Retail investors are everyday individuals who buy and sell stocks through brokerage or retirement savings accounts. Unlike institutional investors, these nonprofessionals trade for themselves with their own money.
Hours of research by our editors, distilled into minutes of clarity.
Exchange-traded funds seem to offer something for everyone. As tracked by ETF.com, there are 338 thematic ETFs, offering exposure to “baskets” of stocks covering global infrastructure, genomics, cannabis, and more.
The platform was conceived as a hub for first-time investors looking to get into trading. After criticism in 2021, the company pivoted to focus on more regular, daily traders, among whom the company's CEO has now become a cult hero.
GameStop stock began a meteoric rise in January 2021, rallying from a low of $2.57 to as high as $438. Keith Gill, a financial advisor who posted on social media under usernames including “Roaring Kitty” and helped mobilize the retail investors who drove prices higher. Backing from Chewy founder Ryan Cohen, who is now GameStop CEO, took things up a notch. Dive into the full timeline here.
Holding costs include things like the expense ratio, or the annual fee that a fund issuer charges. Transaction costs include things like brokerage commissions, or the fee that a broker charges to enact a trade. However, in recent years, most brokers have essentially eliminated commissions on ETF trading.
If you can’t get enough politics in your life, why not invest like a politician? Because members of Congress are required to disclose their stock purchases, you can do just that, and the NANC and KRUZ ETFs make it even easier. NANC, referencing Nancy Pelosi, holds a basket of stocks that Democratic politicians have purchased. KRUZ, referencing Ted Cruz, holds a basket of Republican-held stocks.
Retail investors may not have the same resources institutional players do, but thanks to the internet, they can access several free tools that provide a leg up. These tools do everything, from recommending portfolio allocations, to helping investors screen stocks, to tracking their real or simulated trades. Learn more about these tools here.
While less than half of retail investors hold ETFs in their portfolio, this figure is up dramatically in recent years, and experts forecast continued adoption as more options hit the market and total ETF assets under management continue to grow.
r/WallStreetBets is a forum (aka a “subreddit”) on the social media platform Reddit that was started in 2012. Later, r/WallStreetBets evolved into a place where unconventional investment approaches were not just tolerated, but planned and celebrated. It’s perhaps most famous for its role in the GameStop saga.
Want to try day trading but don’t want to risk losing cash? This simulator lets users practice buying and selling stocks and funds while leveraging real-time data and trading charts. Individuals have access to “unlimited” fake money, and the option to convert their simulation accounts to the real deal later on. Try it out here.
Instead of purchasing an individual biotech stock and gambling on whether a company’s clinical trial yields the next blockbuster cancer treatment or an absolute flop, biotech ETFs allow investors to gain exposure to multiple promising companies in the industry and have a higher likelihood of “getting it right.”
The United States is home to more than 33 million businesses, the vast majority of which are small businesses, with millions being created (and others closing shop) every year. These businesses often rely on loans, provide the goods and services that keep the economy flowing, and sometimes even grow large enough to enter public markets or provide private investment opportunities. Explore key topics central to business and finance, from the role of the Federal Reserve to how initial public offerings work, how millions of American students finance higher education, and more.