Bragging Rights and Red Flags
A friend recently sent me a video from Instagram promoting an “AI-powered day trading bot.” The pitch was clean, fast, and convincing. Fund a brokerage account, connect the bot, and sit back while the algorithm makes trades for you, no market experience required. It promised a 90% win rate and monthly returns of 5% or more. It sounded like an opportunity you’d be foolish to miss. Risk was barely mentioned, aside from a note tucked in the fine print.
Behind the slick packaging was the same story I’ve seen many times before: a shortcut that ignores context, risk, and long-term planning. My friend sent it to me more as a joke than as an investment idea, thankfully, but it illustrates what we navigate daily: a world where financial advice is everywhere, but wisdom is getting increasingly harder to find.
The CFP® Board recently conducted a survey of over 1,000 households and published the results in a study titled “Steering Clear of Financial Misinformation.” The survey found that nearly three in five Americans have made a financial decision they later regretted because of online misinformation. That number doesn’t surprise me. What used to require a phone call or a meeting now shows up in an Instagram Reel, a YouTube short, or a flashy blog post promising the “one hack the rich don’t want you to know.” We’re flooded with financial content. Some of it is helpful, even thoughtful. But a lot of it is incomplete, out of context, or flat-out wrong. And there’s almost never a disclaimer that says, “This might not apply to you.”
The problem isn’t access to information anymore, it’s discernment. According to the same CFP® Board study, almost six in ten Americans now go online at least once a week for financial information. Nearly a quarter do so daily. Even among people over 45, nearly half are turning to digital sources regularly. In other words, this isn’t just about young people scrolling on TikTok. It’s everyone, almost all the time.
The CFP® Board found that YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are the most common social media sources of financial advice for Americans, especially those under 45. This isn’t just a generational trend. It’s a cultural one. Andrey Mir, a media theorist whose work focuses on how digital platforms are reshaping the way we communicate and consume information, describes what we’re seeing as a return to “digital orality.” In oral cultures, before writing became widespread, knowledge was shared through storytelling and performance, and as a byproduct of status-seeking behavior. Bragging wasn’t just accepted; it was essential. It helped define who had power, who had wisdom, and what the tribe considered success. Social media platforms, Mir argues, are the new campfires. When we scroll through someone’s post about their latest stock win or side hustle, we’re not just seeing information—we’re seeing success we’re wired to respond to.
As Mir puts it: “What else are our posts and profiles if not requests for appreciation, or bragging, from its very primitive to very sophisticated forms?” In other words: much of what passes as financial advice online is really a form of digital showmanship. It’s less about helping others and more about signaling status. And visibility doesn’t require accuracy. It just requires confidence.
It’s no surprise that fewer than 40% of Americans believe the financial information they find online actually serves their best interests. That skepticism is well-founded, and exhausting. When everything is available, and little is trustworthy, it's easy to make a bad decision just because something feels clear and confident. The internet rewards confidence. Social media favors bite-sized certainty over thoughtful nuance. “Don’t do this,” “Always do that,” “This trick will save you thousands”—these formats perform well. The most dangerous financial misinformation isn’t always a scam. Often, it’s almost right. It may be based on cherry-picked data or hypothetical returns. The easy answers ignore a central truth of financial planning: the right answer often begins with “It depends.”
If you’re reading something online and it checks these boxes, it’s time to pause:
- Too good: Promises of high, “safe” returns or “secret” strategies are a red flag. Most real opportunities involve tradeoffs.
- Too fast: Anything that creates urgency (e.g., “act now,” “limited time,” “before the IRS finds out”) is trying to bypass your logic.
- Too certain: Personal finance is rarely black and white. If there’s no mention of risk, context, or downside, it’s not advice, it’s a pitch.
The best advice usually comes with a margin of error, not an exclamation point. The encouraging news is that most people know this intuitively. The CFP® Board found that 93% of Americans try to verify financial information before acting on it. That’s a good sign. But verifying takes time, and it’s not always easy to know who or what to trust. That’s where we, as advisors, have an important role to play. We do more than build portfolios. We are also a filter. We’re a second set of eyes, and someone who will say, “Let’s look at how that idea fits your situation.”
In a noisy world, one of the most underrated advantages of working with a trusted advisor is simply the ability to slow down, to step back and say: “Is this aligned with what we’re trying to do? Or is it just something that sounds good right now?” The next time you come across a video or post that promises financial certainty in under 60 seconds, take a breath. Ask: “Who is this for?” “What’s their incentive?” “What are they leaving out?”
Then, if it still seems interesting, bring it to us. Information is everywhere. Context-rich advice still takes a relationship.
Eric Pozolo, CFP®
The CFP® Board survey on financial misinformation can be viewed here: https://www.cfp.net/industry-insights/reports-and-statistics/consumer-surveys