The rise (and dangers) of "FinTok"

Main US indexes red; Nasdaq off most, down >1%.

Tech weakest S&P 500 sector; Healthcare leads gainers.

Dollar up slightly; bitcoin, US crude rise; gold down >1%.

US 10-year Treasury yield edges down to ~4.71%.

The age of social media has changed how people read and disseminate news, information, opinion, advertising and advice. Increasingly, those lines are blurred; opinion gets disguised as news, advertising gets dressed up as advice.

And cluelessness is painted to look like expertise.

Researchers at Brokerlistings.com, an online broker comparison tool, have pored over 150 "FinTok" or TikTok videos offering financial advice — each with a minimum of 100,000 views — and found the following:

• Most of the "financial advisors" lacked clear credentials. Nearly three-fourths of the creators "did not clearly state professional financial qualifications."
• Risks were downplayed. "Videos were far more likely to highlight potential gains than explain losses, volatility, or failure rates, a problem identified in 68% of videos analyzed," the note says.
• Over 60% of the analyzed videos blended advice with promotion, including broker mentions, product plugs, etc. Brokerlistings analyst Christian Harris found the creator's take "wasn't always clearly labeled."
• More than half of the videos offered no disclosures, despite tougher regulatory rules covering suitable disclosure.

Finally, Harris cites low financial literacy as the reason for the rise of "FinTok," which is now one of TikTok's biggest categories.