The GameStop stock frenzy and the retail trading revolution it created five years ago were fueled in part by a financial malaise among younger investors, according to experts. That generational unease has lingered and may have long-term effects on retail investors and the broader stock market.
Retail investors bid up shares of GameStop
, a brick-and-mortar video game retailer, by more than 1,600% in January 2021, as amateur traders on Reddit’s WallStreetBets online message board urged each other to pile into the beleaguered stock and leveraged nascent digital investment platforms to place trades.
Hordes of young people in their late 20s and early 30s started participating in the stock market for the first time during the GameStop craze, said JJ Kinahan, head of retail expansion and alternative investment products at Cboe Global Markets, a securities exchange.
“It was quite honestly the greatest event that ever happened for retail trading in the markets,” Kinahan said.
