The Growing Hatred For Finance Influencers - YouTube

From a broke college dropout to a multi-millionaire, today I'm going to share my full story with you. Lately, I've noticed my perception of finance youtubers slowly shifting, from educational resource to scammy salesmen. And I'm not the only one that thinks this. Financial YouTubers are a cancer. Time and time again, they keep getting away with chilling terrible advice to their massive viewer base, and there's never any accountability. There's a growing sentiment from their followers online that feel the exact same way, but it wasn't always like this. Once trusted sources of financial wisdom are now slowly being perceived as greedy grifters.

从一个破产的大学辍学生到一位坐拥数百万资产的富翁，今天我将与你分享我的完整故事。最近，我注意到我对财经YouTuber的看法正在慢慢改变，从教育资源转变为骗钱的推销员。而且，不只是我一个人这么认为。财经YouTuber就像癌症。他们一再逃脱向庞大的观众群推销糟糕建议的责任，从未受到任何问责。越来越多的网上追随者也有同样的感受，但事情并非一直如此。曾经被信任的财务智慧来源，现在逐渐被视为贪婪的骗子。

Now this is a very broad genre, so specifically, we're going to be talking about the educational sector. Your gram-stevens, Andre Jeeks, meet Kevin's. These YouTubers have given practical advice for the everyday person. What's an IRA? What's an index fund? In terms of finance, the educational influencer was, I think, considered one of the most trusted as opposed to someone like Tylopes. But people are starting to distrust them as well. A few weeks ago, that was made even more clear in a video by coffeezilla.

这是一个非常宽泛的类别，所以我们特别要讨论的是教育领域。比如 Gram Stevens、Andre Jeeks、Meet Kevin 这些 YouTuber。他们为普通人提供了实用的建议。什么是 IRA？什么是指数基金？在金融领域，教育类的影响者曾被认为是最值得信赖的，相对于像 Tylopes 这样的人。但人们也开始对他们产生不信任。几周前，Coffeezilla 的一个视频更加明确地揭示了这一点。

The peak of this distrust has been prompted by a video from Coffeezilla called YouTuber Bank won't let me withdraw money. They were talking about a bank promoted by YouTubers that's now become a casino and users can't get their money out. In short, YouTubers such as Gram-steven, Natal Brian and Andre Jeeks, promoted a product that has put many of their followers in financial ruin. This product was yacht a bank, a banking service that seems to have turned into a casino, and now viewers can't withdraw their money. Individuals on Reddit calling Gram a snake oil salesman that got them screwed.

这种不信任的高峰是由一段来自Coffeezilla的视频引发的，视频标题为“油管KOL推荐的银行不让我取款”。视频中谈到一个由YouTubers推广的银行，现在变成了赌场，用户无法取出他们的钱。简而言之，像Gram-steven、Natal Brian和Andre Jeeks这样的YouTubers推广的产品，导致许多追随者陷入了财务困境。这个产品原本是一个名为“yacht a bank”的银行服务，但现在却似乎变成了一个赌场，观众无法提取他们的钱。Reddit上的用户称Gram是一个卖假药的骗子，让他们陷入了麻烦。

To be fair to Gram and all the other YouTubers that promoted this bank, including Markiplier, it's not completely their fault. There'd be no way for any influencer to foresee this disaster. In short, the reason users can't withdraw their money is because of a middleman dispute between Yada's banking partners. The problem is a bit complex, so I'll link some articles that will explain this in detail if you're interested. But essentially, two intermediaries, Synapse and Evolve Bank, can't agree over transaction and balance ledgers. As a result, thousands of customers have been unable to access their funds because these companies can't agree on how much they have or don't have and who has what.

为了公平对待Gram和其他推广这家银行的YouTuber，包括Markiplier，这并不完全是他们的错。任何网红都不可能预见这种灾难。简而言之，用户无法提现的原因是Yada的银行合作伙伴之间的中间商纠纷。问题有点复杂，如果你感兴趣的话，我会附上一些详细解释的文章链接。但本质上，两个中介机构——Synapse和Evolve Bank在交易和余额账目上无法达成一致。结果是，由于这些公司无法弄清用户到底有多少钱，成千上万的客户无法取出自己的资金。

Blaming an influencer for this would be like blaming Mr. Beast if his sponsor lets say that game Brawl Stars ever glitches out. It's Brawl Stars fault if their game glitches, not his. Yet one peak at Gram Steffent's comment section today, after this fiasco, shows you just how much animosity there is still towards him. On the surface, this seems like a case of a mob angry because everyone else is angry, but it's not. Cuffyzilla even acknowledges that there is no way for these YouTubers to predict this disaster. This is because his animosity has been brewing for these educational finance influencers for years. Am I about to clap some millennial money? Cheeks! Except for Graham, the only intelligent person on this frickin' panel of bozos.

将责任归咎于一位网红，就好比在《荒野乱斗》游戏出问题时责怪他们的代言人Mr. Beast。这是《荒野乱斗》的问题，不是他的。然而，今天在Graham Steffent的评论区一瞥，你就能够看到大家对他的敌意有多深。表面上看，这似乎是大家因为别人都生气而一起发怒，但其实并非如此。Cuffyzilla甚至承认这些YouTuber根本无法预料这场灾难的发生。这种敌意早已在这些财经教育网红之间酝酿许久。我是不是要来批判一下这些“千禧钱财”的家伙们？除了Graham，这个小组里唯一一个聪明人。

You have people who claim they no longer watch them, others accuse them of being scammers. Meet Kevin's entire subreddit has completely turned on him. What's interesting about this phenomenon is that the criticism isn't just towards one guy. It's towards almost all educational influencers across the board. Gonna call them that for the rest of the video. It's shorter and makes things easier. So, why is everyone turned on them? I can answer that question for you in two words. Greed. And the algorithm. That's technically four words, but I never know if people count the M though whenever they use that phrase. Let's go back to 2015, where social media was filled with these scammy salesmen who illustrated themselves as financial gurus. Here in my garage just bought this new Lamborghini here. They showcased their fancy cars as they gave advice to their audience. They talked about how they got rich with a spectacular view behind them.

有些人声称他们不再观看这些内容，另一些人则指责他们是骗子。整个Meet Kevin的Subreddit已经完全转向反对他。这种现象有趣的一点是，批评的对象不仅仅是一个人，而是几乎所有的教育类网红。为了简化，我将在视频中把他们统称为教育类网红。那么，为什么所有人都开始反感他们？我可以用两个词来回答你：贪婪和算法。虽然严格来说是四个词，但每次用这个短语时我都搞不清楚人们是否会把“and”算进去。让我们回到2015年，那时候社交媒体充斥着那些自称为金融大亨的骗子推销员。在我的车库里刚买了一辆新的兰博基尼。他们展示自己豪华的汽车，给观众提供建议。他们在壮观的背景下谈论自己如何致富。

This influencer showcased beautiful women, interviewed high profile celebrities, and seemed to live a life of luxury. The problem with these types of videos were they were always selling something. The promise of their lifestyle. And for the low, low payment of $1,000 in your soul, you too could become a millionaire if you buy my course. It was so salesy and inauthentic, almost every one of their grandma knew these videos were essentially ads. God, I've obscene how every detail of this video is so purposeful. The Lamborghini, the garage, the bookshelf, and he's wants your money so bad, dude. He's thought about this video a lot.

这个网红展示了美貌女性，采访了知名的名人，看起来过着奢华的生活。问题在于，这些类型的视频总是在推销某种东西。承诺你可以拥有他们的生活方式。只需要支付区区1000美元，你也可以成为百万富翁，只要你购买他的课程。这种推销手法非常商业化且不真实，几乎每个人的奶奶都知道这些视频本质上就是广告。天啊，我见过这个视频的每一个细节都是如此有目的性。兰博基尼、车库、书架，他真的太想要你的钱了，伙计。他对这个视频进行了很多思考。

However, by 2016, slash 2017, you had new voices coming into the finance genre, education. They were teaching viewers all about credit, what the hell dividends are, an ETF versus a mutual fund, and all about the stock market. Some of these YouTubers, such as Meet Kevin, even did deep dives on some of the scammy salesmen that dominated early YouTube, getting sued by Grant Cardone. These guys were actually carving out their own section in finance YouTube, where viewers saw them as a separate entity from the scammy salesmen. They were educational, trustworthy, and informative. And I am here to provide free, easy to understand financial education. Dare I say, millennial Dave Ramsey or Susie Orman?

然而，到2016年或2017年，金融领域出现了新的声音，尤其是在教育方面。他们教观众有关信用、股息、ETF与共同基金的区别以及股票市场的知识。其中一些YouTuber，比如Meet Kevin，甚至深入揭露了早期YouTube上那些充满骗局的销售人员，甚至被Grant Cardone起诉。这些人实际上在金融YouTube领域中开辟了自己的天地，观众们将他们视为与那些骗局销售人员截然不同的存在。他们具备教育性、可信任且信息丰富。而我在这里是为了提供免费、易懂的金融教育。我敢说，是千禧一代的Dave Ramsey或Susie Orman？

This era in finance YouTube was, I mean, honestly, kind of life-changing for me. Parents are immigrants, so their financial advice to me was just, save money, credit cards are bad. And school teaches you nothing, by the way, or maybe they did, just wasn't paying attention. But part of the reason why I opened up a Roth IRA was because of Graham Steppens' videos. I was so annoyed by all the Tai Lopez's promising this unattainable dream, but these finfluencers were like a breath of fresh air. They actually gave me something practical to use for free that I could do that day.

在 YouTube 财经视频方面，我必须说，这段时间对我来说真的是改变人生的。我的父母是移民，所以他们给我的理财建议基本就是存钱、信用卡不好。而学校根本不教这些，或者可能有教过，只是我没注意听。不过我开设罗斯个人退休账户（Roth IRA）的部分原因是因为看了Graham Stephan的视频。我对那些像Tai Lopez一样承诺遥不可及梦想的人感觉特别厌烦，但这些“财经网红”却像一股清新的空气。他们实际上免费提供了一些当天就能用的实用建议。

But there's a problem with sensible education content in finance. You can only do so much of it. Unlike Mr. Beast's content, which thrives as long as his brain works, some genres have a natural limit on the amount of content that can be produced. I believe finance content that is sensible and educational is one of those genres. There are only so many ways one can explain the difference between a Roth IRA versus a traditional IRA, or which credit card is the best for beginners. Take me, for example. I think I represent one type of viewer that a lot of these educational finfluencers had. I'm an average person just looking for a way to optimize my current income. I'm not trying to take a big risk right now, picking some stock where I can go all in and become a millionaire. I was literally just looking for how to do the basics.

但是，关于金融方面的理性教育内容存在一个问题：它的可制作内容是有限的。与Mr. Beast的视频内容不同，只要他的大脑还在运作，他就能持续创作。而某些类型的视频内容在数量上是有自然限制的，我认为理性且教育性的金融内容就是其中之一。你只能用有限的方式来解释Roth IRA和传统IRA的区别，或者初学者该选择哪种信用卡最佳。以我为例，我想我代表了一大批类似的受众——那些教育类金融博主的观众。我是一个普通人，只想找到优化现有收入的方法。我并不想冒巨大的风险，比如选择某只股票全力投资成为百万富翁。我只是想了解一些基本操作。

I got what I needed, and then I kind of stopped watching them. And that's a problem for these guys. As you should know by now, creators are paid based on how much viewership they'd gotten are from their videos. And sponsorships of course, but we'll get back to that. The more views they get, the more money they make. If you have a viewer base that will eventually stop watching you after, let's say, seven videos, that money is eventually going to be less than it was before. I see this a lot in the education space in general. People get what they need, and then they leave.

我得到了我所需要的，然后我就不怎么再看他们的视频了。对于这些创作者来说，这是个问题。如你所知，创作者的收入是根据他们视频的观看量来计算的。当然也有一些赞助，但我们稍后再谈。如果他们的视频观看量越多，他们赚的钱就越多。假设一个观众在看了七个视频后就不再看了，那么这些创作者的收入最终会比之前更少。我在教育领域经常看到这种情况。人们获得了所需要的知识，然后就离开了。

Take fitness, for example. The beginner, just getting into gym culture, will often watch a fitness influencer to build their own fitness routine, and sometimes their diet. After they perfect their form and build their routine, there really is no reason to keep watching. This is why a lot of fitness education channels have inconsistent viewership. Their channels are a revolving door of new people coming in and out. In theory, this sounds okay because there will always be new viewers. In the eyes of brands, it's not so great. The influencer is unable to build a loyal community. They keep leaving after everything they need.

以健身为例。刚开始接触健身文化的初学者，通常会观看健身网红的视频来制定自己的健身计划，有时还会参照他们的饮食建议。当他们的动作已经很标准、计划已经很成熟时，就没有继续观看的必要了。这就是为什么很多健身教学频道的观看人数不稳定的原因。他们的频道就像一个旋转门，新观众不断进进出出。理论上，这听起来问题不大，因为总会有新的观众加入。但在品牌的眼中，这并不理想。网红无法建立一个忠实的观众社区，因为观众得到了自己需要的东西后就离开了。

This leads to less likelihood of those new people purchasing whatever product. However, the fitness genre has been able to solve this. Lifestyle content and fitness entertainment is a growing community with consistent viewership. Viewers are watching for the creator rather than just the info. So, after exhausting basic sensible topics, these influencers had to target an audience that would actually become a community, like in fitness entertainment. Is it even possible to do that in the genre? The person that sticks around isn't the safe investor who invests long-term. Again, they've already learned basic finance from early videos. I mean, you could probably look at any of these guys' videos, sort by oldest, and find that everything used to be basic and educational. Today, it's all clickbait.

这导致那些新来的人购买产品的可能性降低。然而，健身领域已经解决了这个问题。生活方式内容和健身娱乐是一个有着稳定观众的不断增长的社区。观众是因为喜欢创作者才观看，而不仅仅是为了获取信息。所以，在用完基本的理性话题之后，这些影响者不得不瞄准一个能够真正形成社区的受众，就像在健身娱乐中那样。这在这个领域里甚至可能吗？真正坚持下来的人并不是那些长期投资的稳健投资者。再次强调，他们已经从早期的视频中学到了基本的理财知识。我的意思是，你可以看看他们的任何一个视频，按最早发布的排序，都会发现最初的内容都是基本且有教育意义的。而现在，全部都是吸引眼球的标题。

This is just my speculation here, but I think the person that watches the finance influencer isn't someone who's experienced. And I'm not trying to diss them. Anyone is free to share their opinions on how to invest or whatever. I just doubt that people who are experiencing the world of finance are interested in hearing the opinions from people who make their money solely using content creation or selling courses. The type of viewer that these guys are able to keep are probably beginners, but beginners with this sense of I want more. I'm going to be rich too. For these viewers, it's like, okay, you taught me how to set up my Robinhood or whatever brokeridge, but tell me what stock is the next Tesla so I can make a lot of money. And that is where the green starts to kick in.

这只是我的猜测，但我认为那些看财经网红视频的人并不是有经验的人。我不是在贬低他们，任何人都可以分享他们对投资的看法或其他内容。我只是怀疑那些真正体验过金融世界的人会对那些仅靠内容创作或卖课程赚钱的人的意见感兴趣。这些网红能够吸引的观众可能是初学者，但这些初学者心里有一种“我想要更多”的感觉，“我也想变得富有”。对于这些观众来说，学会了如何设置 Robinhood 或任何其他券商账户后，就会想知道下一个特斯拉是哪只股票，这样他们可以赚很多钱。而这就是贪婪开始作祟的地方。

Instead of giving that same level-headed advice as they've done before, many influencers started to feed into the emotional and irrational tendencies of their viewers, like producing videos on which individual stocks to buy. Hey, everyone, me Kevin here. I just came back from Iran, and I'm so excited to be able to share my stock portfolio with you. I'm going to show you everything. Let me tell you right now, there isn't one expert that can tell you which stock will make you a million bucks. Otherwise, we'd all be listening to that expert. Unless it's Nancy Pelosi. If you happen to see her buy something, you do it. Tick, tack, toe, a winner. So, why would these YouTubers think of themselves as any different? They don't. But these videos do get views.

很多网红不再像之前那样提供冷静理智的建议，而是开始迎合观众的情绪和非理性倾向，比如制作关于购买个别股票的视频。大家好，我是Kevin。我刚从伊朗回来，非常兴奋能和大家分享我的股票投资组合。我会告诉你一切。现在我就告诉你，没有一个专家能保证哪只股票会让你挣到一百万美元。否则我们都会听那个专家的建议了。除非是南希·佩洛西。如果你看到她买了什么，你就跟着买，肯定赚钱。那么，这些YouTuber为什么会觉得自己与众不同呢？他们并不会这么觉得。但是，这类视频确实能吸引很多观看。

Investing is always going to come with risk, obviously, and advice has to be catered for the individual, but for simplicity's sake, and this is not financial advice. One of the most generic and common pieces of advice that's often given is to invest your money in a broad index fund like the S&P 500. The advantage of doing this is that index fund investing is outperformed 99% of active investors over a 20-year period. But that's boring, and it doesn't get any views. It's been said a thousand times before, by them sometimes. In order to cultivate recurring viewership and get that delicious ad revenue, many abandon that level-headed image by introducing these funds to the people who are living in the future.

投资总是伴随着风险，显而易见，而且建议需要根据个人情况量身定制，但为了简单起见（这并不是财务建议），一个最常见和普遍的建议就是将你的钱投资于像标普500这种广泛的指数基金。这样做的优势在于，长期来看，指数基金在20年的时间里表现超过了99%的主动投资者。但这很无趣，吸引不到任何关注。这种建议已经被说过无数次了，有时还被那些人重复说过。为了吸引持续的观众并获得可观的广告收入，许多人放弃了理智的形象，通过将这些基金介绍给那些“生活在未来”的人们。

They didn't outright tell you which stocks to buy because giving financial advice in the US is regulated. It was more like, hey, here's what's in my portfolio. And these viewers tended to follow the world of finance religiously because they needed to know how the market was doing so they didn't lose money. This is how many of these influencers were able to transition into use. Now, this was all fine and dandy until so many of their stock picks began to lose their viewers' money. His entire channel grew off of a scam cryptocurrency, Shiba Inucoin, and penny stocks. We are seeing millionaires printed. That is how he grew his channel to 600,000 subscribers.

他们没有直接告诉你该买哪些股票，因为在美国，提供财务建议是受到监管的。他们更像是说，嘿，这是我投资组合里的股票。这些观众往往非常关注金融世界，因为他们需要了解市场的情况，以避免亏钱。这也是许多这样有影响力的人能够成功转型为使用者的原因。然而事情发展得很好，直到他们推荐的许多股票开始让观众亏钱。他整个频道是靠一个叫柴犬币的诈骗加密货币和低价股起家的。我们看到有人因此成为了百万富翁，这使得他的频道增长到了60万订阅者。

Obviously, you should be called out for that. In a video uploaded in 2023, Carson Gull found that listening to Andrei Jik would give you a return of minus 5%. Listening to financial education minus 53%. Stockmo minus 68%. This video by Cooper Academy that was uploaded last year in July found that Meet Kevin Stockfun that he titled My Top 7 Stocks was up barely 2%, while the market at the time was up 32%. What's funny, well maybe not for people that have lost money, is that a lot of these influencers sell a course on buying stocks.

显然，你应该被指出这个问题。在2023年发布的一段视频中，Carson Gull发现听取Andrei Jik的建议会让你损失5%。听取财务教育相关的建议会损失53%，而听取Stockmo的建议则会损失68%。去年七月，Cooper Academy发布了一段视频，发现Meet Kevin命名为"我的七只最佳股票"的股票基金仅上涨了2%，而当时市场涨幅为32%。有趣的是，尽管很多人因此损失了钱，但这些网红还在兜售关于购买股票的课程。

I don't see anything wrong with this per se, gatekeeping is dumb and anyone should be able to give their opinion. But should you really sell a course if your results are minus 53%? The veil was beginning to lift for a lot of their viewers. Meet Kevin's subreddit has turned into a space that seems dedicated to criticizing his every move. This isn't some case of subjective hate where you made a cringey music video and now people hate you. A finance influencer's content has the potential to cause life-altering situations. People have deleted themselves if you know what I mean over stocks.

我本身觉得这没什么问题，搞“把关”是很愚蠢的，任何人都应该可以发表自己的意见。但如果你的成绩是负53%，你真的应该卖课程吗？对许多他的观众来说，真相开始浮出水面。Meet Kevin的subreddit变成了一个专门批评他每一个举动的地方。这并不是那种你做了一个尴尬的音乐视频然后大家就开始讨厌你的主观性仇恨。一个财经网红的内容可能会对人生产生重大影响。大家懂的，曾有人因为股票问题而自杀。

Another tempting high-view topic that these influencers could produce videos on was crypto. Not a lot of them did this because while it was a popular topic, if they advised their viewer the wrong coin, their integrity would deeply suffer. Considering the fact that not a lot of crypto projects other than Bitcoin and Ethereum survive, it is a high-risk topic to discuss, especially if you're viewed as a level-headed, final, and a level-headed, final. The most prominent person who decided to take this risk was Andrei Jick. Hi, my name is Andrei Jick. Hope you're doing well. I'm still not a crypto channel, so come for the finance and stay for the crypto. It's a phase. You could say the jick is up. Talking about cryptocurrency in general and even explaining what certain coins are in my opinion is fine.

这些网红们另一个诱人的高流量话题是加密货币。虽然它是一个热门话题，但很多人并没有涉足，因为如果推荐了错误的代币，他们的信誉会受到严重打击。考虑到除了比特币和以太坊，大多数加密项目都难以存活，这确实是一个高风险的讨论话题，尤其是在你被视为一个冷静、最终决策者的情况下。最明显决定冒这个风险的人是安德烈·贾克（Andrei Jick）。你好，我是安德烈·贾克。希望你一切安好。我依然不是一个专门讨论加密货币的频道，所以来了解金融知识，顺便关注一下加密货币。这只是一时的热潮。你可以说这是一种现象。总的来说，讨论加密货币以及解释某些代币的意义，我认为是没有问题的。

But if you were viewed as an authoritative educator in finance, you really should not be promoting, even if it's implicitly, altcoins that are highly volatile. Again, their demographic is likely the irrational beginner who wants to be rich like them. The moral thing to do is not ziffy into that irrationality. We'll be missing out on some views, but at least you'll keep your integrity. Andrei always had a caveat in his crypto videos along the lines of explaining he wasn't an expert. He also never explicitly said, buy this crypto and you'll be rich, but he showed just how much he invested into certain altcoins.

但如果你被视为金融领域的权威教育者，你真的不应该推广那些高度波动的山寨币，即使是隐含地推广也不行。因为他们的受众很可能是那种想要像他们一样变得富有的非理性初学者。从道德上讲，不应该迎合这种非理性行为。虽然我们可能会因此错过一些浏览量，但至少你可以保持自己的诚信。Andrei在他的视频中总是会附加一个免责声明，大意是他并非这方面的专家。他也从未明确地说“买这个加密货币你会变得富有”，但他会展示自己投资了多少某些山寨币。

And if you are that irrational beginner, you're likely going to copy because he's not Tai Lopez. He's a financial educator. As you might have guessed, some of his picks didn't do so well. His notable videos in food cartano, which is uploaded when it was around $1.35. If you sold three months later, you could have made a profit because it hit almost three books, but if you wait until today, it's not even a dollar. Then there was sheep, which he promoted in October of 2021 right at the peak. It had a small pop recently, but it's never returned to those all time highs again. One of his worst picks, in my opinion, was the crypto, Omi.

如果你是那个不理智的初学者，你可能会跟着模仿，因为他不是泰·洛佩兹，他是一位金融教育者。你可能已经猜到了，他的一些推荐并没有表现得很好。他在食品推车（假设指“卡尔达诺”）上的显著视频是在卡尔达诺价格大约为1.35美元时上传的。如果你三个月后卖掉，你可能会赚到钱，因为它接近3美元，但如果你等到今天，它甚至不到一美元。然后是他在2021年10月，大热时推广的柴犬币（SHIB）。最近有过小幅上涨，但从未再回到最高点。而我认为他最糟糕的推荐之一是加密货币Omi。

At the time of upload, it was $0.009. Today, it is worth $0.30 in something sense. What's worse is that if you listen to him and bought when he uploaded his video, it never hit $0.009 ever again, meaning you only lost money. Hey, but the views were worth it, right? Courses aren't bad. Crypto isn't bad, while certain ones at least. But of course, you're going to get criticism if you've positioned yourself as an authoritative figure in finance and the things you teach or the crypto you've invested in lost your self money and or your viewers money. Other finfluencers, like Graham Stephan, have really tried to avoid this controversy.

在上传时，它的价格是$0.009。而今天，它的价值已经是$0.30，从某种意义上来说，这还是有些道理的。更糟的是，如果你听了他的话，在他上传视频时购买了这种货币，它的价格再也没回到$0.009，这意味着你只会赔钱。不过，视频的观看量还是值得的，对吧？课程本身并没有错。加密货币也没有错，至少某些加密货币没有。不过，如果你把自己定位为金融方面的权威人物，而你教授的东西或者你投资的加密货币让你自己或者你的观众赔了钱，自然会招致批评。其他的金融网红，比如Graham Stephan，真的尽力避免了这种争议。

He hasn't done any videos in which stocks to pick. He doesn't tell you which crypto, if any he's invested in. If he talks about crypto, it's in a very general sense. His content still caters to the beginners, and he focuses on news. Now, I would go as far to say that Graham Stephan is probably the biggest educational finance content creator there is. If he were to make videos on which stocks to buy or which crypto to invest in, those things would go to the moon. His views would go to the moon. To Graham's credit, he's done well to avoid that and protect his integrity. However, there is an incentive to make up for that loss in potential revenue.

他还没有做过任何关于选股的视频，也没有告诉你他投资了哪些加密货币，如果有的话。他讲加密货币时非常笼统。他的内容依然是面向初学者，主要专注于新闻。现在，我愿意说Graham Stephan可能是最大的教育类金融内容创作者。如果他开始制作关于买哪些股票或者投资哪些加密货币的视频，那些东西的受欢迎程度会暴涨，他的视频观看量也会大增。值得称赞的是，Graham做得很好，避免了这种情况，以维护他的信誉。然而，他有动力去弥补潜在收益的损失。

I asked around the sponsorship deals were absurd. I know a guy much smaller channel than me making half a million a year, 50k a month just to promote FTX US. So I know the bigger guys were getting much more. Some of them probably the deals were in the millions. Graham, among other influencers, have a horrible track record in promoting products that have completely destroyed their viewers financially. They already talked about Yada Bank, but he along with other influencers also promoted FTX. Many of the large business finance youtubers, including Graham Stephan, Andre Jiek, Meat Gaven, Minority Mon State and Jeremy from Financial Education, have promoted this exchange in the past.

我打听了一下，赞助协议简直荒唐。我认识一个比我小得多的频道，仅靠推广FTX美国一年就能赚五十万美元，每月能有五万美元。所以我知道更大的频道赚得更多，有些人的赞助协议可能达到数百万美元。Graham和其他一些有影响力的人在推广产品方面有着很糟糕的记录，这些产品曾严重损害了他们观众的财务状况。他们已经讨论过Yada银行，但他和其他一些影响者也推广了FTX。许多知名的商业和金融类YouTuber，包括Graham Stephan、Andre Jiek、Meat Gaven、Minority Mon State和Jeremy from Financial Education，过去都曾推广过这个交易所。

FTX's failure likened to Enron's scandal or burden made offs Ponzi scheme. Similar to Yada, customers could not withdraw their funds, this time from a crypto exchange. In short, it was an alleged scam and went bankrupt. That's the scariest part. So many of these experts who are giving you guys advice totally bought into this Sam character as this genius billionaire, right? The most generous billionaire in the world who also happened to be paying them handsomely, of course. And I just think it shows how bad the discernment is out there making videos on how to invest. It's alarming how many people fell for this guy's ruse. And it's alarming how easy it was to convince them.

FTX 的失败被比作安然丑闻或伯纳德·麦道夫的庞氏骗局。与雅达（Yada）类似，客户无法从加密货币交易所提现。简而言之，这是一场涉嫌的骗局，最终破产了。最可怕的是，有那么多自称专家的人，完全被这个名叫山姆的角色迷惑，认为他是天才亿万富翁，对吧？这是世界上最慷慨的亿万富翁，当然，他也因此付给他们丰厚的报酬。我认为这显示了当前那些制作如何投资视频的人缺乏辨别力，非常糟糕。令人惊讶的是，有这么多人上当受骗，而且欺骗他们竟然如此容易。

Like, some of these guys believed in Sam because he drives a beat up car. Oh, but wait, there are other things that finfluencers have either promoted or put money into that have gone badly. Andrei Jek and Jeremy from Financial Education backed Voyager. People like Meet Kevin and Andrei Jek again put money into BlockFi. Sponsorships also lead to a conflict of interest. FTX BlockFi, Yada. These companies are smart. Let me clarify. Smart when it comes to marketing. They know humans have a cognitive bias called anchoring. It's when humans rely heavily on the first piece of information they receive when making decisions. Here, you have someone who has built a brand that illustrates themselves as a responsible financial educator. This first piece of information anchors a viewer's perception of them as a whole. With two out of the three of those companies involving crypto, it's going to be extremely risky to invest in them. The perception of risk is mitigated though because it is being endorsed by the educational finfluencer.

比如，有些人相信Sam是因为他开了一辆破旧的车。哦，但等等，还有一些金融影响者（finfluencers）推广或投资的项目也出了问题。Andrei Jek 和 Financial Education的Jeremy支持过Voyager。像Meet Kevin和Andrei Jek这样的又把钱投进了BlockFi。赞助也可能导致利益冲突。FTX、BlockFi、Yada，这些公司很聪明。让我澄清一下，就是在市场营销方面很聪明。他们知道人类有一种认知偏见叫做锚定效应。也就是说，人们在做决策时，往往会过于依赖他们收到的第一条信息。在这里，你会看到一个建立了自己作为负责任的金融教育者品牌的人。这条第一信息会成为观众对他们整体看法的锚点。而这三家公司中有两家涉及加密货币，投资它们将会非常风险，但因为有教育类金融影响者的背书，风险感知被减弱了。

One of the most common arguments finance influencers use, not necessarily to justify bad crypto slash stock picks or bad sponsorships, but more to dismiss their fault is to say that they got scammed too. And I think this is true. Yeah. These influencers didn't have insider information that the public didn't have. But I can see how this argument would frustrate a lot of people. On one hand, the finance influencer positions themselves as an authoritative figure in the space. They call themselves educators. They sell courses. They make informative videos. They're an expert. They supposedly know a lot and want to share that knowledge with you. But then when they make a mistake, all of a sudden it's, oh, I don't have experience in this. I'm just like you. You can't be both. This is why so many people call them greedy. They're an expert when it's convenient, when they want views or when they want to sell their courses. But they're an amateur just like me and you when they're stock slash crypto picks don't work out.

金融领域的一些网红常常用一个很普遍的论点，不一定是为他们选择的糟糕的加密货币或股票，或者糟糕的赞助做辩护，而是为了撇清自己的责任，他们会说自己也被骗了。我觉得这是真的。这些网红并没有掌握公众所不知道的内幕消息。不过，我能理解这种说法会让很多人感到沮丧。一方面，这些金融网红把自己定位为这一领域的权威人物。他们自称是教育者，卖课程，做信息丰富的视频。他们是专家，应该知道很多，并想与大家分享这些知识。但一旦他们犯了错误，突然之间，他们又说自己没有经验，和大家一样。你不能两者兼得。这就是为什么那么多人称他们贪婪的原因：当他们需要浏览量或想卖课程时，他们是专家；但当他们选的股票或加密货币赔钱时，他们又成了和你我一样的业余人士。

Some influencers like NATO Brian have realized they've exhausted a lot of topics in basic finance. I had said everything that I needed to say. I've made all the videos that I wanted to make and the thoughts that I wanted to share. I feel like 95% of those I've already done. As a creator myself, I do understand that they're trying to keep their business afloat. And a portion of that is through views. I don't think grandma's the worst guy ever. But I think the problem with these finance channels is they do a lot of fear mongering. And a lot of what they're doing is strictly just like it's like entertainment and bad advice as opposed to like actual genuine good advice that will actually help people. That begs the question, what's the line between running your YouTube business, but also staying educational and ethical. If you pay close attention, you will notice that more qualified creators like Richard at the plane bagel who is an investment analyst and has a CFA and Ben Felix, who is a portfolio manager, avoid making financial recommendations because they know they can't do it to an audience of that size without doing more harm than good. And I think the choice to not give wild speculative advice is why their audience is significantly smaller than these more exciting characters.

一些像NATO Brian这样的网红已经意识到他们在基础金融领域的话题快要讲完了。“我已经说完了我需要说的一切，拍完了我想拍的所有视频，以及分享了我想分享的想法。我感觉已经完成了95%。” 作为一个内容创作者，我理解他们正在努力维持自己的生意，而部分收入是通过观看量获得的。我不认为Grandma是最坏的人，但我认为这些金融频道的问题在于他们制造了太多的恐慌。很多时候他们的内容更像是娱乐和糟糕的建议，而不是实际有帮助的、诚恳的好建议。这引发了一个问题：如何在经营你的YouTube生意和保持教育性与道德性之间找到平衡？ 如果你仔细观察，会发现更有资格的创作者，比如具有投资分析师和CFA资质的Richard（他运营The Plain Bagel频道）和投资组合经理Ben Felix，会避免向大规模观众做出金融建议，因为他们知道那样做可能弊大于利。而我认为他们不提供狂野投机建议的选择，是导致他们的观众数量显著少于那些更具吸引力的角色的原因之一。

Regardless of the answer to this question, the criticism finance influencers face is well deserved. Jeremy from Financial Education is a fraudster. He's a scammer. He's an idiot. He's a moron. These vocal critics aren't mere internet trolls. They were once die hard supporters, many of which have faced significant losses. Alright guys, I mean putting aside the bad sponsorships. I don't know if this is a YouTube thing like as a whole or just the finance genre. But the content now feels soulless. So I think I'm going to end this video by reading a comment one of Graham's viewers left on his video. Judging from the thumbs up, seems like a lot of people agree. I've stopped watching so many creators I used to follow because it's so obvious their content is solely based on their affiliate marketing and chasing the dollar rather than providing the true value they used to. That's the end of the video. I will see you guys next time. Stay psyched.

无论这个问题的答案如何，对金融影响者的批评都是恰如其分的。Jeremy，来自金融教育频道，是个骗子。他是个诈骗犯。他是个白痴。他是个笨蛋。这些严厉的批评者不仅仅是网络喷子。他们曾经是忠实的支持者，其中很多人都遭遇了重大损失。好吧，大家，我是说撇开糟糕的赞助不谈。我不知道这是整个YouTube上的现象还是只是金融类频道的问题，但现在的内容感觉没有灵魂了。所以我想用一位Graham观众在他的视频下留下的评论来结束这个视频。从点赞数来看，似乎很多人都同意这个观点。我已经不再观看许多我以前关注的创作者了，因为很明显他们的内容完全是为了联盟营销和追求金钱，而不再是提供他们曾经的真正价值。这就是视频的结尾了。下次再见，保持兴奋。