Many young investors are buying stocks and opening accounts regardless of market volatility. Moreover, stock trading apps such as Robinhood have already become popular among young investors and are enabling them to double up as investors as well.
Majority of millennials, who turned to stock market trading, are relying on Robinhood and other similar trading apps. Despite market indices tumbling over 1,000 points, the doubling of new accounts opening in August further validates the entry of young investors in a good number.
According to the latest rough estimates, about 65 percent of traders were buying rather than resorting to sell off, while markets were nose diving in a panic off loading. Interestingly, Robinhood customers bought more stocks than selling.
Considering the lower valuations of several fundamentally-strong companies, this is considered to be the right time for young investors to enter.
Banking on the young investor potential, Robinhood has also launched an app for Apple Watch facilitating young generation to do trades in a hassle-free manner.
The influx of young people was further indicated by the huge waiting list of 700,000 for Robinhood beta version. Of course, today, it's available for everyone without any waiting list.
The similar trend is prevailing in Europe also. Approximately 60 percent of young investors below 40 years were buying stocks in August. According to Degiro, a Netherlands-based online trading platform, the number of young investors is increasing despite adverse market conditions.
Degiro has 70,000 user accounts in Europe and this is more than 100 percent than it was in the previous year. Considering the increased demand for stock market trading coming from young generation, Deziro has just opened US trading platform.
Deziro is also fast attracting young investors on par with Robinhood. Like Robinhood, Deziro is also offering commission-free trading, however, it charges for Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).
Many companies are likely to follow Robinhood and Deziro by developing new apps for trading to explore the untapped market of young population.
The advantages of apps like Robinhood include no minimum balance, easy to trade, quickly to execute trades and no commission as well.
Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt are the co-founders of Robinhood.
Tenev says: "Our app makes itself appealing to younger people. We definitely wanted to speak to the younger generation. But, the hard part with that is, how do we get a younger generation of Americans to do this action that they have never done before?"
In fact, more trading and investing opportunities have been created after the massive sell-off. Many quality companies with bright earnings outlooks are available at lower valuations, according to Dr David Stubbs, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.
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