'Hungry To Get Involved': Finance Pros On How To Invest In The Stock Market

During the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards, Sarah Biller of FinTech Sandbox presented the following discussion on the feature requirements of new retail traders.

Implications Of Social Media For Trading: Engagement in financial markets since the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns began has grown exponentially, fueled in part by social media.

“People are hungry to get involved,” said Austin Hankwitz, a financial analyst who turned to the world of TikTok to spread awareness of investing.

“But, a lot of these people don’t even know what a stock, or a cup and handle is.”

Social media has been a powerful tool in bridging the socioeconomic divide, allowing people to take ownership of concepts that can set them on a path to financial independence, Hankwitz said. 

Finding The Right Pick: The problem is that many beginners don’t know how to get involved.

That’s where financial literacy comes in, said Irusha Peiris of Investor’s Business Daily.

“We’re always trying to grease the probabilities as much as possible,” he said. “We use fundamentals to narrow down what stock to focus on, then the technicals — mainly chart patterns — that tell me when to get into that stock.”

Investors are often too quick to get involved, he said. Instead, Peiris urges the long-term approach where investors take the time to research and learn about products that can help them get on the right side of probabilities.

“It’s just human behavior on display here,” he said. “The only difference are the names.”

Technology And Trading: In a discussion on the tools available to learn concepts and act on opinions in the market, Peiris noted the industry’s move to make financial literacy a bigger part of the business.

“We’re trying to make it easier for customers,” he said. “If we simplify the products and save customers time, that’s a huge benefit because we’re starting to appeal to a greater audience.”

Gerard Hanshe of Voyager said that firms are looking to leverage social media and technology to democratize financial markets.

“We saw a gap in the market where there was a good bit of technology for active traders, and then there were the very unsophisticated retail applications.”

Through educational materials, Voyager is giving more and more access, he said.  

To learn more, visit bzawards.com. Complete results for the Benzinga Fintech Awards, including company profiles and an interactive database, can be found here.