Which age group were the most active traders in 2022?

While 2022 proved to be a rollercoaster year for the stockmarket, Baby Boomers came out on top as the most active traders, trading five times more than Gen Z, investor data has found.

An overview of almost 130,000 active members on brokerage platform Selfwealth found Baby Boomers traded more than 31 times in 2022. Men aged 70 topped the leaderboard with an average of 61.4 trades.

Gen Z investors made an average of just 6.4 trades while millennials averaged 10 trades per investor. Gen X investors made an average of 19.3 trades.

The most-active trading group among women were 65 year olds with an average 27.3 trades, less than half those made by men. 

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According to Selfwealth CEO, Cath Whitaker, this indicated an engaged older demographic taking an opportunistic approach to investing.

“Older Australians are making the opportunistic plays while the younger generations have taken more of a ‘hold’ approach, waiting for the market to return,” she said.

Men traded 35% more than women, with the highest buy-to-sell ratio attributed to 18-year-old men where 88% of all their trading activity was a buy, the figures noted.

Meanwhile, women in their 20s also looked to build their portfolio and recorded a buy-to-sell ratio of more than 80%. 

In terms of geographic location, Western Australia housed the most-active investors on Selfwealth’s platform in 2022.

Most popular investments 

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) remained the most-popular investing option overall, especially among Gen Z investors, while Baby Boomers tended to trade in traditional shares. 

Interestingly, lithium stocks dominated the investing habits of Selfwealth’s 2022 cohort with three of the top four most-traded stocks. This compared to the popularity of buy now, pay later (BNPL) stocks Zip and Afterpay which sat in last year’s top three. 

Whitaker elaborated, “We could see in the latter half of 2021 there was beginning to be significant interest in lithium producers but in 2022 there was an increase in trading activity.”

Between uranium, gas, coal, oil, and lithium, the energy sector proved to be a popular option for Australian investors. Clean lithium developer Lake Resources was the most-traded stock on the platform followed by Core Lithium. BHP came in third spot and Pilbara Minerals rounded up the top four.

“Surprisingly, no US-listed energy stock featured among the top 50, despite huge gains on offer. This suggests Selfwealth members favour the familiarity of the ASX for energy stocks, perhaps due to its reputation as a ‘home’ for commodity stocks,” Whitaker said.

According to recent figures by Bloomberg, at 39%, the energy sector was one of only three on the ASX to be up in 2022 alongside utilities (24.2%) and materials (4.8%).

“Higher commodity prices played a key role in delivering an earnings boost for most of the energy sector, in turn fuelling significant share price returns. 

“At various times throughout the year, oil, gas, coal, and uranium prices either set new records, or hit multi-year highs,” she added. 

“We believe investors locked in profits as the share prices of energy holdings soared. Selfwealth members may hold a more conservative outlook for the energy sector, viewing its resurgence as a short-term product of the war in Ukraine.”

Selfwealth was Australia’s third-largest share trading platform and held more than $8.2 billion in assets under management.