Along_the_Wire There are penny shares on Trading 212 - that might be worth a bit of a laugh with the lad.
Know someone in China (American-born Korean) who made a reasonable fortune on penny stocks in emerging markets.
Basically from having tip-offs through family connections about when a certain government were going to bail out a failing company and snapping up shitloads of shares for pennies.
Nice work if you can get it.