I started checking my stock chart while running during lunch

Tracking performance while sweating

It started because I saw a news snippet about this new ‘run-tech’ thing. People were saying you could earn rewards just by running, and in some cases, even get actual stocks if you finished these little charity marathons. I live in Gwangjin-gu, and one weekend I just decided to sign up for one of these local events. The entry fee was barely around 20,000 won, and honestly, I didn’t think I’d win anything, but it made the Saturday morning routine feel less like a chore. The strange part wasn’t the running itself, but how I ended up checking my phone’s portfolio apps the second I stopped to catch my breath. I used to just check my messages, but now my thumb naturally swipes to the brokerage app first to see if any of my ‘hot’ stocks moved while I was busy running around the park.

The noise of endless recommendations

Lately, my phone is just shouting at me. Every time I open a browser or look at social media, the algorithms are pushing these ‘today’s hot stocks’ or drone-related companies as if they know I have a few extra dollars sitting in a savings account. I remember reading Howard Marks saying that AI is a game-changer but you still need to be careful, and I think about that every time I see a notification pop up. It’s annoying, really. It feels like the machine is trying to build a portfolio for me by just looking at what was trending last month. I tried clicking on one of those ‘stock chart viewer’ links once, and for the next three days, my screen was covered in red and green bars telling me what to buy before the market closed. I don’t even like looking at charts that much; it just makes me nervous.

Trying to manage the digital cash flow

I’ve been trying to streamline my finances because keeping track of tax-free savings and pension trust accounts is becoming more of a headache than it’s worth. I saw some people talking about using apps to automate everything—like having a bot decide what to pull from your checking account to put into stocks, and what to stash in a safe deposit when you’re bored with the volatility. It sounds great on paper, but I’m still a bit skeptical. I know someone who just lets their app handle the bill payments, the small-scale trades, and the currency exchanges, and they swear by it. But when I tried to set up a similar automated flow, I spent three hours just trying to figure out which exchange had the lowest fees. It felt like I was spending more money on transaction costs than I was actually earning back from the ‘run-tech’ rewards.

The lingering doubt about the gadgets

I ended up buying this super cheap, off-brand smart watch for about 50,000 won just to track my runs and glance at my stock prices without dragging my phone out of my pocket every two minutes. It’s funny—it does the basics like checking the weather and the market, but the interface is a bit clunky. Sometimes the text overlaps, and the icon for the stock tracker looks like it was designed in 2005. I don’t know if I’m actually making better decisions with this thing on my wrist, or if I’m just more anxious because the numbers are always there. Sometimes I wonder if it’s better to just leave the app closed and walk the park without caring if my stocks are ‘hot’ or not. I haven’t figured out if this is actually helping my net worth, or if I’m just creating a more complex version of my old bad habits.