Hardman & Co has always been at the forefront of understanding the changing ways in which investors interact with markets and investment research, previously publishing reports such as Research distribution and investor engagement: reaching “Generation Netflix” and the retail investor in 2021.
This article seeks to understand the changing ways in which Gen Z interacts with investment information and financial markets. This piece was written by our intern Senan Skalkos, aged 19, who is a finance undergraduate student at University College Cork, and the youngest recipient of an award from the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment for achieving the highest results in their Introduction to Investment exam at age 16.
Three main findings were discovered:
Gen Z presents IR professionals and companies with a young, large and engaged investor demographic who are still in the learning phase of their investing journey and are nearing the ages when they begin to accumulate meaningful wealth. To access this demographic, companies and IR professionals will have to engage with the non-traditional avenues heavily used by Gen Z investors. Gen Z investors’ different asset allocation preferences and preferred sources of information have in the past had significant impacts on markets and will continue to shape markets in the future. Other investors must monitor these sources of information, such as social media, and observe this demographic’s preferences in order to more meaningfully understand market movements as Gen Z’s economic influence grows.
