion instead of rationality.
Article published in Wired Italy. Adapted by Alondra Flores.
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