Generation Stupid or Generation Smart? An Analysis of Young Investors in Germany and Austria

Using data from a European app-based investment funds aiming at younger and first-time investors, we find that this group acts surprisingly “smart” when it comes to investing: The analyzed group of mostly under-30 German and Austrian investors clearly prefers a long-term continuous buy-and-hold approach paired with relatively high monthly savings contributions; the market downturn in 2020 was used to even increase investments, which led to a significant outperformance (13.7% p.a. from 2017-2021) compared to the underlying funds (4.6% p.a.). At the same time these investors seem to prefer a high frequency of almost daily interaction with their investments through small-sized news, which seems however to be used rather for entertainment or long-term evaluations rather than short-term trading