Millennial equity investors: Millennials break the rule, emerge smartest breed of stock investors

Never has it been the case when the stock market has fallen 40% and brokerages have seen rapid customer acquisition in the country. In a comparable scenario, after the January 2008 market crash, the acquisition rate had dropped and stagnated for a good 10-12 months. It was only after 2009 elections that retail investors started opening accounts.

This time around, industry data is showing a massive increase in participation from millennials, reflecting their ‘swag’ even as investors. They are a smarter breed of investors compared with the retail investor we have had a decade or 15 years ago.

We observed that even when the market witnessed a rapid decline since around third week of February, it did not stop young retail investors from investing in equity. SBI Cards IPO was a major trigger point at this time, considering its pedigree.

Afterwards the market just deep-dived as the Covid-19 pandemic frayed nerves of investors across the world and the risk-off sentiment spread like wildfire, resulting in FIIs dumping Indian stocks irrespective of their vintage and business strength.

But guess what? For discount brokers this was one of the best months for account opening. They saw nearly 70% jump in account opening, and 80% of these new accounts were opened by millennials, who were first time investors.

Secondly, mutual fund investment through SIPs was highest for each month compared with the year-ago periods. There was a steady rise in MF investment flow through SIP for in last six months, clearly indicating that millennials are investing through SIPs even in a falling market.

Historically, retail investors enter the capital market or open demat accounts when the market is at its peak, and stock is the buzzword on the Street. There is a famous saying that ‘when every person on the Street starts talking about the market, it is assumed that the market will go down.’

But it was quite different this time around. Markets were down 40%. A three-year chart would show practically Sensex was down by good 12%-14% while Nifty fell somewhere between 11% and 13%.

Yet, overall flow into MFs through SIPs increased during this period as retail participants understood that with the P/E ratio of market and forward earnings, they are bound to make money in the long run.

Because of technology, zero brokerage and availability of information online, young investors are now researching and learning about stock market, and waiting for the right time to invest in the market. Most market-savvy millennials read Warren Buffet’s letters and know his and Charlie Munger’s investment strategies. They watch their interviews on YouTube for hours. They read stock composition and changes by their favourite fund managers. All of this goes on to show that millennials are shaping up as the smartest breed of investors in this country.