Middle-Aged, Risky, and Going at It Alone

The millions of new investors and traders who joined the stock market in the past year may not be who the majority of financial media think they are. Images of young men and women home from college using their stimulus checks to trade meme stocks may be overblown. According to Investopedia’s recent survey of its daily newsletter readers, a quarter of investors ages 40-54 began trading during the pandemic. This is on par with those 39 and younger at 27%.

Most of the 1,300 respondents to the survey describe themselves as self-taught, with 47% saying they use websites and books to educate themselves about investing and trading. Twenty-two percent say they learn from their financial advisors, while only 6% say they learn from Reddit online forums. Only 5% say they first learned from social media, including TikTok and Twitter. Read more…..