Having 'dabbled' in what they know best - Snap - Millennials are increasingly turning their back on stocks and buying bitcoin...
In March of this year Millennials piled in to Snap shares...
... the median age among Snap buyers on Thursday was even younger, at 26.
“I wanted to test the waters and play around with some money I wouldn’t be too devastated to lose,” Ms. Shoenthal said. “I think I’m going to stick it out for at least a few years.”
Ms. Shoenthal, who uses Snapchat every day, said this was her first big stock pick. She’s gotten interested in stocks this semester because of classes she’s taking on personal finance and branding. She thinks the prospects for Snap are bright, particularly given that Snapchat is changing the way many young people, including her friends, read the news.
“I have high hopes” for Snap, Ms. Markley said. “I think they are doing really cool things.”
She doesn’t do much investing generally, citing student loans and the high cost of living in the Bay Area, but got excited by the talk of the IPO. One promising sign of the company’s growth prospects, she said: Even her parents are using it now.
That has not ended so well...
As a reminder, Peter Lynch has actually recently clarified his now-mythical advice - which perhaps some Millennials should be paying attention to...
What’s wrong with the popular-wisdom version of his ideology, which is usually cited as “invest in what you know”?
It leaves out the role of serious fundamental stock research. “People buy a stock and they know nothing about it,” he says. “That’s gambling and it’s not good.”
But they appear to have learned nothing as Bloomberg reports that a survey by venture capital firm Blockchain Capital found that about 30 percent of those in the 18-to-34 age range would rather own $1,000 worth of Bitcoin than $1,000 of government bonds or stocks.
Bitcoin is up over 600% year-to-date, 60 times more than gold, 30 times more than NASDAQ, and 5 times the rise of the Swiss National Bank's shares...
While just 2 percent of Americans own or have owned the cryptocurrency, according to the survey, that investor base might get larger as millennials become the main investment force. At that point, U.S. regulators may have approved bitcoin ETFs, and the derivatives market might be somewhat mature, making it easier for the new bitcoin buyers.
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2 interesting statistics coming from the survey cited in this article done by venture capital firm Blockchain Capital.
- Only 2% of americans own or have owned cryptocurrency
- 30% of 18 to 34 year olds would rather own $1,000 worth of bitcoin than $1,000 of government bonds or stocks.
Snapchat is also a good example of how companies or apps that look good on the surface to milennials can often turn out to be poor investments. On the backend of the dot com bubble there aren't many fast growing new enterprises which may attract lower age groups as being good investments. In a sense, bitcoin and crypto could be one of the few emerging investment opportunities youth have exposure to.
