Buying crypto and meme stocks like Trump Media is basically gambling, strategist says

Doug Cohen, managing director at Fiduciary Trust International, spoke with Quartz for the latest installment of our “Smart Investing” video series.

Watch the interview above and check out the transcript below. The transcript of this conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

ANDY MILLS (AM): So [Trump Media] is up, it’s down, and it’s like acting like a meme stock. What do people chasing meme stocks tell you about the market right now?

DOUG COHEN (DC): It tells me there’s a fair amount of speculation out there and it’s very reminiscent of what we saw in 2021. Right? And that didn’t end well, at least, you know, going into 2022 when the market environment changed. So whether it’s some of the cryptocurrencies or the meme stocks, those are elements of speculation.

And look, there’s speculation throughout the entire market. I think even some of the marquee growth stocks, some of those AI-oriented darlings, are clearly a completely different realm than the meme stocks in terms of their overall fundamentals and their balance sheet strength and everything else. But still, there is some speculation, some momentum. And as we’ve seen so many times in the past, that will last until it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t, it can get pretty ugly. But you can certainly put that on steroids for the memes stocks.

AM: It seems like if that guy that wears the headband goes on Reddit and says like, I’m buying more GameStop, suddenly everything changes, but just for 24 hours. And so the same thing happens with Trump Media, too, where if Trump does good, the stock goes up, right?

DC: It’s the nature of the beast. I hate to use the word gambling, but that’s basically what they are doing. And certainly there are instances when fundamental developments can help spark that. And some of them may actually be sustainable. And I’m not gonna say across the board that all of those stocks are gonna end up being bad investments. What I will say across the board is that they are speculative and, therefore, risky. And any investor who’s looking to participate should just be careful. It should be a portion, clearly probably a small portion of your overall portfolio. And if it works out, wonderful, but if it doesn’t, you certainly wanna be cushioned.

AM: How can a young or new investor tell the difference between a speculative investment and a less speculative investment?

DC: So sometimes it’s the old Potter Stewart quote, right? “Sometimes you know it when you see it,” but I think clearly there are a handful of meme stocks that are being driven by posts on message boards and things like that. I would hope that anyone who’s actually putting real money into those stocks knows that that’s what’s driving those stocks. It’s not the long-term fundamentals of a company’s competitive position and its management strength and its balance sheet strength, and all the things that should go into thoughtful stock selection. I say that knowing that some of these meme stocks could double by the time we finish this conversation and that some people are gonna make a lot of money on that, but that’s not investing. That’s gambling.

AM: That stuff sounds and feels boring, and it’s not sexy, but it’s what churns the actual economy and not just some secret on a message board or something.

DC: Look, it’s difficult to make blanket statements. I’m sure some of these companies will have sustained success, but probably not a lot of them. We’ve seen this so many times before, and if you go back to the internet bubble, there were so many companies, so much hype, and so many dramatic gains that all collapsed. I’m not going to say that’s going to happen across the board here, but again, as recently as we saw in 2021 and 2022, all it took was a change in the overall market risk tolerance for a lot of those stocks to go down 70, 80, 90%. That’s clearly not what anyone wants unless you’re short.