How individual investors are reshaping stock markets – Wall Street Journal

Robinhood, a Silicon Valley company, has turned the complex process of trading stocks into a simple, free swipe across a screen. And that is one the factors behind a surge in individual investors in the United States. Behavioural researchers contend that the simplicity of online trading apps is turning investing into a game, and nudging inexperienced investors to take bigger risks. But that doesn't seem to be stopping people: trading by individuals accounts for a greater chunk of market activity than at any time during the past 10 years, Larry Tabb, head of market-structure research at Bloomberg Intelligence, has told the Wall Street Journal. During the first six months of this year, individual investors accounted for 19.5% of the shares traded in the U.S stock market, up from 14.9% in 2019 and nearly double the level from 2010. CM Trading CEO Daniel Kibel recently told BizNews that a growing number of South Africans have entered the world of day trading in global markets. Robinhood boasts of having 13 million users. – Renee Moodie

Individual-investor boom reshapes US stock market

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