Andrew Chase
Opinions Editor
Recently, there has been an uptick in the number of people investing and trading in the stock market by using apps such as Robinhood, Stash, TD Ameritrade and many others. Most of these apps allow everyone to quickly buy, sell and trade stocks at any time, anywhere. I believe that the widespread availability of these apps is an overall benefit for the majority of people.
One of the more popular apps that many young people are using to invest and trade stocks is Robinhood. I think that Robinhood is so popular with younger people because of its easily understandable and accessible design. I will say that I use Robinhood for the majority of my investments. Personally, I enjoy the app’s simplicity, especially when it comes to looking at the stocks I own in my investment portfolio and understanding it. I feel like understanding what a proper investment portfolio looks like is an incredibly useful skill to have when investing in the stock market because having a diverse range of investments is crucial to not putting all of your eggs in one basket.
For some, creating a proper portfolio can be a daunting task so I will briefly go over some of the most popular portfolio types. The first portfolio is the defensive portfolio. A defensive portfolio is focused on investing in companies that make everyday consumer commodities. This portfolio’s main goal is to be able to withstand bad times on the market. Another popular portfolio type is the hybrid portfolio. The hybrid portfolio isn’t only focused on stocks, instead it includes other types of investments such as bonds, real estate, commodities, and others. The final portfolio type that I will go over is the speculative portfolio. The speculative portfolio is the one that requires the most risk taking because it completely relies on speculation. Although, I described three of the most popular portfolio types, there are a vast amount of other portfolio types.
Even though investing in the stock market may seem very glamorous, there are many cons to it as well. A major risk to investing is that you can lose all the money that you put into the market overnight. I personally agree with the people that label investing in the stock market as gambling.
The stock market is a good way to help someone understand how the economic system works. Before I downloaded Robinhood, I knew a fair amount of information about how the stock market and the overall U.S. economic system works because of some classes that I took in high school. During that economics class I took in high school, my teacher taught me and my classmates some of the most important and useful knowledge about everyday finances that ranged from the basics on saving money to all the meanings behind different terms used on the stock market.
Although I am fortunate enough to have taken an economics class with an outstanding teacher, I know that there are many people out there who aren’t as fortunate to have a teacher like Mr. Willis. Therefore, I feel like providing easier access to the stock market gives a large assortment of people the ability to learn more about how our current economic system works without the prior need of financial education.
The lack of needing any financial education to invest in the stock market by using apps such as Robinhood or Acorns has certainly given a wider range of Americans access to the stock market. Despite this, I still would encourage people who are looking into potentially buying stocks to learn more about how the stock market works and the risks and rewards of investing.
Andrew Chase can be contacted at:
opinions@kscequinox.com
