I am from Germany and there has been a clear change in the past two years. Before COVID none of my friends or work colleagues was talking or owning stocks (often via etfs) but now i got the feeling that the majority of my generation at least thought about investing in companys. As a major reason i identified the lack of trust in the state age requirement (bc of demographic change) and negative interest rates on saving account deposits. I do not see an end to this development in the near future.

As a French, I must say that when in 2008 I wanted to own stocks for financials (buy the dip), the only alternative was to go through my bank and their fees were damn expensive, a total ripoff. Today, I see that some of my friendsv in France starting to be interested in the stock market. The main driver is that a lot of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s doubt that the state backed pension system will survive when it will be their turn to retire.

I liked this video because it didn't feel like Americans were talking down on the current EU system, but rather talking about where it's going and the room for growth.

We buy ETFs here in Europe too. A lot of old people will never buy one but me and my 20-22 years old friends all buy etfs on Interactive Brokers. Investing in the Stock Market is taking off in Europe too !

The worst thing: My company pension fund here in Switzerland made 1.0% returns in 2020, when markets were skyrocketing. I am in my twenties and would probably take a lot more risk the younger I am. Instead, I am tied to the company pension fund. Still no clue what they invested in...

I invested in the European market which makes me about $3k monthly with the service of a coach under a great broker, that is the most effective way I have known

Retail = the type of investors who buy high and sell low

I live in Europe, I'm 37 and I feel the change in the mentality. But exist a big gap in financial education for now. Hope that changes soon.

Two factors that were not mentioned here at all that play a big role IMO: History/tradition & size. Ironically, in the field of the stock market / investing, the US has a bigger "tradition" than the vast majority of European countries. That is not to say that modern finance was not largely invented in Europe (it was). But it is and was much more common to invest in the stock market in the US than in Europe; something that regular people could and would do, so a "family tradition" of sorts. By now, the young investors learned the ropes from their parents, whose parents in turn might have already started investing decades ago. There is a familiarity in the US that is not there in Europe except for a very small segment of the population. It doesn't help of course that in Europe the stock markets did not function at all or in a very restricted manner for long periods of time in many countries (former Communist countries until 1990, during WWII, WWI, and the various dictatorships - Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy), whereas in the US the stock markets worked without interruption for much longer. Secondly, again relating to familiarity - the size: people like to invest in what they know. In the US, there are hundreds, or rather thousands of companies to choose from in the stock markets. They speak the same language, work in the same currency, and have the same legal framework as the investors. The stock markets of smaller European countries are tiny in comparison, often only a couple of dozen companies. Also, it's my impression that many more companies are privately owned as LLC, even some surprisingly big ones (I once tried to buy stocks of Robert Bosch - tough luck!). So you might not find a company that you'd like to invest in actually available for investments.

European countries often have an antagonistic attitude to capital markets and regard them suspiciously. Most of the exchanges have a transaction tax that discourages trading and even investing in them at all. They can invest in the US of course but there are currency exchange and other barriers to that.

You need to make a video on how Zerodha does all this and still makes a lot of money in India.

The fact that this video started with tulips is either ironic or very well thought

Retail investing has always been pretty big in Sweden but I think it has increased even more recently. Young people are actively talking about their investments, probably due to the general hype surrounding the stock market.

Here is a simple explanation. In the US, our entire ""retirement" system is basically the stock market, .e.g. 401K, IRA, ROTH IRA, etc. If we don't invest in stocks, we, the younger generation, will die poor and uncared for when we get old - even if we had worked all our lives. The boomers will bankrupt the Social Security before they depart from this world. However, the Europeans do actually have a sensible pension system and they don't need the stock market to not die old and poor. That should explain why Americans are more inclined to trade in stocks than Europeans do.

Europeans are on average far more careful when it comes to investing, spending money.

So are we just ignoring that one of the most successful startups in recent years in Europe are Fintechs like Trade Republic. Retail investing has boomed in the last two years since Covid, it just has a much smaller starting point.

In the UK we have a "Stocks & shares ISA", where we can contribute £20,000 PA for the purpose of chosing our own investments, gains on it are tax free. (forgot to mention dividends are also tax free). Over several decades this really adds up to a nice nest egg.

A lot of US companies offer their services only to US citizens. For example, Robinhood does not operate in Europe. This may be an additional reason.

I HAVE INCURRED SO MUCH LOSSES TRADING ON MY OWN...I TRADE WELL ON DEMO BUT I THINK THE REAL MARKET IS MANIPULATED... CAN ANYONE HELP ME OUT OR AT LEAST TELL ME WHAT I'M DOING WRONG ?

When you pay 60% tax there’s not much extra to invest in

We do have free trading in the UK via companies such as Trading212, Freetrade etc etc. Retail trading i believe is picking up due to events such as the GME and AMC squeeze however that is a skewed perspective.

It depends so much on the country. Where I live, pensions and real estate are king. Anything else is taxed really high and this turns off a lot of people.

Let people gamble their pension money, what can go wrong?!

Problem are not the brokers but the taxes. 401ks, Roth IRAs and other accoubts have tax advantages, dividends have lower taxes, taxes on capital gains aren't ridiculously high. Also, if you invest in foreign companies you often pay taxes there as well. The European market doesn't have the same growth history so investing only there might not be the best decision.

The Difference is the US is a Lot More Relaxed With Stocks and People Are More Educated on Them in the US Too. In Europe However it is All Tightly Regulated and People Are Not Educated on Them as Much.

This article did not specifically explain why retail investing has not taken off in Europe. Other than to insinuate that investing is for the upper classes only, not for the great unwashed

It's deeply unfortunate that at no time do you draw the distinction between retail-investing, and retail-trading.

Depends on the EU country. The Netherlands has retirement savings structure in a similar way to 401k.

The complicity of the tax declaration in most of the European countries is the main reason behind the reluctance of the European retail investors, it's a big headache to deal with the tax agency and they will always win even if you will hire a tax professional, he or she will never take any responsibility or protect you if the tax agency will have different ideas. The old continent is old ... and it needs a lot of work to bring it back to youth.

"Trade more frequently and feel bad at the short term losses I lock in" Fix it for him.

In Sweden retail investing is definetly on the rise atleast in the people I talk to. We have a few options of robinhood-like apps. Index/mutual funds is still quite large here and longterm stock hodling. So maybe less traders but more investors in Europe?

⬆😊 Like these in-depth type video presentation ~

Thank you for replying to some comments & questions.

fot this kind of video is so annoying that you tube dos not show the number of dislikes

Dear CNBC, whilst advertising Robinhood, you forgot to mention the GameStop incident. Why?

How did you not mention DEGIRO? Otherwise, as an european, yeah, it's pretty much on point. The stock market is seen as for wealthy people who like to gamble with their money. The financial illiteracy is a big problem in Europe as a whole and as a result people are very conservative financially. But I think that is starting to change little by little with the new generation

Nice reference to tulips

Depends on where in Europe. In Sweden its big at least since 1999. I myself started online trading with Nordnet that year. But I know many Who where interested in the stockmarket before that.

In india retail investing is at another level

The short answer is that many Europeans do not trust the stick market, and instead prefer increasing the state pension through tax and debt. investing is seen as something only the wealthy do, many don't realize that its because the wealthy invest that makes them wealthy..

Hey, what are you doing for that European retail video? I dunno, greenscreen? Na, go film in a flower shop to make it seem more relatable.

Europe is not one country. Market participation of retail investors differ greatly between members of the EU which wasn't presented correctly in this piece.

I am 18 and a LOT of kids around my age want to start investing or have started investing (I started investing at late 16)

Because: 1. we are poor, salaries are much lower than in US. Also higher taxes and inefficiencies 2. stock market financing in not popular in Europe. Bank loans are more popular 3. high fees. for example, the money I invested in private pension fund is at loss because of high fees and poor stock performance

We pay taxes on stocks if we own them based on their potential gains. So I even if you don’t sell you still need to pay taxes based on their worth.

I own stocks. But I'd rather have more of a guarantee and a secure social net with pensions; instead of just learning amd feeling alone like I'm always swimming with sharks.

Because people on the U.S. have no labor protections and are looking for every way to get out of that situation

The cat’s out of the HAT. 😂

Europeans are on average significantly poorer than Americans and have lower disposable incomes.

A friend of mine from France told me that bcoz their government arrange for their pensions, citizens usually don't buy stocks. People who do buy stocks prefer bluechip companies.

Have experienced a few markets in my life. But one calls me the attention, the Brazilian stock market is well regulated, and a platform like robinhood would access direct the stock exchange. The fees would sit around 1 cent per stock negotiated

They should ban shorting over there too, where someone borrows your share and sells it in such a way as to trick others that the stock price is falling, and the shorter purchases a panic sell share and returns it to pocket the difference.

This is such a great video!

The idea that payment for order flow should make trading cheaper is ridiculous. The cost of a trade will always be composed of the costs (and profits) of the broker, the exchange and the market maker. PFOF only shifts money between those and replaces order fees by less attractive prices / larger spreads. The only argument in favour of PFOF may be that larger spreads do not affect very small orders as much as fixed order fees. However, this could easily be fixed by changing fee models without introducing an extra conflict of interest via PFOF. What does truly make trading cheaper is technology / digitalisation and competition, as can be seen even with traditional banks that used to ask a fortune in order fees but have since drastically reduced them. This is of course to a large degree thanks to the advent of discount brokers. As such, PFOF may be a temporary catalyst, but it is not the magic pill that its beneficiaries claim it to be.

Retail investing is huge in Sweden.

That was a good video. There should be a follow up video if there are any changes in Europe in the future

The lack of trust with the governments the european leaders are among the worst, is making many thirty twenty and forty year olds to start investing in stocks funds or etfs… i believe its the distrust with the governments thats really pushing this trend along with lower commissions

Almost everyone I know in the States has an online brokerage account. At lunch, my family often discusses stock trades, competing to see who is more clever -- my 17 year old daughter usually wins.

US is 50 years ahead in terms of capital markets

As Charlie Munger said: Robin Hood and co are disgusting. They prey on unedjucated investors by presenting things like options as a game. If you thinks Robin Hood is a blessing for retail investors you are a fool.

unfortunately stock brokers from EU didn't accept opening its account for Indonesian people who live in Indonesia...except perhaps investing/trading via interactive brokers or saxo...

There is retailer revaluation going on India powered by discounted brookers same as Robinhood please make a video on it. Thanks

I take pride in the making the majority of my friends start investing;)

I thought binary options were banned in Europe for the most part and CFDs were the closest similar instrument. Options trading has been the big growth in the US retail trading sector coupled with reduced trading transaction costs due to the scaling of pay-for-order-flow models. More ways to gain/lose money in the US.

Hey guys! Whats your experience with Interactive Brokers? I want to start on there but wanted to ask for an opinion

Just FYI, I can't download Robin Hood here in the EU.

Europe is not missing on that culture. Europe is smiling on the face of USA's "in money we believe" motto. Moreover, giving common folks the power to lose their livelihood, means taking money from the poors and giving them to the reaches.

Nice video.

Some counter arguments:for eu boomers the housing market IS the equivalent of the stock market

nonsense . check revolut and etorro

I wouldn't conflate investing with trading. But I suppose if everyone had responsible passive portfolios, no one would watch CNBC.

I think Global Access to Capital Markets should be FREE to everyone.

Payment for orderflow is empowering marketmakers to steal your money. IT IS like playing poker but the oponent can always see your cards.

401k forcing people into retail investing: "it's a feature not a bug"

Tax systems are also a big problem in Europe. It's hard to conform to the legal requirements for filing taxes.

I love that sweater. El chappo approves 👍

that criminal from EU protected ivnestors from ivnesting. EU retail are legally barred form buying funds like SPY because of EU regulations.

eToro?

Europeans don't need to gamble their savings because they have proper pensions systems and no need to repay student debt.

What is the equivalent of Robin Hood in Italy/Europe?

there is trade republic in europe

Why buy shares when you can buy into funds?

Meanwhile SEC guys planning to ban payment for order flow.

Why is this a segment?

There's not much stocks to invest on european markets, and investing in foreign stocks is risky because you're not always familiar with them.

China more than doubled our retail investors. I know where im moving to.

Slow minds = Slow money

Pfof can allow the big fellas to front run retail. Thats pretty sucky ngl

Woulnd’t say that this is true for the Nordics where we have had a strong market participation since the 2000

We have etoro please 🙏 stop ✋️

Robin Hood in Britain was Jewish taking from wealthy giving to themselves by using excuse saving illicit drug abusers. I am still waiting refund.

Couple of things, why is the lack of European the consumer a bad thing. I have a private investor pension in the UK and i leave it as a tracker, consumer are horrible investors and trackers often out preform managed portfolio. Consumer investors only help professional investors to make more money by skimming the consumer investor.

The take up in the UK of Retail Investing has increased significantly. Poor journalism.

most of my friends and part of my family owns stocks. Most of them started when covid began

It is easier for them to do forex though

Seriously, we need flowers analogy? Ppl in usa are not that stupid

I hate the EU now. Everything they do makes life worse for the small people.

Retail investment did take off in europe... Yall need to check your facts hahahahahaha

Low income family to trade... Low income family is trying to feed themselves. They ain't investing

I'm a retail investor, but I envy Europeans with their mandatory pension systems.