With Bitcoin and the stock market on the rise, middle schoolers see an opportunity to make money, but there is a risk factor to consider. Specific to Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency isn’t immune to price dips of over 10% in just 24 hours or less.

In March 2020, the S&P 500 stock index dropped by over 30%. When kids strut into the arena of trading, they could be about to lose a lot of money, which isn’t necessarily easy to come by as a kid. However, there is a bright side of trading. For example, if a person simply bought Bitcoin in 2016 and held it to today, they would be seeing 14000% gains.

Personally, I trade cryptocurency and I think I have a good strategy. However, at least twice, I lost a lot of money in a short amount of time.

I invest in cryptocurrency because the crypto market moves more than the stock market, allowing me to make, and lose, more money than I probably would in the stock market.
Aside from that, while I like to trade, I have discovered the value in simply buying and holding.

The Stock to Flow model, which has been extremely accurate in predicting the future price of Bitcoin, predicts a Bitcoin worth over $1,400,000 in 2025 (around 28 times today’s price).
In terms of stocks, Apple has been making steady returns at over 400% gains in just 5 years. Again, a person holding Bitcoin since 2016 could be up 14000%. While Apple’s gains don’t even touch the surface of Bitcoin’s gains, buying and holding a good stock or cryptocurrency has time and time again proved to be a great decision.
The argument against middle schoolers investing is mainly around trusting middle schoolers not to lose all of their money. People might think of middle schoolers as mindless, crazed teenagers, but in reality, that is simply stereotypical. Middle schoolers are being prepared for adulthood, a big part of which is managing and making money. Because of this, the portion of middle schoolers that are level headed should definitely be trusted to invest their money, if not for the purpose of making money then for the purpose of preparing for adulthood.

Many financial experts have weighed in on investing and its risks. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, said, “People have made fortunes off Bitcoin, some have lost money. It is volatile, but people make money off of volatility too.” Stock legend Warren Buffett said, “Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.”
These two quotes summarize my opinion on investing: it is risky and can yield great losses, but those who do their research and are rational can make large profits.

Personally, I prefer to invest in cryptocurrency over stocks, as I feel that cryptocurrencies are more volatile giving me an opportunity to profit more.

In my opinion, Bitcoin is something to hold for the long run, because one day, you might just make some money.
To be clear, this is not financial advice, always do your own research before investing.

To conclude, I think that middle schoolers should definitely be allowed to invest if they have parental consent and if they actually spend the time to evaluate the risk and determine what they want to invest in, instead of mindlessly throwing their money into an under researched investment.