WFH makes millennials turn to stocks

New Delhi: Stock market trends continue to be favourable and with this, it has attracted millennial investors. Young investors in the 20-35 age group are flocking to stock markets in recent years as benchmark indices are setting new records with each passing day. For instance, Shivansh Bhasin, a 21-year-old stock retailer, has been investing in the stock market since 2016-17. Along with short-term investments, he is also running a YouTube channel on stock exchange with over 60,000 subscribers and counting.

"My tryst with stock market began in 2018 when I started my very own YouTube channel. I started learning about stock investments via business news channels since the course fees were too high to afford. Each course (on stock investment) can cost anywhere between Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000. At present, I teach students on different aspects of stock exchange, including conducting webinars and workshops on the same. My students range between the age groups of 25 and 55 years," Bhasin told Bizz Buzz.

Young stockholders capitalise on the investments on the probability of the market trends and companies' performance. The preference of savings has seen a drastic shift with more people opting for stock exchanges instead of mutual funds or bank deposits.

"In FDs and RDs, the preference is accumulation of savings with returns barely at inflation levels. While both stocks and mutual funds are equity linked, I chose stocks because I feel that I have the necessary skill and some spare time at hand to research good stocks and invest in them. I am investing in both recurring deposits and stocks, so as to diversify my investments," said Keshav Sharma, third-year B.com student at Delhi University.

G Chokkalingam, founder and Managing Director, Equinomics, explained as to how the boom of millennials investors began in India and the risk calculations many fail to calculate. Chokkalingam, who has been a part of the stock market segment for 31 years, believes that the millennials' entry into the stock market was largely prompted by post-lockdown period in 2020.

"The bull run has attracted a lot of millennials, especially those who are working from home (WFH). It is difficult to do trade from office but Covid-19 proved to be a silver lining since people have now got an opportunity to work from home. Earlier, existing investors used to come up with more money and buy bubble stock. Now, millennials are investing more, courtesy the pandemic and the market boom," Chokkalingam said.

He also pointed out that market trends can't be favourable all the time, especially to those who do not estimate the dynamic nature of stock investments.

Speaking on the investment trends, Chokkalingam said that millennial investors are not just limited to India, but across the world people of all ages are entering the segment due to the ongoing favourable marketing conditions. "It is not just with the millennials. About 95 per cent of the investors get attracted by the momentum. And younger generation have a lot of energy, enthusiasm, a lot of aggression, and are too largely attracted by the market performances. In my knowledge, majority of them are attracted by the trends and are chasing them. Gobal investments in GameStop, Nokia and Blackberry also show similar tendencies," he said.

According to Bhasin, though many of his students are head-on with the risk factors in the stock investments, millennial women tend to be more cautious with the investments as many do not have larger monetary backing or resources and the investments are kept in mind keeping the need of the family.

"I consider various strategies before investing such as US dollar index, crude oil prices and our currency's own strength," Bhasin said.

According to the millennial stock investors, short-term investments are lucrative opportunities and more preferable in comparison to mutual funds.