Business
Many Americans Put Their Stimulus Checks Into The Stock Market
The government sent $1200 stimulus checks to help Americans pay their bills. However, it turns out that many people turned around and put most of that money into the stock market. This is according to research done by Envestnet Yodlee, a data aggregation company.
Bill Parsons, Group President, Data Analytics at Envestnet Yodlee said during a recent CNBC interview, “Covid is causing conversations among family members and family members with their advisors about what to do with their money and were seeing that in the data… Securities trading did see significant lift week-over-week and I suspect that that’s in part due to big changes in the market.”
People Investing in Stocks
In most income brackets, data shows that buying stocks was the second or third most common use for the funds. Fortunately, the most common uses of the stimulus money were increasing savings and cash withdrawals.
The company started tracking the spending habits of 2.5 million Americans in early March. It noticed a divergence in behavior in mid-April when the checks started to arrive in mailboxes. Those that received their check increased their spending by 81% compared to the prior week. Some of that spending went into the stock market.
In the $35,000 – $75,000 income bracket, stock trading increased by 90% in the week the check was received compared to the prior week.
In the $100,000 – $150,000 income bracket, trading increased 82% in the week the stimulus check arrived. Meanwhile, in the $150,000 or higher income bracket, stock trading only increased by 50%. The $150,000 or higher bracket would not have been eligible for a stimulus check. Therefore, it acts as a good baseline.
New Online Trading Accounts
All of this stock buying meant a whole lot of new online trading accounts were opened in the last month or so. However, the brokerage houses aren’t sure if that is due to the stimulus checks, or the opportunity to buy stocks cheaply as the market fell.
Charles Schwab reported “monumental volumes” as it opened 609,000 new accounts in the first quarter. Additionally, the stock trading app Robinhood reported daily trade volume was up 300% in March compared to the previous year. The company co-CEO also said during an interview with CNBC that over 50% of its customers are first-time investors.
You may believe the brand new investors were wise enough to buy stocks because they recognized they were cheap and the markets would rebound. Either way, it seems they have very good timing.
Since the market bottomed in late-March, stocks have staged a tremendous rally in the last two months, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 climbing nearly 35% from their March lows, and the Nasdaq gaining more than 40% over the same time period.
It’s better than spending the money on weed, sneakers and video games.
Up Next:
