(MONEY Magazine) – Growing up in Manhattan in the 1980s, I inhaled some pretty strong doses of excess. I demanded the latest Polo sweaters and went to parties in lofts that my classmates had rented for the night. I was lucky and comfortable, and I couldn't help but be aware that it all had something to do with what was happening on Wall Street. Never, however, even living in the nation's financial capital, was I given to understand that money was primarily good for getting more money. Today, it seems, that message is being force-fed to young people all over the country.

I'm not just talking about extreme cases like Jonathan Lebed, the New Jersey high school student who recently made headlines for (allegedly) running an online pump-and-dump trading scheme. The marketing of investing to kids has clearly gone mainstream. Karl Schofield, head of marketing for Stein Roe Funds, tells me he gets five calls a week from companies wanting to partner with his firm's Young Investor fund. Meanwhile, magazines like Young Money (no relation to MONEY) proffer investment strategies to teens. Meanwhile, websites like MainXchange, DoughNet and Buyandhold.com offer custodial trading accounts that parents can open for their kids.

What makes this troubling to me are the conflicting signals that often accompany these products. Laced in with the obligatory warnings is this coded message: Seek the big score. (Sometimes it's not so coded: "Begin to understand how easy it is to become a millionaire!" blasts Young Money.)

Not being a parent, I can only imagine the impulse to want more for your kids than you have yourself. Many of us wish we'd started investing sooner, and it's natural to try to instill the lesson early. But I feel pretty sure that teaching kids how to budget, save and even manage money with an eye toward the future is one thing--and that training them to be stock jocks is quite another.

When these messages are mixed, even the savviest kids can come away confused. Consider Chris Stallman, an Illinois high school junior who runs a website called TeenAnalyst.com. A confident, polite kid who writes for his school paper, Chris is saving for college and says he makes only a couple of trades a year. He seems to have a healthy, realistic take on investing--until I ask him about his aspirations. He wants to start a nonprofit organization, he says, "after I make my first $20 million."

--ALEC APPELBAUM