As online stock-trading communities continue a campaign to squeeze entrenched Wall Street investors, a recent study shows that hedge funds and other professionals aren’t the only ones short-selling.
In fact, 44% of 1,000 self-directed investors in a recent TradeZero survey said that they were shorting stocks.
TradeZero is a digital broker-dealer offering commission-free stock and options trades, similar to Robinhood and WeBull.
The survey found that 70% of respondents have altered their strategy as a direct result of Covid-19 and 67% see market volatility as an opportunity.
“The convergence of the bull market, ease of online investing and trading, and Covid stay-at-home orders has created a sea change in the investment landscape,” said Dan Pipitone, co-founder of TradeZero America, in released comments. “We have seen how retail investors transformed the market with the activity in meme stocks. This pandemic period has been history in the making and our data underscores the retail reckoning that has been coming for a long time.”
Fifty-two percent of these investors had a bullish market outlook, believing that U.S. financial markets would end 2021 higher. An even higher proportion, 64%, believed that President Joe Biden's administration would have a positive impact on U.S. stocks.
TradeZero also found that even in an age of mobile apps, 66% of respondents viewed an easy-to-use web and desktop platform is the most essential feature. Other key features included real-time market data (61%) and commission-free trades (60%).
Only 39% named customer support by phone as an essential feature, and 38% indicated that a free mobile trading app was important.
TradeZero’s survey was conducted online in January among 1,000 self-directed investors with minimum net worth of $30,000.