‘Fomo’, funds for travel among Chinese Gen Z’s motivations for investing, CFA Institute study finds
- Survey of about 2,800 respondents underlines the extent to which new entrants’ investment habits differ significantly from earlier investor cohorts
- ‘Fomo’ as a factor was highest among Chinese Gen Z investors, followed by the UK, the US and Canada
The CFA Institute, a global not-for-profit professional organisation that provides investment professionals with finance education, conducted the study jointly with US not-for-profit organisation Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education (Finra) Foundation. The non-profits surveyed more than 2,800 Gen Z, millennial and Gen X investors in China, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada for the study in November and December last year.
The study found that new entrants to the world of investing are reshaping investment practices, products and platforms, said Paul Andrews, managing director for research at CFA. It underlined the extent to which their investment habits differ significantly from earlier investor cohorts.
“A range of macroeconomic and social factors such as rising inflation, the growing popularity and accessibility of cryptocurrency, and social media ‘finfluencers’ are having a profound impact on how, where and what they invest in,” Andrews said.
For instance, nearly two-thirds of Gen Z investors – described as those aged between 18 and 25 by the study – in China started investing before the age of 21 and invest an average of 120,000 yuan (US$18,000). And while Chinese investors had the largest median investment balance compared to their counterparts in the US, the UK and Canada, their numbers were behind those in the US, where about 82 per cent said they began investing before they turned 21, as well as those in Canada with 79 per cent and the UK with 81 per cent.
