What’s Next for U.S. Retail Investors?
Retail investors have long been a powerful but often misunderstood force in U.S. markets. An event the Vested team attended this week, The Big, Beautiful Guide to U.S. Retail Investors, brought together Carl Hazeley, CEO of Finimize, Caleb Silver, Editor-in-Chief at Investopedia, Chuck Pettid, EVP at Rrepublic, and David Duong, Head of Institutional Research at Coinbase to explore how the landscape is shifting and what financial firms need to understand about this important audience.
A Market with Fewer Public Options & More Ways to Slice It
One of the clearest themes is that capturing the attention of retail investors today is more complicated than ever. While on the one hand, there are fewer publicly traded companies than in previous decades, meaning fewer opportunities to buy into individual businesses. But there are more ETFs than ever before, giving investors seemingly infinite ways to carve the market. As one panelist put it, it’s a “have-it-your-way” environment, with products for every taste and risk appetite.
Yet the overwhelming amount of information available, much of it unfiltered, leaves retail investors struggling to separate signal from noise. This makes education and clarity more important than ever.
From Meme Stocks to Modern Loyalty
The rise of meme stocks and the explosive growth of crypto represents a real inflection point in how retail investors engage with markets. Many are motivated less by diversification or long-term returns, and more by passion and identity, investing in companies, tokens, or causes they believe in.
At the same time, loyalty looks different than in the past. Investors may hold multiple brokerage accounts and treat them like bank accounts, seeking convenience and positive user experience. The next frontier, several panelists argued, will be consolidating those accounts into platforms where everything lives in one place.
The Influence of Finfluencers
Another topic was the rise of finfluencers (finance influencers). They’re retail investors on TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms who share strategies and shape behavior. While their credibility can collapse the moment they start “stock-picking,” those who share process and teach as they go are building trust and acting as a form of the modern advisor. In some ways, they’re filling a gap left by traditional financial institutions, providing community and relatability that big banks and brokerages often cannot.
The Last Great Frontier: Private Markets
Despite the growth in ETFs and crypto, panelists pointed out that the private markets remain one of the last great frontiers for retail. Until recently, the high minimums for private equity and private company investing kept retail investors locked out. Now, platforms are lowering barriers, allowing participation at more accessible levels.
But with opportunity comes risk. Private investments are traditionally illiquid, harder to value, and have a reputation of being less transparent than public markets. For firms communicating with retail investors, explaining both the potential and the limitations of private investing is critical.
The Role of Trust and Product Design
At the end of the day, retail investors want the same things they’ve always wanted: to make money and trust the platform they’re using. That trust comes from delivering high-quality products that feel unique, ensuring the platform experience is intuitive, and offering support when something goes wrong. Stablecoins, tokenized assets, and even AI-driven investing assistants are all on the horizon, but they will succeed or fail based on how well they deliver on trust.
Looking Ahead
The U.S. retail investor market is evolving rapidly: with more products, more influence from online communities, and new frontiers in private markets and tokenized assets. For financial services companies, asset managers, and fintechs, the opportunity lies in clear communication, thoughtful education, and product experiences that resonate with how retail investors live and invest today.
As one panelist noted, “The FOMO is real. People don’t just want to invest, they want to be part of something.” The challenge now is helping them do so in ways that are informed, resilient, and built for the long term.
