I sent the zoom link to my partner, staring at the call as I waited for a response. It was already dark out, but we had both mentioned that we didn’t care for the lateness. Once he joined, I broke into a light introduction, clarifying that I will record the whole interaction. His voice was very coherent, indicating his high microphone quality. I asked him a few questions about his setup to set a comfortable atmosphere to which he replied gratefully. He had built his PC when he was young, something a lot of young boys would do. 

With the conversation being carried lightly, we swiftly transitioned into the interview. I was curious about who he was, and how he identified. I asked him to give me a rundown on himself first, who was he? I wanted to know his name, where he was born, and who his parents were. He was more than willing to respond, answering with a slow, optimistic tone: “My name is Shoan Chowdhury, born and raised in Brooklyn, moved to the Bronx in 2nd grade, I’m 18 years old umm, parents immigrated from Bangladesh…yeah that’s me.” I started asking more questions about his future and where he saw himself in it, more precisely, “What do you wanna achieve in your life to consider yourself content or successful?” He was quick to respond, “retire my parents.” I resonated with his answer as soon as he said it. He explained that his subculture helped a lot with this goal since it was able to provide him with financial freedom. I assumed this would be mentally taxing, so my next question had to do with how he helped himself relieve stress. He explained, “when I was really into it, I would be doing it daily, which can result in burnout, so my mental breaks were just sleeping in more and going out with friends.” After a while of neglecting his mental well-being, he started to prioritize it when school was in session. From the initial meeting, I could tell this was a confident person. The way he carried himself and how quick he was to respond to a comment or a question, indicated his eloquence not only in his speech but in his character as well. He was wearing a cozy white sweatshirt and seemed very comfortable, from what the Zoom square had allowed me to see. 

The second question had, of course, been about his subculture: “what subculture do you consider yourself to be a part of?” He took a deep breath and said investing. I wasn’t shocked by this, he had mentioned earlier that he was a finance major which led me to believe he had the interest to be involved in the economic world. I had talked to him about the sudden trend of the stock market, investing, and the infamous GameStop stock crash. He then specified, using his investor terminology, that other subculture names included, “cryptocurrency,” but mentioned that there is a wide variety of investors and what they do day-to-day. 

Shoan talked about this topic fast, not in a nervous way, but in a knowledgeable one. He knew what he was talking about, which is what mainly came out to me as a sense of credibility. I was intrigued by his choice of subculture though. I had explained to him that investors usually got a bad reputation, and to my surprise, he agreed. He mentioned that he doesn’t put the fact that he invests in his social media bios, which is a common action among “amateur investors.” A lot of the notorious investors that publicize it, usually don’t do it seriously or for the long term, but rather follow a trend. The overall group identity did have a reputation of scammers, however, there’s a dark side to every subculture and that seemed to be the case for investing as well. 

As the conversation continued, I realized I had no idea what the day-to-day of an investor looks like. So I asked. He hesitated a little bit, saying that it was a lot harder to explain because there is a variety of investors, and he only identified as one kind: a long-term investor. He went on to explain his routine: trading opens at 9:30 AM and closes at 4:00 PM, Monday through Friday. He would join the discord, where most of his friends that he did this with also joined. To keep up on certain updates, he used Reddit, which is a subculture in and of itself, he added. So what did they do during this time? Well, he introduced a lot of insider phrases to me. “As soon as you log on, you look at “top movers” which are stocks that move the most.” Common company stocks include Apple, Tesla, and even GameStop before the public stock market crash. Every day you look at “buying opportunities” which happen on “red days” which are days where the stock market is going down.” The past month has been very red. I didn’t think it was this intensive, where there was an actual 8-hour time period where they do the same thing all day. It gave me a new perspective on investors. Additionally, there is actually “long-term investing,” which Shoan explains as buying shares that you’ll look at for 1-3 years. He chuckles and explains, “From 9:30 to 4 pm, if you’re not doing long-term investing, you’re probably day trading or swing trading, which is buying and selling within the week.” I could tell from his in-depth explanations, he was passionate about this field. When I showed hesitation on how to continue, he briefly gave an example: “Apple is announcing a new iPhone 12 next week. The week before that, you would buy “call options” which are on Apple for that week, and if the stock goes up a certain percentage, you could potentially profit from it.” 

Most of the interview was not him reacting to my questions, but me reacting to his readiness. He also had extreme comfort in explaining how it was done. There was a certain reputation in the investing world from an outsider’s perspective, and from that came stinginess. With Shoan, he didn’t once hold back on certain information, nor did he oversimplify details so his “secrets” weren’t out. I explained this to him and he laughed. We agreed that stinginess is very common in the community and it can be very hard to get into without having a handful of well-known friends that are already a part of it. 

Every subculture comes with upsides and downsides. Shoan had exemplified his expertise in this field very well and I already wanted to learn more details about investing. To achieve this, I asked him about the downsides first, which also came with investing values that did not necessarily align with his. He jumped right into it explaining that, “in the retail investor world, a lot of people love to gamble on high-risk investments.” He doesn’t believe in lottery plays, not the high-risk, high-reward ideology. The GameStop stock market crash is an example of this. Amateur investors threw all their life savings into this stock and expected an immediate profit due to word of mouth. He frustratedly continues, “that’s how you lose your money, day trading rather than long-term investing.” Relying on your research and “playing the long game,” as he calls it, is a guaranteed way for you not to lose money, and is also his way of risk management. His passion for investing took a turn at this point, he was not only answering these questions, but he was teaching them to me. So, what were the upsides of investing? Shoan went into deep detail about how much he benefited from investing. This included financial freedom and stability, and a little bit of fun. Not fun losing money, however, it does connect to the world of finance, which is his major. It gave him insight into the finance and stock market community. It also gave him financial freedom. Coming from an immigrant household, he doesn’t have an income. Both parents work, so having your income is crucial to making a change for your family. Big purchases included a computer that he wanted, something his parents could never afford to do, and opened an opportunity to buy things that he wanted, such as tech, clothes, etc. 

For the long term, Shoan believes the more money you have, the safer plays you make. Once you have enough money to lose, that’s when you know you can do short-term but never start with the short-term. He ended his answer with this quick note: getting rich quickly is not a good strategy, but that’s what people strive for. From my knowledge of our capitalist society, I can agree that there is some actual truth to this. Many people our age focus so much on getting money quickly and easily, long term is rarely ever involved in the thought process. Investing is a great way to learn more about our economic system, as it provides insight. People who deter the meaning of investing through scamming and stinginess not only push people away from the community but what it has to offer in terms of knowledge of American economics. 

Interview Questions

1. Give me a rundown on who you are. Name, age, etc. 
2. What subculture do you consider yourself to be a part of?
3. Investors get a bad reputation, scammers mostly, how do you feel about that?
4. What does your day-to-day look like? 
5. Are there downsides to this subculture? Something that you particularly don’t like. 
6. What’re the positives of this? Besides money, what do you gain? 
7. Are there any specific values in your subculture that don’t align with yours? 
8. Do you think it’s more beneficial to stay in this long term? Do you think there’s an equal chance to reap the benefits of investing even doing the short term?

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