https://www.afr.com/companies/finan...-000-investors-in-three-weeks-20200928-p55zzp Aleks Vickovich Wealth editor Sep 29, 2020 – 12.01am Online trading disrupter Superhero, backed by the founders of Afterpay and Zip, has surged in its first few weeks of operation, as thousands of Millennial investors load up on technology stocks, and snub banks and miners. As first reported by The Australian Financial Review, Superhero launched on September 7, undercutting the market with a flat fee of $5 per trade and minimum investment of $100, alongside a bold goal to "make investing accessible to the younger generation". John Winters, left, and Wayne Baskin are the co-founders of Superhero that charges just $5 per ASX trade. Rhett Wyman Less than a month on, Superhero has onboarded 10,000 customers as of Monday, with a growth rate at times over that period of one sign-up every 20 seconds. "You refresh the page and there are another 10 people on the platform," said Superhero co-founder John Winters, a former Shaw & Partners broker. "We used industry peers to model our growth rates internally and we are already where we thought we would be next April." Afterpay co-founder Nick Molnar, Zip boss Larry Diamond and corporate lawyer Leon Zwier – cannot take total credit for its own early success. The growth rate is also a function of the frenzied activity in global sharemarkets that has accompanied the coronavirus pandemic, as hordes of young and aspirational investors storm the new breed of low-cost trading platforms. Angel Zhong, senior lecturer in finance at RMIT in Melbourne, described Superhero as "Australia's version of Robinhood", the controversial US trading platform that has lent its brand to the market's newest cohort of participants. "Superhero’s entry into the market was timely, occurring when a large surge in retail trading has been observed in Australia and around the world," Dr Zhong said. "Compared to traditional trading platforms such as Commsec that charges around $19.50 per trade, Superhero charges only $5 per trade. Low-cost trading platforms are attractive to retail investors interested in making a small investment in the sharemarket, thus likely to boost stock market participation." 'Boomer stocks' Dr Zhong warned that many new entrants to the market are under the influence of unregulated market commentators on social media sites like Reddit and Facebook, echoing the concerns of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. "With easy and low-cost trading platforms, retail investors may act on misleading information from social trading and suffer losses in a highly volatile market," she said. "The rise in low-cost trading platforms and the associated increase in retail investors in the sharemarket highlights the importance of financial literacy." Mr Winters agreed that many of Superhero's new customers are members of investment groups and threads on social media platform. For example, he attributes online commentary around software company Brainchip to the stock becoming one of the most popular on the platform so far. The buy now, pay later companies, including the two linked to Superhero, are also surging in popularity among Superhero's early adopters, more than 60 per cent of whom are under 40, the co-founder estimated. By contrast, Superhero customers have eschewed blue-chip "boomer stocks" in the financial services and energy sector. "The banks are very underrepresented, maybe [making up] 5 per cent [of holdings] across the entire book," Mr Winters said. "Same for BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue – they’re there but they are way down the list." He said Superhero built in checks and balances to ensure the kind of "blatant speculation" that ASIC is worried about does not occur on the platform, including warnings about the potential for capital losses. "We have been raised as responsible people and we believe people’s money should be taken care of," the former stockbroker said. "But we don’t stop someone from coming and trading. And we don't provide advice, that is not our business."
According to Modern Trader there are now 13.9 million online traders in the world, and almost a third of these traders have started trading... just last year! I guess in the not so distant future everybody on earth will be trading from a smartphone, even while taking a dump in the bathroom.
Does anyone else sense as the market switched from "always up, buy the dip" to something more volatile or "normal-difficulty", it seems the forum has become more combative with people feeling they need to be "right" or venting frustration. I wonder what the next steps are as the fantasy fades and reality set in. Just my 2 cents.
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/whats-the-reason-behind-it.344202/ Most of em, are still traumatized of being unable to catch covi's dip & monetize on it. (Since on their thesis, there should be about 20mil dead by now)
Now is that Fantasy Island the movie remake, or the 70 series, or a little of both? Thanks for the comment, it gave me a laugh. Some guy gave me a slap down here when I was just trying to help the OP. Just trying to give some insight into an issue based on a decade+ of experience in test and as a test manager at ADBE and MSFT and couple decades of using TWS. Looked over his posts, and all I can say about it is... "Glad not to be him and no need to argue there". OK sad sob story over . Back on topic. $5 per trade which about 3.75 USD, sounds like free to them maybe. A lot of banking that we do for free, is charged a small fee in AU, NZ, and CA. Things like using a check or often ATM usage are often small fee based. I even saw a fee for going in and cashing a check against your account.