(Bloomberg) — Dirt cheap, automated on apps and championed by newbie traders who brandish their broker balances on Twitter, the stuck-at-home trading phenomenon, born in the USA, has become a global craze.
Retail’s tentacles are everywhere. In the U.K, tax-free savings account openings at Interactive Investor jumped 238% for investors between 25 and 34 years of age in April and May. In India, newly minted day traders are crowing after falling in love with stocks that trade below 7 U.S. cents apiece and riding most of them straight up. Small-time investors in Moscow bought almost twice as many Russian shares in June than in April. In Malaysia, individual buyers are at least partially behind giant rallies in medical glove makers — one gained more than 1,600% this year. In Japan, tiny investors boosted an obscure biotech venture with seven straight years of losses by almost 11-fold on optimism for an unproven coronavirus treatment.
With savings accounts paying out nearly nothing and people finding extra time while working from home, amateur investors who’ve gotten a taste of stock market may become a permanent feature. The trend is being fueled by zero-fee trading apps like Robinhood that have not just simplified day-trading but gamified it. Relentless support of global central banks has also buoyed equity markets despite the worst economic fundamentals in living memory.
“Via news and social media, trading has become the talk of the town. The ease of access, low costs and large moves of many stocks since March have been key drivers,” said David Friedland, Asia Pacific managing director at Interactive Brokers. “The line between institutional and retail continues to blur and retail certainly have shown their ability to move markets.”
The pandemic has kept millions at home just as low-fee trading platforms spread from America to the rest of the world.
As No-Fee Trades Spread, Here’s Why There Are Limits: QuickTake
“Zero fees are especially beneficial to day traders or scalpers whose participation in the markets are now virtually free. The super-nimble and sophisticated day traders will have a field day,” said Margaret Yang, a strategist at DailyFX. “But there is no free lunch in this world. Higher return is positively correlated to higher risks.”
Warnings like that are everywhere, though doing little to calm the fervor. Professional investors have watched with a combination of amusement and envy as retail investors mostly rejected the tenets of fundamental investing and bought companies at staggering valuations. So far, it’s working for them.
Japanese venture Tella Inc., which says it’s developing a coronavirus treatment under limited testing in Mexico, is the top-performing stock of the country’s around 4,000 listed companies this year. A Korean maker of a malaria treatment, Shin Poong Pharmaceutical Co., surged 969% this year…
Read More:The Robinhood Craze Is Now Moving Stocks Everywhere
