Educational Value: noting if the clip actually explained a practical investing principle.
Speaking with Business Insider, Holmes revealed the clear patterns he detected while poring over Fintok videos.
“It appeared to me they were only interested in getting clicks, likes, hits, revenue in the bank,” he said. “But if they have to live on that advice, would they take the same advice themselves?”
Holmes seemed skeptical. He recalled one video in which a TikTok commentator discussed the value of compounding interest but also highlighted short-term investing opportunities, essentially offering two contradictory pieces of advice.
“It isn’t financial advice for most,” he added, adding that the majority of people whose videos he watched didn’t seem to have any qualifications for giving investment advice.
While some former finance professionals have found a home on TikTok, Holmes himself raised concerns about the backgrounds of many Fintok content creators, and most peddling advice were quite young themselves.
“Nobody said, ‘hey, listen to me. I’ve got 15 years of analyst experience working for a Wall Street bank.'”
While discussing the risk that misleading content poses for TikTok users, Holmes urged viewers to look into the creator’s background and to ask questions such as “What’s in it for them?” and “What are they trying to sell me?” when assessing a content creator’s advice to buy a particular stock or crypto.
The analyst added that the content creators who discussed stocks often focused on popular tech leaders and meme stocks. However, the bulk of the videos he watched focused on crypto, often meme tokens and lesser-known digital assets.