Fri, 05 February 2021 | investing
In a year when a pandemic gripped the world, beginning and experienced retail investors flocked to the stock market using taxable, non-retirement investment accounts, according to new research by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation (FINRA Foundation) and NORC at the University of Chicago.
The study, Investing 2020: New Accounts and the People Who Opened Them, found that market dips that made stocks cheaper to buy and the ability to invest with small amounts were among the top reasons younger and inexperienced investors reported entering the stock market. For respondents who opened new accounts in 2020, investing for retirement was the most frequently cited reason for opening the account, despite the study’s focus on taxable investing.
Researchers further found that the majority of new investors—meaning those who opened a non-retirement investment account for the first time during 2020—were under the age of 45 and had lower incomes than investors who already owned taxable investment accounts prior to 2020. New investors were also more likely to be racially or ethnically diverse.
“The spike in new investors demonstrates that people, given access and opportunity, will take steps to participate in the equity markets, potentially benefiting from the historically higher long-term returns these markets offer,” said FINRA Foundation President Gerri Walsh. “On the one hand, this research offers the investment industry, investor advocates and policymakers critical insights about pathways to financial inclusion for all Americans and presents a roadmap to help inexperienced investors, women and people of color close the wealth gap. On the other, low levels of investment knowledge among all types of investors in the sample—new and experienced—underscore the importance of educating investors about risk and reward, costs and fees, tax consequences of investing and other key concepts.”
“In early 2020, we began seeing media narratives about an influx of investors into the market. This research moves past the anecdotes and helps to separate fact from fiction, highlighting what is actually prompting investors to open a new account,” said Mark Lush, manager and behavioral scientist in the Behavioral and Economic Analysis and Decision-Making (BEAD) team at NORC. “The reality is that investors who opened their first taxable investment account during 2020 were more racially/ethnically diverse when compared to investors already in the market. Our study also found that many of these new investors were prompted to open their account because of the ability to invest with a small amount of money. Taken together, we may be witnessing a shift towards more equitable investment participation.”
Researchers surveyed nearly 1,300 households in 2020. Respondents were grouped into one of three categories: New Investors who opened one or more non-retirement investment account(s) during 2020, and did not own a taxable investment account at any time before 2020 (38 percent); Experienced Entrants who opened a taxable investment account during 2020, and also owned an existing taxable investment account opened before 2020 (19 percent); and Holdover Account Owners who maintained a taxable investment account that was opened before 2020 but did not open a new account during 2020 (43 percent).
Across investor categories, a number of differences emerged. Key findings from the report include:
Investment knowledge was low for all groups, though particularly low for New Investors. On average, New Investors could only answer 1.4 out of 5 investment knowledge questions correctly. FINRA offers an array of resources, including mini-modules on Smart Investing, to help investors build essential investment knowledge and skills.
Differences also emerged among new investors by age and race/ethnicity when survey respondents were asked what prompted them to open a new account in 2020. And across all categories of investors, there were stark contrasts surrounding investment goals, risk taking, trading behaviors and investment decision-making.
Source: FINRA