Millennials Are Trading More In the Covid Era – Here Is Why
Investing was not a very popular term among millennials up until recently. COVID 19 has changed a lot of things, and it seems like millennials are changing their habits as well.
Statistics are showing a surge in investing among Millennials
New reports are indicating that Millennials have changed their spending and investing habits during the COVID 19 outbreak. Up until 2019, the vast majority of this generation was never exposed to investing as a means of storing value but numbers are telling a different story in 2020. While most of them are still exploring uncharted territory, a good percentage of millennials is already dipping their toes into the world of investing and looking for the best forex trading app for beginners.
Online Trading Is Becoming More and More Accessible
Mobile technology is probably the most influential technological advancement for most millennials. The quick adaptation to mobile technology enabled many businesses to thrive in this market, in turn creating more value and investing opportunities. Applications became more than just entertainment. Many of them serve as a valuable source of information, a training course, or even both. This paved the way for investing to go mobile and now there are even more entry points to the financial markets millennials can explore and use. A rise in popularity for investing apps could be marked as a true turning point for this generation.
There are many investing apps out there that simulate the financial markets and train users to become successful investors with no financial risks involved. The best of them offer training courses that guide users through the most important talking points, prepare them for the uncertainty that comes with financial markets, and put their knowledge to the test. By using data from real- world markets and letting their users trade with points that have no monetary value, these apps allow millennials to get a feel of the markets and hopefully change their overall opinion on them.
What kept Millennials from investing before 2020?
A fact that is often overlooked is that millennials were dealt a bad hand in terms of economic growth and financial security. A large number of them had to struggle with financial insecurity so saving was always last on their list. Saving cash for a down payment on a home was a more urgent issue than long-term investing but the pandemic changed a lot of things. To put things into perspective, here is a 2019 report from The Ontario Securities Commission:
- Millennials have a higher income than Generation X but the costs for shelter, transit, and education have increased faster than incomes.
- 68% of millennials that don’t invest stated that they have other financial priorities in life. 53% of them see credit card debt as a key obstacle to investing.
- Paying off debt and house ownership is a top priority for most of them
- 59% of millennials that don’t invest admit that they don’t know enough about investing to even get started
- 57% of them are worried about losing money in the financial markets, while even larger numbers expressed their lack of trust in “big banks and financial firms”
What’s Next?
COVID 19 is making tectonic changes in the underlying framework of our society. Lockdowns and job losses are forcing millennials to look for another income stream and investing seems as a viable solution for their problem. Mobile technology along with a whole ecosystem of apps will serve as a knowledge base for many. If the current trend continues and millennials keep learning about investing, we could see a surge in market capital in the coming years. There was a large discrepancy between financial markets and retail investors but mobile technology seems to have served as an excellent bridge and solution to this problem.
