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February 1, 2021
(The following are my compiled notes for a recent presentation at ETF Trends. I’ve included the slides for reference in line, however you can also watch a replay here. Thanks!)
[[Note: I have talked to a lot of people in the past two weeks, through phones and Zooms and IBs and texts, and who knows what. I’m sorry if I discredited something or misrepresented some of your thinking here or adopted something of yours as my own. Please don’t sue me, my note taking is just not what it used to be.]]
Let’s start with a couple of quick asides: what we’re seeing in GME, and whatever else comes next, is most likely a blip. If you believe it’s a blip, here’s your narrative cheat sheet:
Who Counts as a Retail Investor?
By Phil Mackintosh, Chief Economist, Nasdaq
With the growth in retail trading this year and plans to deepen the Securities Information Processor (SIP) data that retail uses, it’s time to look in more detail at who exactly is a retail trader, what they trade and how the market works for retail investors.
How big are retail assets?
The Federal Reserve has a report that looks at the balance sheets of households and the owners of corporate securities. Household stock ownership sounds like a plausible way to answer the question, “What is retail?”
Based on that, retail investors own 77% of the market capitalization in total via stocks (held directly), mutual and pension funds. Some would even argue that all three categories are “retail assets,” it’s just that funds are “bundled” and also managed by professional investors.