October 26, 2010 – Press Dispensary – Personal investors in the 50+ age group are en masse telling their pin-striped city advisors “you’re fired” and taking on their portfolios themselves. This is the headline finding of the 2010 fintrader.net (http://www.fintrader.net) annual investor survey. And the reason for their revolt? Too many years of near-zero returns and a growing confidence that they can do better on their own.
“The number of 50+ investors who are shouldering their own risks is notably on the rise.”
Vince Stanzione
The findings of the survey, now in its sixth year, were unveiled today by financial trading coach and author Vince Stanzione, of fintrader.net, who has been teaching private investors to trade for more than 13 years and has seen a massive surge in new students from the 50+ age group over the last 12 months.
“The biggest trend I’ve seen this year is a move by the over 50s away from advisors and their high fees towards self-managed investments, with an appetite for higher risk strategies,” says Stanzione. “The number of 50+ investors who are shouldering their own risks is notably on the rise.”
“I’m teaching investors how to profit from both bull and bear markets across the globe and not just focus on the FTSE100 or S&P500.”
Vince Stanzione
Fintrader.net reported a year ago that, in Financial Spread Betting, the over 50s are by far the most successful, profitable traders and investors. Its five year survey divided 1000 investors into three age-based groups, with the 50+ group performing 25% better than the 30-50 group and a full 40% better than the 18-30 group, busting the myth that risk and results are the stuff of youth.
The 50+ success was partly because older investors took more calculated risks for higher returns than the 30-50 group, often favouring commodities and commodity companies, notably in gold, crude oil and silver.
“Our 2010 results reinforce what we discovered in 2009,” reports Stanzione, “but the change over the last year is the increasing number of over 50s coming into the self-managed market as they realise they can do better using products such as Exchange Traded Funds for a fraction of the traditional investment product annual fee.
“As interest rates have continued through 2010 at such a low level, savings look ever more unattractive, especially as the cost of living is still rising. Older investors are starting to see that they will outlive their savings, without the returns they were promised, and are also old enough to remember from the 1970s what inflation can do to savings.”
“Meanwhile,” Stanzione continues, “there are barely any returns on traditional buy and hold share investing. Anyone who bought the FTSE100 10 years ago is down more than 11% on a wasted decade. But if they’d gone for gold, they’d now be up 300%, and I’m teaching investors how to profit from both bull and bear markets across the globe and not just focus on the FTSE100 or S&P500.”
Stanzione’s business, fintrader.net, offers tools and training to those interested in managing their own trades, with a complete home study course available for just £197. Potential investors and traders who wish to learn more from a trading veteran should visit http://www.fintrader.net , where they can also download a free copy of Stanzione’s “10 Top Trading Tips”.
