Playing the stock market, day trading or testing your market judgement on Forex trading has always been a very male preserve.Ten years ago, figures suggested just 17% of the investors who used an online trading account were women, but the latest data suggests that’s now increased to 34%.There are increasing numbers of business smart, savvy women who prefer to (or have to) make their own investment decisions to remain financially sound and independent.
These decisions aren’t all based on emerging market companies and recklessly high risk. More female DIY investors are homing in on blue chips to deliver security, balance their portfolio and access generous dividends. Many of the women who have turned to share dealing have done so quite recently thanks to the increasing availability of information online.This suits many of these new female investors as the internet has made investing far more accessible and easier to incorporate into a schedule that may include work as well as full time childcare duties.
Many others have got into investment funds for example because they have been dissatisfied with the performance of their more traditional investments. Many of the new generation of female investors are very canny, eschewing an “execution-only” deal because it’s reassuring to talk through decisions with someone else. These women will still do all their own research and come up with their own choices, but then they can double-check with an expert before taking the plunge.
Although it is genuinely impossible to generalise, most of these new female investors keen on establishing an online trading account seem to come from a career background that already involves some degree of financial literacy and on a personal level they also tend to feel the need to exert greater financial control over their own destinies after facing problems in their marriages or adjusting to the death of a partner, often while trying to raise children.
