During the pandemic, ordinary people piled into stock markets, many for the first time in their lives. Between January and September, big US retail brokerages E Trade, TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab saw the total number of average daily trades increase by three quarters to six million, according to Sundial Capital Research.
Lockdown boredom is one explanation for this trading surge. Another is the relative lack of sports betting opportunities and the hunt for returns amid record-low interest rates.
As newcomers flooded into trading, they were drawn to one platform in particular. Robinhood, one of the most high-profile trading apps, reported three million new accounts in the first quarter of 2020. Half of these were first-time traders.