Retail Drove the Investor Revolution in Q1

DriveWealth’s Q1 Global Retail Trends Report shows aggregated retail trading activity moved markets with strong growth in engagement, trading, account openings and assets

CHATHAM, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Retail investing surged in Q1, as quarterly trading volume and asset growth rose 45% and 33% respectively from 4Q20, according to new data released today from DriveWealth, a leading global brokerage infrastructure platform.

This quarter saw market volatility led by Reddit users, a growing number of Covid vaccinations, and trial reopenings of schools and business. Collectively, these activities contributed to strong growth in trading, account openings and assets in Q1.

The data is derived from DriveWealth’s Q1 Global Retail Trends Report, which is based on aggregated data from millions of retail investors around the world who trade fractional shares of U.S. equities through a network of global partners, including Hatch, MoneyLion, Stake, Revolut, and Unifimoney.

Key Q1 findings include:

• Trading volume: DriveWealth volume rose 45% in the first quarter, compared to a 13% rise in volume on the S&P 500 and 50% on NASDAQ.
• Account openings: Investors ages 20-29 fueled net new account growth in Q1, helping drive a 40% increase in total accounts in 1Q21.
• Asset growth: Assets rose 33% since year end, outperforming the markets − NASDAQ (2.8%), S&P 500 (5.8%), and DJIA (7.8%) in the first quarter.
• Number of trades: There was a 66% increase in the number of trades in the first quarter, while the average trade size decreased across the board.
• Engagement: On average customers traded more frequently, 12 times in 1Q vs. 9 times in 4Q20, but smaller amounts

“Our partners are finding that investing is a highly engaging experience, especially when you can offer fractional shares. This quarter, we saw investors on our platform making about four trades per month with an average trade size of $286; less than half the cost of a single share of Tesla,” said Bob Cortright, founder and CEO DriveWealth. “It’s great to see that our partners are successfully attracting engaged investors.”

Investors migrated away from the previously heavily traded pandemic names such as Zoom, Netflix, Pfizer, and Moderna. Headline-grabbing names captured the attention of self-directed investors, with the Reddit-inspired short squeeze trades such as GameStop, AMC Entertainment, Nokia and Blackberry featuring prominently.

Self-directed	Advised	APAC	LATAM	EMEA
AMC	VOO	GME	TSLA	GME
TSLA	VTEB	TSLA	AAPL	AMC
GME	VXF	AMC	GME	TSLA
AAPL	SUB	AAPL	AMZN	NIO
NIO	VEA	GPRO	DIS	AAPL
AMZN	VWO	PLTR	FB	PLTR
NOK	AOR	NIO	NIO	BB
TLRY	IXUS	BB	MSFT	PLUG
PLUG	IJH	ARKK	IAU	SPCE
GE	VXUS	CCIV	GOOGL	XPEV

About DriveWealth

A pioneer in fractional investing and embedded finance, DriveWealth is a cloud-based B2B brokerage infrastructure provider that powers both traditional and innovative investment experiences for more than 90 partners in over 150 countries. DriveWealth’s mission is to reshape the world of retail investing by enabling banks, global brands, and fintechs to provide the level of investment access and advice, previously reserved only for the wealthy, to underbanked and underserved customers across the globe. DriveWealth was the first company in the world to get a license to offer fractional U.S. equities through our proprietary, patent-pending and award winning API-driven brokerage infrastructure. For more information, please visit drivewealth.com.