To become a game-changing consumer product, investment platforms must be accessible to all. It is vital that retail investors are not treated as second-class citizens and that more prominent investors have more advantages to give users access to the core product and engage with the community.

The most common return on investment for self-managed investors was 4-6% last year (as of December 2020), but this has risen to 7-9% over a three-year period. A quarter of the rental income is paid to investors who opt for the cash trading scheme. Companies trade as funds, with offshore versions at least $100k for accredited investors and at least $1m for institutions. 

(Image Source: Brandwatch)

Users gain an audience by predicting future asset prices and creating helpful content for new investors. Common stock is a great example where users can follow other investors, copy trades and chat in group chats. Although it is not a specific instrument, two-thirds of investors use either one or a few of the tools available to assess the performance of their investments (74%), and some instruments show how their costs inflated returns over time (71%).

This post will go through the various segments of the retail investment stack and highlight some of the key trends we have seen at public comps, with implications for founders to create tools for retail investors. 

Retail investors exchange ideas via Slack, Discord, WhatsApp and messenger groups and get investment ideas from social media channels such as YouTube, Tik Tok, Reddit and Twitter. Robinhood, a retail investment proxy, has increased its user base from 1m in 2016 to 13min 2020. Robinhood has a higher number than dau (2.6 million), and more tools are being built to enable retail investors to acquire ideas, communicate, research, conduct business and monitor their portfolios. 

One of the most striking phenomena in 2020 and early 2021 was the rise of the retail investors who became visionary and self-taught during the pandemic. This trend will continue, according to several managers. In addition, many retail investors have become more active in capital markets in a year marked by uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.    

Not so long ago, in 2019, to be precise, retail investors accounted for only 10% of total trading activity in stock markets. Fast forward to 2020, an unprecedented number of retail investors are acting as they see the attractiveness of specific equity strategies. The ease and low cost of their access, combined with the higher disposable income now available to many through the covid-19 lockdowns and the persistently low-interest-rate environment, has festered a new wave. Exchange-traded funds, popular with private investors, attracted even more money, $250 billion, between January and April 2020.    

In April, a weekly sentiment survey by the American association of individual investors estimated that the percentage of retail investors who hoped stock prices to rise over the next six months hit a pandemic high of 57%. In addition, a new survey from Schwab indicates that a new generation of investors has been born despite the global pandemic, economic uncertainty and market volatility. 

According to the new Schwab survey, 15% of current US stock market investors stated that they planned to invest in 2020. Thematic ESG investments are growing because ETFs have market advantages: low management fees, full transparency of how stocks are invested and openness about their investment strategies. ETFs appeal to a new and younger audience and experienced capital markets that demand a responsible, sustainable and responsible investment style.  

A great example of a shareable format that makes this possible is organic growth Titan, which offers retail investors a concentrated hedge fund-like strategy. When a company in the private market begins to create funds and expand or shrink, it gains or loses customers, starting with investors who buy into the fund and fund managers who raise capital. As a result, private markets are attractive to certain types of investors willing and able to secure their money but not to others.   

(Image Source: Advisor Perspectives)

Its five ETFs have doubled in size in 2020 and have delivered significant returns to investors across the range. One of the key distinguishing features of the eToro trading platform is that it offers users different asset classes in which to invest, from commission-free fractions of stocks and ETFs to commodities, currencies and cryptocurrencies, and allows users to copy and copy successful investors. In addition, selling is part of a significant trend in sports and collectables that have caught the attention of discerning investors and retailers, transforming card collecting from a blurry hobby into a strong investment market.    

Ten of the top investors, who focus on real estate and technology, are optimistic about the entire real estate industry and see proptech as indispensable for their future. They expect remote work to be a significant part of the future and predict the continued high demand for housing in the suburbs and smaller cities. As far as the office sector is concerned, they are uncertain, but at least we know the concept of pandemics.

Retail investors may one day be able to fill their cash portfolios with low-cost funds made up of shares, bonds, art and real estate. A financial sector where the trading floors of many stock exchanges are closed has been held back by the rise of e-commerce. They have investors in pools of five, ten, and 15 million dollars, said Jesse Craig, head of business development at the PWC marketplace, a top seller of premium cards.