More and more young generations in Italy are approaching the world of investments: in about five years, the average age of investors in our country has dropped by 32% from age 49 to about 34. Hand in hand with this trend, many people with little professional or educational experience, particularly with regards to contracts for difference (CFDs), have entered the investment sector in Italy. Only 23% of Italian traders have a degree, while in Italy only 20.1% of the population (25-64 years old) has one, against 32.8% of the European Union average. These are some of the data that emerge fromXTB analysisa leading online investment platform and one of the largest publicly traded FX and CFD brokers in the world, according to which the increasing popularity of online financial instruments and the increased time available during lockdowns have prompted individual investors to take an interest in more measure to the stock markets.
“As XTB, we are starting to turn to new investors, who having no experience or knowledge of the sector may prefer and be better suited to real products, including stocks and ETFs, rather than leveraged products such as CFDs. One of the main objectives of XTB is in fact to offer complete and exhaustive training materials, to allow new traders to acquire the necessary knowledge to approach the world of investments in a conscious way “, commented Walid Koudmani, chief market analyst di XTB. “Almost 70% of individual investors active in Italy on our platform, in fact, have no previous experience in CFD trading, compared to 65% of the average”.
What work do Italian investors do?
In the trading sector, we read in the XTB note, not even the most common professions of those who invest in Italy reassure on a solid knowledge base: in 25% of cases, investors are engaged in manual work (vs 14% on average), while 12% are entrepreneurs (vs 13% of the average). Only in 1% of cases (vs 3% on average) are experts working in banking or finance or, again in 1% are managers (vs 8% of the average). Finally, 13% of investors are unemployed (vs 6% on average).
At the educational level, only 23% (vs 59% of the average) of those who trade in our country have a degree, while 61% (vs 36% on average) have a high school diploma and 15% (vs 4% of the average) have a basic education. In this context, Italy remains one of the 12 OECD countries where the level of tertiary education is even less widespread than upper secondary or post-secondary education.
Financial education, a historical gap in Italy
On the financial education front, there is still a long way to go in our country: according to the latest analysis conducted by the OECD in 2020, among 26 countries involved in the study on financial literacy, Italy is in last place. The average score is 12.7 out of a maximum of 21, and represents the optimal level of basic financial knowledge to make informed decisions.
“Italy, unfortunately, is still one of the tail-offs in financial literacy: it is therefore essential to work as an ecosystem to overcome the obstacles that block the development of financial skills in our country, with a particular eye for younger and lesser generations. experience, ”added Walid Koudmani. “All the more reason in the world of stock markets, it is crucial to educate yourself before investing, treating trading as if it were any job and therefore requires a substantial learning process. Who would ever operate on a person without first having studied medicine? ”.