The stock market’s rally since its late March low has “inspired millions of new investors,” who now have the ability to buy “fractional shares”— less than one share of stock—according to a recent Bloombergarticle that suggests the practice is “a gimmick, designed to ensnare small, unsophisticated investors into becoming  paying clients.”

The article reports that many firms are offering fractional shares, part of the “democratization movement” which believes that “everyone should have the ability to trade stocks even if they don’t have enough money to buy even one share.” But it argues, “someone who has only $5 to invest should not be putting that money into stocks; they should be buying food,” and adds that such small trades—which can hardly be very profitable for discount brokers—are completed in the hopes that they will “one day turn into large accounts.”

Brokerage firms are appealing to people’s greed, the article asserts, “along with Instagram accounts featuring pictures of infinity pools and Lamborghinis supposedly bought with the proceeds of day trading.” It adds that “most ordinary people are psychologically hard-wired to behave in suboptimal ways when it comes to investing, and fractional shares are just another way for discount brokerages to facilitate this behavior.”

The article concludes that attempts to democratize the stock market will fail, “leading to a generation of investors distrusting Wall Street and perhaps even capitalism,” and contends, “We have to let go of the idea that everyone should own and trade stocks because people are emotionally unfit to do so.”